Category: Bread
Kanellangd – Cinnamon Buns

Kanellangd – Cinnamon Buns

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It’s December and so Christmas bakes are officially allowed! This means we have a month of sugar, spice and all things nice coming up. I’m carrying on with the theme of foreign baking, from last week’s kaiserschmarrn to kanellangd this week. Now you might be asking am I becoming obsessed with weirdly named dishes no one’s ever heard of before? Well yes, but bare with me. This one is a Swedish version of cinnamon buns, where it’s pretty much the same except for the beautiful shaping. All the buns are baked attached together as a loaf, rather than as a batch bake in a tin, and so you end up with this really cool shaped bake. Essentially though you still get the sweet cinnamony fluffy buns smothered in icing which we all love.

This takes a bit of time to make, but as with lots of my recipes recently, it’s not time you have to spend working on it, you just need to leave it a lot to rise and bake so that you get the perfectly light texture. On the one hand this can be really annoying as you just want to tuck into this delish loaf, but then again, if you have little pockets of time in a day this can be the bake for you. When making anything remotely bready I tend to do a step and then when leaving it to prove I’ll do some work before coming back to it later on, so don’t let the long resting times put you off as you can get stuff done in those times.

Recipe

Makes 1 loaf

Time 1 hour, plus time for proving

Ingredients

For the dough

  • 80g Unsalted butter
  • 260ml Full fat milk
  • 480g Strong plain bread flour, extra for dusting
  • ½ tsp Mixed spice
  • 6g Salt
  • 7g Instant yeast
  • 40g Caster sugar
  • 1 Egg (10g for dough and the rest for glazing)

For the filling

  • 75g Unsalted butter
  • 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste
  • 1 tbsp Ground cinnamon
  • 80g Caster sugar

For the glaze

  • 50g Caster sugar
  • 50ml Water

For the icing

  • 125g Icing sugar
  • 1 tbsp Water

Method

  1. Firstly make the dough by putting the butter and milk into a saucepan and melt gently.
  2. Put the flour and mixed spice into a bowl. Then add the salt and yeast on separate sides of the bowl (putting them in direct contact of each other will kill the yeast). Then add the butter, milk, sugar and 10g of the egg (keep the rest for glazing).
  3. Using a spatula at first, mix everything together. When it starts to come together go in with your fingers until a dough forms.
  4. Lightly flour a work surface, tip out the dough and then knead for around 10 minutes until smooth, elastic, and soft. Form the dough into a ball and put into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with clingfilm and then leave to rise for about an hour, until doubled in size.
  5. Meanwhile make the filling. Put the butter and vanilla into a bowl and beat until smooth and spreadable.
  6. Put the sugar and cinnamon into another bowl and mix until fully combined.
  7. Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C and line a long baking tray with baking paper.
  8. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a little to knock back.
  9. Roll the dough out to a 25x35cm rectangle, making sure the long edge is facing you. The dough will resist being rolled and will spring back into shape but persevere. Tack the far edge down onto the work surface by pushing the dough into the worktop.
  10. Spread the butter mix over the dough and then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over the top. Roll the dough up like a swiss roll from the edge nearest to you to the tacked down edge. Transfer to the lined tray.
  11. Take a pair of sharp scissors and cut 15 slices into the roll, making sure you don’t cut all the way through. Pull the slices to alternative sides to make the cool shape. Loosely clingfilm the dough and leave to prove again for 20-25 minutes, until the dough springs back when pressed lightly.
  12. Meanwhile make the sugar syrup. Put the sugar and water into a small pan and bring to the boil. Leave to reduce by half and then set to one side (it’ll thicken up even more once cooled down).
  13. Brush the loaf with the rest of the beaten egg and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and soft. If it starts to brown too much cover with foil to stop it burning.
  14. Now make the icing. Put the icing sugar and 1 tbsp water into a bowl and mix to make a semi-thick icing. If it’s too thick add more water a little dribble at a time until you have a pourable mixture which still holds its shape.
  15. Take the loaf out of the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool. Brush with sugar syrup whilst it’s still warm, and then, once completely cool, drizzle with the icing. Serve and enjoy!

