Swedish Cinnamon Buns for Fika, With Cardamom in the Dough
A Swedish cinnamon bun, a kanelbulle (plural kanelbullar), is plainer to look at than the iced American cinnamon roll. It is a tight spiral of soft yeast dough, brushed with egg, crusted with hard white nuggets of pearl sugar and baked in a very hot oven for barely ten minutes. The surprise comes with the first bite. The dough itself is scented with cardamom, and the cinnamon filling is buttery rather than gooey. Visit Sweden calls the bun the most iconic fika treat. Fika is Sweden's coffee break, a pause for coffee and something sweet that many Swedish workplaces build into the day (the fika guide covers the custom).
The recipe below makes two dozen buns. Three choices decide how they taste: which cinnamon goes into the filling, how fresh the cardamom is, and how long the dough is allowed to rise. The last one matters more than usual in Denver, and it has its own section.
How old is the kanelbulle?
The kanelbulle dates back at least to 1867. Smaka Sverige, the food heritage site of Jordbruksverket (the Swedish Board of Agriculture, a government agency), records that it was first written about that year, in the newspaper Norra Hallands tidning.
The bun became popular only after the First World War. Food restrictions were lifted then, and bakers could again buy wheat flour and sugar, which were treated as luxury goods. A spiral bun took skill to shape, so it let a bakery show off its craft. Home bakers took it up later: in the 1950s, Smaka Sverige notes, baking at home grew more popular and the kanelbulle became a natural part of it. So the bun is nineteenth century by birth and twentieth century by habit, a professional showpiece before it was an everyday treat.
Since 1999 the bun has had its own day in Sweden, Kanelbullens dag (Cinnamon Bun Day), on October 4.
Cardamom belongs in the dough
Smaka Sverige lists the traditional dough as wheat flour, butter, yeast, sugar, salt, egg, cinnamon, cardamom and milk or water. Cardamom is the seed of Elettaria cardamomum, a tall perennial in the ginger family, with fifteen to twenty hard seeds packed into each three-sided pod, according to the McCormick Science Institute, the research arm of the spice company. Production today is concentrated mainly in India and Guatemala.
Cardamom's perfume comes from a handful of volatile compounds. The institute names the main ones: alpha-terpinyl acetate and alpha-terpineol, which give the sweet, warm side of the aroma, and 1,8-cineole, which brings a harsher, woodier note. Volatile means they escape easily into the air, which is how you smell them and also how you lose them. Grinding exposes far more of the seed to the air at once. Penn State Extension notes that whole spices keep their quality longer than ground ones, and Ohio State University Extension gives whole spices one to two years against six months for ground. That is the reason to grind cardamom the day you bake.
Buying shelled seeds saves the tedious step of cracking pods. Burlap & Barrel's Cloud Forest Cardamom comes from a single-estate regenerative farm in the high cloud forests of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The company says the fruit turns yellow as it ripens on the vine, and it describes the flavor as softer and sweeter than standard green cardamom (shop Cloud Forest cardamom seeds). The same cardamom in whole pods suits recipes where the pod is steeped and removed, such as chai (shop Cloud Forest cardamom pods). A mortar and pestle, or a blade coffee grinder kept for spices, makes quick work of two teaspoons of seed. The guide to whole and ground spices covers how long each form keeps.
A good story is attached to all this. The McCormick Science Institute passes on the belief that Vikings brought cardamom home to Scandinavia from Constantinople in the ninth century. Treat it as legend. Ground cardamom is a popular baking spice across northern Europe, the institute adds, in the Finnish sweet bread pulla and the Scandinavian Christmas bread julekake, and Smaka Sverige counts it among the traditional ingredients of the kanelbulle.
Which cinnamon for the filling
Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of several evergreen trees in the genus Cinnamomum, and the cinnamon guide takes all of them apart. For a bun filling, the choice comes down to how loud the cinnamon should be next to the cardamom.
