Kanelbullar - Swedish Cinnamon Rolls

I've never really liked cinnamon buns because I've always had the sticky and awfully sweet american version.  I am not a big fan of caramel and toffee.  Until just a month back I tasted the swedish cinnamon rolls (Kanelbullar) during a coffee break at my Swedish class.  It was small and simple with some sugar pearls on top.  But it tasted really good, the lingering fragrance of cinnamon and cardamon in every soft & warm bite was comforting.  So Nana (japanese friend who is learning swedish too)  and me decided to attempt it one weekend.

We did some research on the different recipes.  My Swedish teacher had given me a really nice recipe as well.  But we decided to improvise.  We replaced the ingredients with more "SINFUL" stuff. :D  Mainly we replaced milk with butter milk and thick cream.  We wanted our bun really soft and fluffy so we decided to go easy on the kneading as well.  We used a little less flour then the recipe....mainly because we ran out of it. :P  And since we could not find sugar pearls.  We made our own lemon cream cheese frosting.  The 2nd time I attempted the recipe, I made a royal frosting instead.


Ingredients 

2 cups butter milk
1/2 cup thick cream
1.5 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (fine white sugar) but if you're using molasses slightly more then 1/2 a cup will do
1tsp salt
2 tsp. freshly ground cardamon (Remove shell if you use whole cardamon)
2pkt dry active yeast or (4.5 tsp)
8-9 cups of bread flour
1 egg for brushing

Filling

Melted butter

Icing sugar
Cinnamon powder
Fresh ground cardamon

Optional

Roasted Sesame seeds
Raisins
Roasted slivered almonds

Lemon Cream cheese frosting

Lemon juice from 1 lemon

Zest of lemon

3tbs cream cheese

Icing sugar

Royal Frosting

2 eggwhite

Icing sugar

colouring (optional)  

How to make

Heat milk to a light boil till there is little bubbles at the top, stir in melted butter, sugar, salt and ground cardamon.

Let mixture cool, not too cool thou.  Just cool enough to touch.  Stir in yeast and let it sit for approx 15mins

Add sifted flour into mixture one ladle at a time and mix slowly till the dough i firm enough to pull away from the sides. (we hand mixed this.  of cos if you have a stand mixer you can use that too)

Cover the dough in a mixing bowl with a clean towel and let it rise till it doubles.  It will take about an hour or so.  (We left it for about 80mins)

Punch down the dough once and remove from bowl.

Remove from bowl and knead v lightly on floured counter till smooth and shiny. Divide dough into 4.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Brush rectangle with melted butter (be generous).

Combine 2/3 cup of sugar with 2.5tbs cinnamon and 1tsp cardoman.  Sprinkle evenly over the rectangle. (You can also sprinkle the sesame, almonds and raisins if you want. We did a variation)
Roll it into a jelly roll to form a long cylinder.

With a sharp knife cut about 1.5 inch thick.

Please slices in a cupcake wrapper and place in baking tray.  Cover with towel and allow it to double in size.  Will take about an hour.  Meanwhile preheat oven to 200 degree celsius

Brush risen cinnamon rolls with egg wash.  Sprinkle with slivered almonds or sesame on top if you want.  Place in oven and bake for 9-12 mins.  It really depend on the size and shape of your roll.  Ours had a different timing for every batch due to size and shape difference.  The loaf took about 10mins.

In a bowl add cream cheese, icing sugar, Zest of lemon and lemon juice.  Beat and mix thoroughly.  Drizzle on cooled cinnamon rolls.

In another bowl, beat egg white till stiff add icing sugar and keep beating till it's really thick.  Drizzle on cooled cinnamon rolls.  It will take about an hour to harden.

Serve with hot coffee or tea.  Keep the rest in fridge.  Takes about 30secs on medium high to reheat in microwave.

Smaklig Måltid

Monica Eng

Singapore

Janssons Frestalse (Jansson's Temptation)

As promised in my previous post, here is the recipe for Janssons Frestalse.

I've never been a real big fan of potatoes, the only potato dish I like is really Shoestring french fries.  I use potatoes alot in my cooking but I hardly eat them.  I much prefer sweet potatoes. :)


During my search for Swedish meatballs recipe, I came across pictures of Jansson's Temptation and I was drawn to it.  Perhaps it was the seductive name Jansson's Temptation that drawn me.... I mean who would name a NON CHOCOLATE DISH a temptation....I figured that if it was so tempting for Jansson....It must be good!!

And true enough, Jansson's Temptation turns out to be this creamy, fragrant, melt in your mouth seduction.  I couldn't get enough of it.  Only thing I changed in the recipe was I used Herrings instead of Anchovies.  I really really do not fancy anchovies at all and I think it would ruin the dish for me. :P

Ingredients

6 Large Potato (sliced)

1 Large onion (sliced)

Bout 10 fillets of Anchovies or 1 tin of Herrings (You can add more if you like but this portion is just nice for me. Not too fishy)

1.5 cup of double cream

1/2 cup milk (Could be less, I estimated here or you could just go for 2 cups of cream)

Bread crumbs

Butter

Dill (I love dill so I topped it off with some)

How to make

Slice potatoes and large onion, 

Heat oven to 220 degrees celsius

Oil your baking dish.  Start with a layer of potato then onions and fish.  Reserve the fish juice from the tin for later use. As in the picture above.  

Keep going till you reach the top, end with a layer of potatoes.  

Mix cream, milk and juice from herrings,  pour over dish, top with dill

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.  Dot with salted butter.

 Place on baking sheet to catch any cream which bubbles over (I forgot...) Bake in oven for 45mins until the cream reduces and the dish turns golden brown.

 Voila!!! Janssons Frestalse!!

You can eat it as it is or serve with a side of Swedish Meat balls.  

 Smaklig måltid

Monica Eng

Singapore