The cinnamon roll you won't mind munching even if it is vertically rolled...

Alas, I almost got myself into an argument with my suitemate when I insisted on rolling the cinnamon rolls vertically. But trust me, this is really a good way to do it.

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Finnish cinnamon rolls, korvapuustit

Finnish cinnamon rolls taste the same as e.g. Swedish cinnamon rolls, and the only difference is the way they are rolled lol.

This recipe is not completely my invention, but collected from an internet friend I met up in Finland. Of course, the first thing I did after trying out this recipe was scaling up the amount of cardamom and cinnamon. If you do not like these two spices, you can omit or scale down as you like.

This recipe would ideally be executed in strict chronological order, like a lab protocol. You can save time waiting/thinking about the sequence of the steps.

For around 15-20 cinnamon rolls

Tools

• Bowls
• Clean dish cloths or paper towels
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Spatula and whisk
• Rolling pin
• Knife
• Brush
• One or two baking trays
• Parchment paper or foil
• An oven
• A microwave (for melting butter)

Ingredients

• 1 cup / 240 mL milk
• 4 tbsp / 50 g butter, then 2 tbsp / 20 g extra butter
• One pack / 7-8 g active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup / 60 g sugar
• 2 eggs beaten separately
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground cardamom
• 4 cups or 400 g flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• Some pearl sugar (usually labelled as Swedish sugar) or just icing sugar

Steps

Step 1

Microwave the milk for 30 seconds or until lukewarm.

Melt the butter by cutting butter into small chunks and microwaving with a cover for around 20 seconds.

Step 2

Now grab a really big mixing bowl. Add:

• 1 cup / 240 mL milk that has just been warmed
• The stick of butter that has just been melted
• 7-8 g or one pack of active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup or 60 g sugar Stir until fairly even, set aside.

Step 3

Now grab a smaller sized bowl. Mix:

• One beaten egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cardamom

When they are mixed, pour the mixture into the bigger mixing bowl as used in Step 2. Mix until even.

Step 4

GRADUALLY add flour to the large mixing bowl, better no more than half a cup at a time. Mix until even each time flour is added.

Once it gets difficult to mix by a spatula, start kneading by hand and slow down the rate of adding flour.

Stop adding more flour to the dough when the dough is no longer sticky to hand but is still soft.

Step 5

Flour the inner wall of the mixing bowl and cover the bowl with a damp dish towel. Leave the dough under room temperature for 1-1.5 hours as the dough rises.

Now take a break or prepare for the next step!

Step 6

Grab a small bowl. Mix 2 tbsp cinnamon with 1/3 cup of brown sugar.

Step 7

When the dough is about ready, melt 2 tbsp butter.

Step 8

Take out the dough from the mixing bowl and put it on a clean, floured surface. Punch the dough gently.

Roll the dough into a thin, rectangular sheet (around 0.5-1 cm thick) using a rolling pin.

Step 9

Brush the melted butter in Step 7 evenly onto the surface of the sheet of dough.

Then, sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mix prepared in Step 6 evenly onto the buttered surface. Make sure you do not miss any corners!

Step 10

Roll the sheet of the dough up along the shorter side, that is, perpendicular to the longer side. To achieve this, put your two hands (or potentially ask another person for help) on one longer edge of the dough and roll tightly and uniformly towards the opposite longer edge.

The resulting cylinder should have the length equal to that of the longer edge of the initial sheet.

Step 11

Flour a non-serrated knife. Cut the cylinder in the following fashion to make each roll a trapezoid:

Image source: Lyhyenä Hetkenä

Step 12

Press down the thinnest part of each roll like this:

You can also use the handle of a spoon or fork to press down the center.

Step 13

Now lay the pressed rolls onto a baking tray or pan lined with parchment paper.

Cover the pan again with a damp dish cloth or paper towel. Leave for around 30 minutes and they would riSe aGaIN [evil voice].

Preheat the oven to 400 ˚F or 210 ˚C as neeeded.

Step 14

When the oven is almost ready, brush the other beaten egg onto the top of each roll to do an egg wash. Sprinkle some pearl sugar or icing sugar as desired.

Step 15

Bake for around 11-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Generally good practice: bake for around 12 minutes and turn off the oven, but leave the tray in the oven for another few minutes until the color is right.

Enjoy!

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But how am I supposed to eat 20 cinnamon rolls at once? I thought about this problem and here is the solution:

Leftovers

Freeze the extra ones as soon as possible after they are done. When you want to have them again, put one in a bowl and microwave on high for around 20 seconds. They would be as good as fresh!

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Dietary stuff

Gluten-free?

I have tried substituting the flour in this recipe with gluten-free flour mix and it worked! It would taste less bready but more like a pastry. Not bad at all.

Vegan?

• Substitute the milk with any plant milk of choice (soy milk does not taste good on this one, though). Use the barista version if you can.
• Substitute butter with vegan butter or just plant fat.
• You can omit the egg and it would still taste fine, but you can also substitute with vegan egg or water used to soak protein-containing grains.

Gluten-free and vegan?

Do both of the above.

Kosher / halal / etc.

Maybe be careful with your salt and butter usage, other stuff should be fine.

I do not like cinnamon

Other fillings I have tried include blueberry jam, almond flour & crushed almonds, and chocolate. They all work quite fine.

But I really think cinnamon rolls need to be rolled horizontally like this:

Image source: Himoleipuri

You can think whatever you want until all the brown sugar in the swirl melts onto your pan and creates a mess :) but alas, this is definitely still a valid way to roll your cinnamon rolls.

In fact, not only you can roll it horizontally, this dough could be also made into:

• A monkey bread

• Brioche-like buns or a variation of laskiaispulla

etc., you name it.

So it is really a versatile dough to make pretty much any kind of sweetbread!

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Anyway, hope you liked the recipe.

Best wishes,

Xuehuai