The main flavor of cinnamon comes from a compound called cinnamaldehyde. The McCormick Science Institute reports that Vietnamese and Chinese cinnamons typically carry the most of it and taste the spiciest, while Ceylon cinnamon, the "true" cinnamon from the tree Cinnamomum verum, has a mild spiciness with fruity, floral and clove-like notes. The two look different as sticks, too. Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment describes a Ceylon stick in cross-section as looking like a cut cigar, many thin layers rolled together, where a cassia stick (cassia is the collective name for the other common cinnamons) is one thick curl of bark. Once ground, the institute notes, the two are hardly possible for shoppers to tell apart, so only the label tells you which you have.
Ceylon makes the gentler bun, where the cardamom in the dough and the cinnamon in the filling meet as equals. Burlap & Barrel's Cinnamon Verum is Ceylon cinnamon from Zanzibar, which the company describes as complex, herbal and a little savory, with notes of pine, citrus peel and sea salt, and suggests for adorning baked goods and pastries (shop Cinnamon Verum). Use the full 1 1/2 tablespoons.
Vietnamese cinnamon makes the bolder bun, with the filling clearly in charge. Burlap & Barrel's Royal Cinnamon, Cinnamomum loureiroi, comes from the Quang Nam mountains of Vietnam, where the bark is left to dry on the tree for a couple of weeks before harvest; the company describes the intense sweetness and spiciness that define Vietnamese cinnamon and lists tasting notes of brown butter, buckwheat honey and orange peel (shop Royal Cinnamon). Because Vietnamese cinnamon is the spicier kind, this recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of it rather than 1 1/2.
There is a third cinnamon worth knowing about, even though it plays no part in this recipe. The McCormick Science Institute says Indonesian korintje cinnamon is sometimes called baker's cinnamon because it holds more mucilage, a natural gummy fiber that dissolves into a gooier cinnamon roll filling. That gumminess is part of the sticky center of an American roll. A Swedish filling is meant to be closer to spiced butter, so the cinnamon here can be chosen for flavor alone.
Pearl sugar, and why it stays crunchy
Pearl sugar, pärlsocker, is the opaque white crust on top. Dansukker, the Nordic sugar maker, explains that it is made by lightly moistening sugar, pressing it into larger crystals, then drying and sifting it to size. Dansukker adds that the crystals are larger and harder than ordinary sugar, so they do not melt in the oven and keep their shape, giving the bun a crisp top. If pearl sugar is hard to find, coarse sanding sugar or roughly crushed sugar cubes can stand in. Abroad, Smaka Sverige notes, a glaze often replaces the pearl sugar, but pearl sugar is the traditional Swedish finish.
Ingredients, for 24 buns
Dough
- 500 ml (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons) whole milk
- 150 g (10 1/2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
- 14 g (4 1/2 teaspoons, 2 packets) instant or active dry yeast; 10 g (about 3 1/4 teaspoons) in Denver
- 100 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 teaspoons cardamom seeds, ground fine just before using, such as Cloud Forest cardamom (shop Cloud Forest cardamom seeds)
- 750 to 850 g (6 to 6 3/4 cups) all-purpose or bread flour
Filling
- 150 g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, very soft
- 100 g (1/2 cup, lightly packed) light brown or granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ground Ceylon cinnamon, such as Cinnamon Verum (shop Cinnamon Verum), or 1 tablespoon ground Vietnamese cinnamon, such as Royal Cinnamon (shop Royal Cinnamon)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
To finish
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
- 4 to 5 tablespoons pearl sugar
- Paper baking cups (optional)
Kungsörnen's Swedish kanelbullar recipe calls for fresh yeast (the soft, moist cake yeast), 50 g of it for a batch close to this size. Red Star's conversion chart puts a 2-ounce cake of fresh yeast (about 57 g) at 21 g of dry yeast, so the 14 g here is a little lighter than a straight swap, for a slower rise. Weigh the flour if possible, and hold back the last 150 to 250 g until you see how the dough feels: flour absorbs more or less liquid from bag to bag and from humid kitchens to dry ones.
Method
1. Warm the milk and butter
Heat the milk and the dough butter in a saucepan just until the butter melts. Let it cool to about 98°F (37°C), the temperature at which it feels warm but not hot on a fingertip. Pour it into a large bowl and stir in the yeast and sugar. Hotter liquid can kill yeast, so if in doubt, wait a few more minutes.
