Norwegian Cinnamon Buns

Saturday morning is my favourite time of the whole week.  It's the first morning in five days that my husband isn't rushing to get out the door for work and my kids get to spend some quality time with him.  It's time for just the four of us to reconnect after a hectic week and just relax. 

It's also my free day.  Even though I cheat quite often, Saturday is my day to eat whatever I whenever I want.  If I feel like chocolate before breakfast, then that's what I have.  And so I usually make a calorie-laden brunch, typically pancakes or waffles.  But this week, I was in the mood for cinnamon buns.  Actually I was last week too but I killed the yeast and gave up.

This week they turned out just lovely.  I used Nigella's Norwegian cinnamon recipe, we had made her Schnecken (essentially German cinnamon buns) in the past and they turned out well so I though I would give these a go.  One note: I did need to add about an extra 1/4 cup flour to the dough since it turned out quite sticky.  I found another blogger who had made these and she had the same problem.

Norwegian Cinnamon Buns 
from Nigella Lawson

For the dough:
4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
scant 3 tablespoons (3 1/4-ounce packages) of rapid-rise yeast or 3 tablespoons fresh yeast
scant 1/2 cup butter
1 2/3 cups milk
2 eggs

For the filling:
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 egg, beaten, to glaze

Roasting  pan approximately 13 x 10, lined with baking parchment bottom and sides

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Melt the butter and whisk it into 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. (I actually had to add a good 1/4 cup extra flour at this point this the dough was way too sticky). Form into a ball, place in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic warp 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 20x10 inches. 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 3/4-inch slices which should make about 20 rounds. Sit in rounds in lines of 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 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 it they catch in places. 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.

Makes 20

Linked to Sweets for a Saturday #3 
Linked to Sweet Tooth Friday