Nigella Lawson’s Norwegian Cinnamon Buns
Make these easy, buttery buns and fill your kitchen with the warming smell of cinnamon. They make an incredible tear-and-share breakfast or afternoon treat.
Introduction
The Northern Europeans, and especially the Scandinavians, are wonderful bakers and eating these for breakfast or tea on a cold winter’s day makes one feel ours is a climate to be grateful for. But then, I’ve always thought that bad weather has its compensations, most of them culinary.
Ingredients
| For the dough | |
|---|---|
| 600g | flour |
| 100g | sugar |
| ½ tsp | salt |
| 21g (3 sachets – yes, really) of | easy-blend yeast or 45g fresh yeast |
| 100g | butter |
| 400ml | milk |
| 2 | eggs |
| For the filling | |
| 150g | soft, unsalted butter |
| 150g | sugar |
| 1 ½ tsp | cinnamon |
| 1 | egg, beaten, to glaze |
Essential kit
You will need: a roasting tin approximately 33cm x 24cm or large brownie tin, lined with baking parchment bottom and sides.
Method
Preheat the oven to 230°C/gas mark 8.
Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Melt the butter and whisk it into the milk and eggs, then stir it into the flour mixture. Mix to combine and then knead the dough either by hand or using the dough hook of a food mixer until its smooth and springy. Form into a ball, place in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave it to rise for about 25 minutes.
Take one-third of the dough and roll it or stretch it to fit your tin; this will form the bottom of each bun when it has cooked. Roll out the rest of the dough on a lightly floured surface, aiming to get a rectangle of roughly 50 x 25cm. Mix the filling ingredients in a small bowl and then spread the rectangle with the buttery cinnamon mixture. Try to get even coverage on the whole of the dough. Roll it up from the longest side until you have a giant sausage. Cut the roll into 2cm slices which should make about 20 rounds. Sit the rounds in lines on top of the dough in the tin, swirly cut-side up. Don’t worry if they don’t fit snugly together as they will swell and become puffy when they prove. Brush them with egg and then let them rise again for about 15 minutes to let them get duly puffy.
Put in the hot oven and cook for 20–25 minutes, by which time the buns will have risen and will be golden-brown in colour. Don’t worry if they catch in places – see mine in the picture. Remove them from the tin and leave to cool slightly on a rack – it’s easy just to pick up the whole sheet of parchment and transfer them like that – before letting people tear them off, to eat warm.
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