2. Grind the cardamom
Grind the cardamom seeds to a fine powder in a mortar or spice grinder. The smell should be immediate and strong, sweet and slightly piney. Whisk the cardamom and salt into about 600 g of the flour, so the spice spreads evenly and the salt never sits directly on the yeast.
3. Mix and knead
Add the flour mixture to the milk and stir until shaggy, then add more flour a handful at a time until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. Knead by hand on a lightly floured counter for 8 to 10 minutes, or with a stand mixer and dough hook on medium-low for 6 to 8. It is ready when it is smooth, springy and slightly tacky but no longer sticks to your hands. Stop adding flour while it is still soft; a stiff dough bakes into a dry, bready bun.
4. Let it rise
Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and leave it somewhere warm until the dough has doubled, 45 to 75 minutes at sea level. In Denver, check at 30 minutes. A floured finger pressed an inch into the dough should leave a dent that fills back slowly. If it springs right back, wait; if the dent stays and the dough sighs, move on quickly.
5. Make the filling
While the dough rises, beat the very soft butter with the sugar, cinnamon and optional cardamom into a smooth paste that spreads like soft frosting. Melted butter is the wrong texture here. It soaks into the dough and runs out of the rolls in the oven, where it burns on the tray.
6. Roll, fill and cut
Turn the dough out, divide it in half and keep one piece covered. Roll the other into a rectangle about 12 by 16 inches (30 by 40 cm), between 1/8 and 1/4 inch (3 to 5 mm) thick. Spread half the filling all the way to the edges. Roll it up tightly from a long side into a log, seam underneath, and cut it into 12 slices with a sharp knife or a loop of dental floss, which cuts without squashing. Repeat with the second half.
7. Second rise
Set the slices cut side up in paper cups, or on trays lined with parchment with a couple of inches between them. Cover loosely and let them rise until puffy and about half again as large, 30 to 45 minutes at sea level and noticeably less in Denver. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 440°F (225°C) with a rack in the middle. The Swedish recipes behind this one bake hot and fast: Kungsörnen's at about 220°C (430°F) for 7 to 9 minutes, Dansukker's at 250°C (480°F) for 8 to 10. A short, hot bake browns the outside quickly while the middle stays soft.
8. Egg wash, pearl sugar, bake
Brush the tops gently with the egg so the sugar has something to stick to, and scatter the pearl sugar generously. Bake one tray at a time for 8 to 11 minutes. The buns are done when the tops are a deep, even gold, the sides are lightly colored, and the bottoms are browned when you lift one with a spatula. A pale bun is underdone even if it looks risen; the color is where the flavor is.
9. Cool
Move the buns to a rack and cover them with a clean kitchen towel while they cool for at least 15 minutes. The towel holds in a little steam and keeps the crust soft, the way Swedish buns are meant to be. They are best the day they are baked. To keep them longer, freeze them as soon as they are cool, then warm them in a low oven for a few minutes, and they taste close to fresh.
In a Denver kitchen
Yeast dough behaves differently at a mile high. Colorado State University Extension explains that high elevation lets dough rise too fast, which hurts texture and flavor, and New Mexico State University's extension guide adds that fermentation (yeast feeding on sugar and giving off the gas that raises the dough) runs faster at elevation, so dough can overshoot its rise while the timer still has minutes on it. CSU warns that over-proofing (letting dough rise too far) can produce a heavy, dry loaf or a misshapen, collapsed one. The air is also dry: CSU notes that flour in high, dry climates is drier and absorbs more liquid, so it may need less flour or more liquid to reach the right feel. Water, for reference, boils at about 203°F at 5,000 feet by CSU's table, and about 202°F by NMSU's.
The two extension services agree on direction and differ on degree. Here is how their advice works out for this dough:
| Adjustment | CSU Extension | NMSU Extension | This recipe in Denver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yeast | Less yeast may be used; for bread machines, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon less per 2 1/2 teaspoon package | Some cooks reduce the yeast by half | 10 g instead of 14 g, about 30 percent less |
| Flour | Flour is drier; less flour or more liquid may be needed; flour of at least 12 percent protein helps texture and volume | Start with about 3/4 of the flour, let it absorb moisture, then add only enough for a soft dough | Start with 600 g and add the rest slowly; bread flour is a good choice |
| Rising | Let dough rise until just doubled; it can be punched down and risen a second time | Rising is faster; watch carefully and punch down when doubled | Check the first rise at 30 minutes and the second at 20; judge by size and the finger dent |
For the oven, NMSU advises raising the sea-level temperature by 25°F above 3,500 feet for leavened breads. At 440°F this recipe already bakes hot, so bake by color first, and raise the heat toward 465°F only if the bottoms are still pale at 11 minutes.
