These are possibly the most tasty little buns I've ever had! I first sampled them homemade at a Swedish friend's house, and was intrigued by the very foreign shape, yet familiar Christmas flavors. When I moved to Sweden last year, I quickly found out they were standard fair for everyday life and were similar to what the croissant does for the french and what the scone does for the English. All in all they were pretty bog standard! However, I was given a Swedish cookbook recently which had the recipe so I had to try recreating them, it's not really your standard fairy cake mixture, but the effort was worth it, even if just to put a smile on my homesick girlfriend!
Generally if you stick to the recipe you can't really go wrong, the only variation I made to the recipe was rolling the dough a bit more thinly to get more rolls, but that is entirely up to yourself!
If you don't have pearl sugar, which I didn't the first time I made them, you can substitute it with a sprinkling out dark brown sugar.
Swedish Cinnamon Buns
Makes about 40 Buns
- 2 Cups of whole milk
- 4oz butter
- 2 packs of dried yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 5-6 cups of flour
- 4oz butter
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 2 tbsp of cinnamon
- 1 egg beaten
Melt the butter in a large bowl gently on a low heat and then add the milk .
When the mixture is lukewarm add the two sachets of active dry yeast, making sure it is really mixed through.
Stir in the sugar and the salt.
Slowly incorporate the flour in one cup at a time, try not to loose it, as the mixture will eventually come together, and you won't be left with a sticky mess forever!
When the dough has taken shape and is no longer sticky, turn out onto a floured surface and need for about 3 minutes.
Leave the dough to rise in the bowl covered with a damp cloth for 45 mins. Try and find somewhere warm as the yeast will do it's job a lot quicker.
While the dough is rising , prepare the filling. Gently melt the butter and add the cinnamon and sugar, making a thick spreadable mixture.
When the dough has risen, cut it in half and roll it into a rectangle about 5mm thick, and then spread the filling all over.
Then roll the dough so you get a snail effect, and slice into approx 15-20 pieces. Place the slices in those cute little paper wrappers face up and coat with the beaten egg.
Then sprinkle your little babies with some pearl sugar, or brown sugar if you can't get some.
Bake the rolls in the oven at 250 degrees Celsius for about 5 mins or until the turn golden brown!
Enjoy! Perfect with some afternoon tea, a wild night in with the lads, or even a sneaky one to yourself! The choice is yours!
