“Kanelbullens dag”, The cinnamon bun's very own day falls on October 4th every year. It is an annual theme day established by the Swedish Home Baking Council in 1999 in connection with their 40th anniversary. The purpose of the day was from the beginning to get people to bake more home-baked, as well as increase sales of flour, yeast and margarine but today it has grown to become an important day in the Swedish calendar and the most famous of all the food based theme days we have here in Sweden.

Approximately 7 million cinnamon buns are sold on Cinnamon Bun Day each year. 51 percent of Swedes eat at least one cinnamon bun on this day, and at least half of all employers offer their employees cinnamon buns at work.

Cinnamon buns are common pastries in northern Europe and in the USA, but did you know that the cinnamon bun originates from Sweden? Cinnamon buns were made in other forms and shapes as early as the 1600’s but the cinnamon bun as we know it today began to be baked in bakeries around the 1920s when goods rationed during the First World War, such as butter, sugar, wheat flour and cinnamon, reappeared in stores. However, the goods were expensive, and until the 1950s, the cinnamon bun was seen as something of a “luxury fika”. When the Swedish economy took off in the middle of the last century, baking became popular, and the cinnamon bun went from a luxury side for the fika to the most common side to go with the fika.

If you like really big cinnamon buns, you should head to Café Husaren in the district of Haga in Gothenburg. Hagabullen, a cinnamon bun the size of a plate, weighing an average of 500 grams, is baked and sold there. The giant buns have been baked since the café was started in the 1980’s.

- 150 g room temperature butter or margarine

- 5 dl milk

- 50 g yeast for sweet doughs

- 1 dl caster sugar or white baking syrup

- Salt tsp salt

- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom

- 800 g (approx. 1.4 l) wheat flour

Cinnamon filling:

- 150 g room temperature butter or margarine

- 1 dl caster sugar

- 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Egg for brushing

Perl sugar for decoration

1. Heat the milk to 37 ° C (finger warm).

2. Crumble the yeast in a dough bowl of 3-4 l. Pour over the milk and stir. Add the butter in pieces, sugar, salt and any cardamom.

3. Measure out the flour. Pour it airily directly from the bag in a liter measure. Do not shake the measure. Add the flour but save ½ dl for baking.

4. Work the dough vigorously, about 5 minutes by machine or 10 minutes by hand, until it feels smooth.

5. Leave the dough to rise covered with a baking towel for about 30 minutes.-

Work the dough a bit more with a machine or knead it lightly on a floured baking sheet.

6. Divide the dough into 4 parts. Roll out each piece into rectangular shapes.

7. Stir together the ingredients for the filling and spread a thick layer on the cake. Roll up into a roll. 

8. Cut the roll into 10 parts and place them with the cut surface up in paper molds or on plates covered with parchment paper. 

9. Leave to rise under a baking sheet for about 40 minutes. 

10. Preheat the oven to 225-250 ° C. 

11. Brush with egg and then bake the buns in the middle of the oven, 8-10 minutes.

12. Let the buns cool on a wire rack under a baking sheet.

13. Enjoy with a cup of coffee of any other beverage of choice. Yummy!