Swedish Kanelbullar Traditional Recipe

Yep, this is strange to see here. An Italian, talking all things Italian, and yet a Swedish recipe. You should know that I love cinnamon and cardamom, and cooking with them is always great fun. Also, I love all cuisines, experimenting with ingredients and trying something new.

The product I wanted to showcase in this instance was the Molino Pasini Manitoba Flour. It is a flour that originates from a particular region of Canada, so to fully understand how to cook with it, imagine the harsh conditions the grains go through in their cycles. Manitoba is one of the "strongest" flours on the market, with a very high protein content. This is why it is so great to work with for all those long preparations (panettoni, buns, etc.) as well as the "stretchy" ones, like croissants.  

The result? Pretty spectacular. Here below you can find the ingredients and procedure. Not the easiest, better with a kitchenaid or a mixer to assist you. By hand, it will certainly be quite the workout!

Ingredients for about 24 small Kanelbullar (or 12 big ones)

500g Caputo Flour
25g Yeast (we used the fresh one)
250ml Milk
90g Sugar
8g Salt
1 Egg
5g Cardamom Seeds
100G Butter

Filling

75g Butter
80g Brown Sugar
10g Ground Cinnamon

For Topping

1 Egg
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Milk
Granulated Brown Sugar

Method

In the mixer, add the crumbled yeast, milk, sugar, eggs, cardamom, salt and flour. Place everything at the same time, so that the gluten can be activated right away.

Once the dough is blended, start adding the flaked butter at room temperature. Knead for about 15-20 minutes, until the dough is shiny. 

Place it in a bowl, covered with cling foil and let it raise for about 1-2 hours (or until doubled). In the meantime prepare the filling: mix all the ingredients until you get a soft and homogeneous dough.

Time to roll out your dough: on a floured pastry board, stretch with a rolling pin until you need to get a rectangle about 1 cm thick. 

Distribute the filling without leaving edges, fold in three and lightly shape with a rolling pin until you have a thickness of about 1 cm.

With a knife, form strips of about 2-3 cm each, cutting a few at a time. The rolling is a little tricky to explain in writing and I would suggest watching a YouTube video to do this. This is the best I can master: roll the strip around the two fingers of the left hand and close in the opposite direction as if to create a knot.

Distribute the Kanelbullar on a baking sheets covered with parchment paper. Let them double for a little while by covering with another bell-shaped pan or plastic wrap. 

Heat up the oven to 250°C. Brush the dough with the mix of eggs, milk and salt and sprinkle with sugar and bake for 7-8 minutes at 250°C. I prefer to have them on the lower end of the oven, so that they can cook properly and don’t burn too quickly. 

If you think they are not cooked, leave them for a minute or two longer. Also, check the size: ours pictured here were quite small, if you make them bigger (let’s say a palm size), then consider 9-10 minutes instead.

Once taken out of the oven, leave on the pan so as not to deflate them. They are deliciously good with some mascarpone cheese and jam, or simply with a cup of coffee.

Note: it is possible to freeze the kanelbullar before the second leavening. When you want to consume them, first defrost them in the refrigerator, then let them rise at room temperature and proceed with cooking.