Thanks for reading! More Christmas bakes coming very soon…

Emma x
Sweet and Savoury Bagels

Sweet and Savoury Bagels

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It may be surprising, but the first time I had a bagel was just this summer when I was travelling around Canada. Since then I’ve been wanting to try different as many flavours as possible and, most of all, to make my own. When I got back I started experimenting, and these are the results. I’ve come up with two bagel recipes, one savoury (cheese and red onion)  and one sweet (cherry, pistachio and chocolate). Whilst they may not be the prettiest things to look at, they taste really good and are perfect for packed lunches. They’re also a really nice bread to make as you can get really hands on and they’re not too tricky.

When I was in Canmore, Alberta I went to a shop called the Rocky Mountain Bagel Co (I’d highly recommend going there if you ever end up near Canmore). There they sold a whole variety of flavoured bagels, with toppings and fillings to go with them. Whilst the following recipes produce bagels which taste great on their own, and don’t really need fillings, if you do want a bagel sandwich you can use these, or you can easily make plain bagels. To make these plain, simply leave out the extra ingredients (such as the cheese and onions) and then fill them with whatever you want once they’re baked (smoked salmon, cream cheese and watercress is really good).

Red Onion and Cheddar Bagels

Recipe

Ingredients 

  • ½ tbsp Sunflower oil
  • ½ Red onion, finely chopped
  • 300g Strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 250g Wholemeal flour
  • 1 ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Runny honey
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil
  • 7g Instant yeast
  • 240ml Warm water
  • 2 Medium eggs
  • 50g Strong cheddar cheese, grated

Method

  1. Put the oil into a small pan and add the chopped onion. Heat gently until the onion begins to caramelise. Set to one side.
  2. To make the bagel dough put the flours, salt, honey, olive oil, yeast, water, cooled red onion and one of the eggs into a large bowl. Mix the ingredients together to make a dough (using your hand works well) and then tip the mixture onto a worktop.
  3. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy.
  4. Oil a chopping board with olive oil. Divide and roll the dough into 12 equally sized tight balls and arrange on the board. Cover the balls with oiled cling film and set aside to prove for around 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.
  5. Make a hole in the centre of each ball by punching a finger into the middle. Widen the hole with your finger so that it doesn’t close during cooking.
  6. Cover the bagels with oiled cling film again and prove for 45 minutes.
  7. Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Take a large saucepan and fill with water. Bring the pan to the boil and add the bagels in batches of two. Boil the bagels for 75 seconds on each side and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place on a wire rack to dry.
  8. Once all the bagels have been poached arrange them on two lined baking trays, making sure they’re well spread out. Take the second egg and beat in a bowl with a fork. Brush the bagels with the egg and top with the grated cheese.
  9. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and with a skin-like crust. Take the bagels out of the oven, leave to cool on a wire rack and then serve!

 

Now, the sweet ones…

Cherry, Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Bagels



Recipe

Ingredients 

  • 500g Strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 1 ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Runny honey
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil
  • 7g Instant yeast
  • 240ml Warm water
  • 75g Dried cherries
  • 50g Morello cherries
  • 60g Pistachios, chopped
  • 2 Medium eggs
  • 100g Dark chocolate

Method

  1. To make the bagel dough put the flours, salt, honey, olive oil, yeast, water, cherries, pistachios and one of the eggs into a large bowl. Mix the ingredients together to make a dough (using your hand works well) and then tip the mixture onto a worktop.
  2. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy.
  3. Oil a chopping board with olive oil. Divide and roll the dough into 12 equally sized tight balls and arrange on the board. Cover the balls with oiled cling film and set aside to prove for around 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.
  4. Make a hole in the centre of each ball by punching a finger into the middle. Widen the hole with your finger so that it doesn’t close during cooking.
  5. Cover the bagels with oiled cling film again and prove for 45 minutes.
  6. Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Take a large saucepan and fill with water. Bring the pan to the boil and add the bagels in batches of two. Boil the bagels for 75 seconds on each side and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place on a wire rack to dry.
  7. Once all the bagels have been poached arrange them on two lined baking trays, making sure they’re well spread out. Take the second egg and beat in a bowl with a fork. Brush the bagels with the egg.
  8. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and with a skin-like crust. Take the bagels out of the oven, leave to cool on a wire rack.
  9. Meanwhile put the dark chocolate into a heatproof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle the chocolate over the bagels, leave to set and then serve!

Thanks so much for reading! The next post is coming out on Sunday and it’s a good’n, so keep a look out for it!

Emma x