Swedish Cinnamon Buns Recipe (Easy Kanelbullar Recipe)

Swedish Cinnamon Buns or Kanelbullar are buns with multiple layers of soft and fluffy bread and aromatic sweet buttery filling in between.

5 from 2 votes

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Proofing Time 1 30

Total Time 2

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Scandanavian, Swedish

Servings 10 Swedish Cinnamon Buns or kanelbullar

390 g All purpose flour/Bread flour or 3 cups (loosely packed)
120 ml Warm Milk or 1/2 Cup (If you don’t want to add milk, you can use plain water instead)
120 ml Warm Water or 1/2 cup
57 g Unsalted Butter (softened) 1/4 cup
32 g Sugar 2 1/2 tbsp
6 g Salt 1 tsp
3 g Yeast (instant /active dried yeast) 1 tsp

Into a bowl add the warm milk and water, sugar,salt,yeast and softened butter and combine everything together.
Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature and the milk and water should be preferably warm(not hot).It should be ideally around 100 F.
Yeast cells will die if it is in high temperature(130 F and above) and it’s action will slow down in a cold environment(less than 70 F).
Then add in the flour into this mixture and combine them together to form a shaggy mass of dough.
If you are kneading the dough in a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment to knead the dough.
If you are kneading the dough by hands, transfer the dough on to a clean work surface and knead the dough for a few minutes(6-8 minutes)until it form a smooth dough.
Shape it into a ball ; then flatten the top a little to form a disc shape and then cover it with a bowl or kitchen towel and let the dough rest on the counter for thirty minutes.This will let the dough sit for a few minutes so that the gluten stands will relax.

So for the next step of shaping the rolls, first we need to roll the dough into thin sheet (1/ 4th inch thickness).
Pat, stretch and roll out the dough to 50-55cm x 25-30 cm rectangle.
Imagine we divide the dough lengthwise into 3 parts.I roughly made marking on top of the dough.
Spread very soft butter over the 2/3 rd of the surface.
Mix sugar and spices in a bowl.
The mix of brown sugar and spices cinnamon and cardamom gives a special aroma to the Swedish cinnamon buns.
Then sprinkle on the filling mixture as evenly as possible.
Then use those marks as a guide to gently fold the dough in thirds onto itself, so that it looks like a closed business letter.
Using a very sharp knife or pastry wheel, slice the dough lengthwise into 3 centimeter wide strips. I divided it into 10 equal dough strips.
Again divide each strip into two,almost all the way but leaving one end joined.
How to roll swedish cinnamon buns?
It is easy to roll and shape kanelbullar.
Take one strip of dough and hold one end of it with your hands.
Then twist the two ends slightly and then twirl and form a knot.
Watch the video and you will find it easy to shape kanelbullar.
While shaping, keep in your mind not to roll them tightly as they need some room for them to expand while proofing and while baking.
Make sure the ends are pinched together or otherwise they will unwind while baking.
Transfer to a baking pan (I have used half sheet baking pan), lined with a parchment paper.

Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and allow the rolls to rise until puffy ; around 60 minutes.
In colder environment it may take longer, around 90 minutes.

Brush the top of shaped and proofed cinnamon buns with egg wash.
I prepared the egg wash by lightly beating one egg in a bowl.
Sprinkle the top with some pearl sugar(optional).You can also use granulated sugar instead of pearl sugar.
Then bake them @ 420 F or 215 C for 14-16 minutes.
Swedish cinnamon buns or Kanelbullar are best to have while they are fresh and warm out of of the oven.So have have them fresh with some hot coffe or tea.
Enjoy!
Let the cinnamon buns cool down for 2-3 minutes.Slather on top with some sugar syrup ,while the rolls are still warm.

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