Thanks to reader comments, we discovered that we have a rolling pin in our kitchen in Oslo. And so – also at a reader suggestion – we made kanelboller recently (spelled kanelbullar in Sweden). They are cinnamon buns but, in our opinion, they are much better than the cinnamon buns you are probably thinking of. (Not just cause we made ‘em!) These are full of cinnamon and cardamom, reasonably sized. Best of all, they’re not too sweet thanks to a sprinkling of sugar instead of that overwhelming sticky glaze.
Here is the recipe we followed, but we failed to find pearl sugar, even in the big fancy grocery store. So you will notice that ours don’t have that beautiful sugar coating; we used brown sugar instead. The flour here is different from what we know as well. These kanelboller therefore turned out a little chewier than normal, which was not a bad thing. In fact, even with our amateur twisting, we think they compare favorably to the ones we saw in a bakery (see below). They’re very good with coffee and also with tea for a mid-morning or late afternoon snack. We’ll wait while you get a nosh…
The kanelboller were fairly easy to make. The two tricky bits were flattening the dough into a precise rectangle to keep the cinnamon filling inside and the twist. For the first, our fancy rolling pin, which has guide-rails, helped some. The recipe has a video, and once we stretched the pieces out long enough we got the hang of twisting. Note: the ugly ones also tasted great! (This is our favourite thing about baking…)
Some history: cinnamon is a big deal in the Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden (which celebrates Cinnamon Bun Day on 24 October, for reals). We don’t know exactly why, but cinnamon has been imported here for centuries, and is used in desserts (notably ice cream) and also in main dishes, especially with game. And cinnamon buns are the typical centerpiece for fika, which is the delightful habit of having a coffee and a pastry. (Scandinavians are really, really into coffee.) Fika is a Swedish word but we have certainly seen oodles of people doing the very same thing in Oslo. And now, we can do the very same in the comfort of our own home.
Seriously – if you like cinnamon and especially if you like cardamom, give these a try. You can also make kanelbullar with cardamom (they are then called kardemummabollar). Double the cardamom, no cinnamon! These are maybe even better!
