Cinnamon buns

These are the well known Swedish "kanelbullar". A tea party is not a tea party without these. I've been wanting to make these for a long time and since today is my friend Simon's birthday, I thought it was the perfect opportunity for making some for him.

I didn't read the recipe very thoroughly and decided to make a double dose. This was not too big a problem, because since last Christmas I have an Electrolux Assistent (the link is a Google search, it seems that only the Swedish site of Electrolux has any info on this). This is an ingenious device and my Mum has had one for many years, being a passionate baker herself. If you don't have a machine to help you mix the dough, then do a smaller quantity. The following should yield about 32. I managed to get 32 nice looking ones and 3-4 ugly ones from the edges.

Ingredients

Dough

50 g fresh yeast or equivalent dry or quick yeast (I used the quick variety)
0.5 l full or semi-skimmed milk (I used semi)
100 g unsalted butter at room temperature
150 g granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cardamom
750 g strong white flour
a pinch of salt

Filling

100 g unsalted butter at room temperature
150 g granulated sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 dl ground almonds (optional)

Decoration

1 egg, whisked lightly
a pinch of salt
perl or nib sugar

Method

1. If you are using fresh yeast, break it up and mix with the milk until it dissolves completely. If you are using dry or quick yeast, mix it with the flour.
2. Put all dry dough ingredients into the bowl of the machine and mix thoroughly. Then add the milk with the dissolved yeast and mix the dough until the gluten has developed.
3. Turn out on a baking surface and manually knead in the butter, then shape into a ball and put back in the bowl. Cover and leave for about an hour to rise to double size.
4. In the meantime, mix all ingredients for the filling into a smooth brown paste. Lightly whisk the egg with a pinch of salt and let stand until needed.
5. When the dough has risen, divide in two equal parts, put one back into the bowl and cover so it doesn't dry out.
6. Roll the other part into a rectangle, of about 0.5 cm thickness, it should be approximately 50 x 30 cm.
7. Use half of the filling and spread it evenly over the dough rectangle, taking care to spread out to the very edges.
8. From one of the long sides, start rolling and make a roll. It should be fairly loose, so that there is room to expand during proofing and baking.
9. Cut the roll into pieces of about 2 cm thickness and place each into a paper cups (like the ones used for muffins) or directly onto a sheet lined with baking paper.
10. Brush each bun with the eggwash twice and sprinkle nib sugar over it, then leave to proof for about 30 minutes.
11. After the first lot of buns has been proofing for 20 minutes, turn the oven on 220 degrees to pre-heat it.
12. Bake the buns for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown, preferably one sheet at a time.
13. Take out of the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.The buns are best when eaten on the day of baking. They also freeze well, freeze as soon as they have cooled down.

I baked two sheets at a time and had to swap them around half way through the baking. Also I managed to burn a couple, ah well, nevermind.

Update on 1st February 2009: Since having been to a baking course at The Bertinet Kitchen, I've started using less flour when I bake. I made a very good lot today with 1.1 l flour. I left the machine knead it for maybe 10 minutes while I was preparing the fancy curry for tomorrow. I also used fresh yeast, I think it does make a difference.

Update on 3rd October 2021: With incerased baking experience and over a decade of watching GBBO, I felt compelled to measure the weight of most ingredients and also to re-write the instructions. I've also increased the amount of cardmom, as I'm now able to buy ready ground cardamom which doesn't have as strong a flavour as when freshly ground. I have also found a reliable source for fresh yeast, so I prefer to use it, rather than dry yeast.