Cooking after a long day can be a stressful ordeal especially if your day has not gone well. It is a well known fact that the two correlate exponentially and results in anger, frustration or tears – all of which are not mutually exclusive. Anything above and beyond like baking is downright unfathomable. So how did I win after a lousy day?

So call me crazy (not maybe), but there is a time and a place for it. For me it tends to happen organically on a laid back Sunday while sipping on coffee. Strangely enough, it also materialises during the tail end of something stressful. Almost serving as a transition to winding down. Which led me onto my Friday wind down. I needed something low effort preferably without the high brain cell prerequisite to transition out of my recent habit of Law and Order S.V.U. *dun duuun*

There was no beckoning of sofa city and the sav blanc sat silently chilling.  

So that’s exactly what I did. Before jaws drop upon hearing this incredulous act, we need to make the distinction between what’s time consuming and difficult. Following a recipe step by step might be time consuming but it isn’t difficult. I’m not trying to be a hero (can’t compete with Enrique anyway) and certainly not gunning for Masterchef or the Great British Bakeoff here. 

The recipe in question was for the elusive baked good named kanelbullar. As I mentioned before, I first came across these and was blown away. In millennial speak, they were life. Wholesome and warming from the spices. I tried my hand at crafting them but they never turned out as well as the ones my friend and her mum  made. After badgering for the measurements, it turned out the recipe wasn’t a family heirloom as I envisioned. Rather it was emblazoned  on the side of a bag of flour.  Kungsörnen brand to be exact. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers. 

Armed with my impeccable Swedish fluency, I began to make half hearted guesses as what the ingredients were and the steps involved which actually wasn’t all that difficult. 

Truth be told I did not even bother translating the recipe to engelska. I much needed the relaxation and go-with-the-flow vibe as possible after a mentally draining two weeks.

First step

Spotify playlist? Check. Success begins with good tunes.

Second step

Gather the ingredients on the kitchen bench. Then liquids + yeast mixed with flour. That’s as much maths as I can muster and largely accurate as to what I did and it seems to have come out fairly decent. Measurements? Semi accurate. Close enough is good enough for me. Make sure you adorn the buns with pearl sugar otherwise don’t bother with making these at all.

I won’t pat myself on the back just yet. I guess I could have applied myself and gave it a bit more care to yield an even better result. Maybe I should have applied that thinking in high school.

  • Spread the filling evenly
  • Roll it up
  • Divide up the pieces
  • Sprinkle the sugar

Hot out of the oven, they tasted how I imagined they would and not too sweet even with the pearl sugar. It was 22:00 but I still had to dig into them – fika at all hours. Cinnamon buns or kanelbullar, they aren’t going to eat themselves…

After scoffing down 3-4 buns (or was it 7?), I critiqued my own handiwork and learnt: 

  • Turn down the temperature of the oven. Some of the buns got a few shades darker than the expected tan in the solarium.  
  • Bump up the spice amounts as it wasn’t cinnamon-y enough. This coming from someone who thinks pepper can be too spicy. 
  • Roll out the dough not so thin. Anorexia is not chic. It’s 2020, so gotta keep the buns thicc. 

Oh and be sure to make more than you need. Seriously. Of all the improvements for the next attempt, I probably still won’t end up translating the recipe. Maybe I’ll try one of the fun variations to the classic cinnamon and sugar filling. Then again, why mess with tradition? 

Do you find yourself doing out of the box things when you’re stressed? Or if you have found the perfect recipe for cinnamon buns, let me know below!