The extra rise CSU mentions is worth using here. If the first rise finishes too fast for the dough to taste of much, punch it down (press the gas out with your fist), cover it and let it double a second time before shaping. The slower route gives the yeast time to build flavor. To check whether a flour reaches CSU's 12 percent protein, divide the grams of protein on the nutrition label by the serving weight: 4 g in a 30 g serving works out to about 13 percent. The rest of the high-altitude kitchen is in the Denver altitude cooking guide.
When it goes wrong
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Buns dense, small and dry | Too much flour, or the dough was under-risen | Stop adding flour while the dough is still soft and slightly tacky; let it double fully |
| Buns spread flat, filling oozes out, dough tastes yeasty | Over-risen, common at altitude | Use less yeast in Denver and check the rises early; bake when the dent fills back slowly |
| Butter pooled and burned on the tray | Filling butter melted, or the log was rolled loosely | Use soft, spreadable butter; roll tight and set the seam underneath |
| Faint cardamom | Pre-ground cardamom that had lost its aroma | Grind seeds the day you bake; the smell should hit as soon as you grind |
| Pale tops, soft white bottoms | Oven not hot enough, or two trays at once | Heat the oven fully and bake one tray at a time on the middle rack |
| Pearl sugar falls off | No egg wash, or the egg was brushed on too thinly | Brush every bun right before sprinkling |
| Crust hard and dry the next day | Cooled uncovered, or stored in the open | Cool under a towel; freeze any buns that will not be eaten the same day |
A few things worth knowing at the table
The cinnamon bun has a fragrant cousin, the kardemummabulle or cardamom bun, which Visit Sweden says is often seen as the more grown-up option. With cardamom already in this dough, swapping the cinnamon in the filling for another teaspoon or two of freshly ground cardamom turns the recipe into one.
Cinnamon Bun Day falls on October 4, and the day needs very little equipment. A tray of buns, a pot of filter coffee from the coffee collection and a plate of knäck (Swedish Christmas toffee) made from the Swedish toffee recipe make a fika anyone would recognize.
The two spices in this bun travel the farthest of anything in it. The cardamom may come from the cloud forests of Guatemala, the cinnamon from Zanzibar or the mountains of central Vietnam, and they meet in a pastry that Sweden treats as entirely its own. The spice collection and the Burlap & Barrel collection are the place to start a jar of each.
Bake the recipe once with Ceylon and once with Vietnamese cinnamon and the bun shows what it really is: a small negotiation between two spices. American cinnamon rolls settle it by letting cinnamon and icing win. The Swedish answer is to grind the cardamom fresh, keep the filling buttery rather than sticky and stop at a sprinkle of sugar, so that neither spice drowns the other and the coffee beside it still has something to say.
The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver. Products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.
Sources & Further Reading
- Smaka Sverige (Jordbruksverket, Swedish Board of Agriculture): Kanelbulle
- Visit Sweden: All about Swedish fika
- Dansukker: Pärlsocker (pearl sugar) and Dansukker: Kanelbullar
- Kungsörnen: Kanelbullar
- McCormick Science Institute: Cardamom
- McCormick Science Institute: Cinnamon
- German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR): questions and answers on Ceylon and cassia cinnamon
- Burlap & Barrel: Cloud Forest Cardamom, Ground Cinnamon Verum and Royal Cinnamon
- Red Star Yeast: Yeast Conversion Chart
- Penn State Extension: Storing Staple Ingredients in the Kitchen
- Ohio State University Extension: Pantry Food Storage
- Colorado State University Extension: High Elevation Food Preparation Guide
- New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension, Guide E-215: High-Altitude Food Preparation
