The long awaited cinnamon roll recipe! Along with a few other options for holiday sweet buns. My two cinnamon staple buns, the morning bun and cinnamon bun, are both made with the croissant dough. This dough has already been posted in the archives and can be accessed there. The other two buns can also be made with croissant dough and would be absolutely delicious done so, but I also want to offer you two alternative quick dough options, if perchance you are not interested in working with sourdough and the lengthy process of lamination. These two doughs accompany the Christmas Sticky Bun and the Swedish Holiday Cardamom Bun, also known as Kardemummabullar.

Around the holidays, when the weather turns cold, Cinnamon and Cardamom become the spices of comfort. Their flavor profiles are sweet, warm and aromatic lending to a cozy nature but also a deeper sense of internal warmth and circulation of the blood. They aid in digestion during the months that people are prone to eat heavier comfort foods and are rich in antioxidants and anti inflammatory properties.

The earliest mention of cardamom dates back to the vedic times around 3000 BC in modern day India. It was the queen of spices, known for it’s beautiful aroma and used in breads and soups and to freshen breath. The ancient greek and romans used it as perfumes and as an aphrodisiac. The Vikings stumbled across Cardamom around 1000 years ago in the bazaars of Constantinople and brought it to Scandinavia. It has remained a very important spice for the Scandinavian countries to this day, especially Sweden, which is heralded for it’s holiday cardamom buns. Cardamom appeared in the first Scandinavian cookbook in 1450. Today, cardamom is mainly cultivated in India, Indonesia and Guatemala. It is native to the tropical and sub tropical areas of Asia. The first reference to Cardamom was found in Sumer and Ayurveda. In the middle ages, Cardamom dominated the trade industy and was ranked the third most expensive spice following saffron and vanilla.

Cinnamon, also known as cassia ( which means, to strip off bark) or cane and cannella which references “tubes”, was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BC. True Cinnamon, called Chinnamomum verum, is native to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Cinnamomum Cassia is native to China. It was used to embalm mummies in ancient Egyption rituals. The first Greek reference was found in a poem by Sappho in the 7th century BC. The poem claimed that cinnamon, along with other spices, grew in Arabia and were guarded by winged serpents. They decribed how the lardge cinnamon birds would collect the cinnamon bark from an unknown land, from unknown trees and build their nests. Cinnamon has become a huge part of kitchens all over the world lending a deep warmth to culinary creations of all sorts. In a sense, the comfort of cinnamon is like coming home. My mother always has pot on the stove simmering with cinnamon sticks and cloves just to make the kitchen smell good and the house feel warm.

Both of these rolls are made using our croissant dough. So, to begin with, I will drop the formula below with a link to the croissant page. For these batches, I suggest running book 1 and following the tutorial for mixing and laminating the dough on the croissant page here.

Once you have made the dough, you can shape out your rolls as follows:

These buns are a delicious alternative to the cinnamon roll and people often find it less decadent, not as monstrous, and incredibly satisfying with coffee in the morning. This recipe calls for a zest of orange in the filling that levels it up to something special and uniquely breakfast. I have also made this roll with pastry cream piped in the middle which is another twist that puts this on par with a cream filled donut, but much more grand and gourmet than the simple donut.

The cinnamon roll has become quite a hit over the years at Kate’s Bread. It started out as a quest to find the right cinnamon roll. I am not particularly fond of the bready, doughy, bun like roll that is offered in most baking establishments. I prefer a little flake to my dough, something to pull apart. I also appreciate the sour kick from the sourdough. It enhances the flavor ten fold and balances out the sweetness nicely. I experimented with a lot of variations before I settled on, what I believe, is the most delicious cinnamon roll I have ever eaten. It was discovered by accident when I found I had too much waste pieces from the trimming of the croissant dough during lamination. I would pile up the pieces and in the end smash them together and run them through the dough press two more times. This developed a book of dough similar to croissant but with erratic layers. The butter was no longer laminated in cleaning but instead created a dough in between layered pastry and bun dough. With this dough I could then just follow the shaping process for cinnamon rolls, bake off and glaze. They were perfect.

Below I will give you the recipe for the filling and the glaze, as the dough is the croissant dough mentioned above. I will also leave you with a few older videos of my shaping the cinnamon rolls. These aren’t tutorials as much as they are me just doing the work for a large cinnamon roll bake, but you will understand the process none the less.

One last note on the dough: After your second turn laminating your croissant dough, you will roll the dough again and then break from the croissant dough folding process and slice the dough into thick strips. Pile the strips on top of one another and press so they hold together. Roll out and fold once again. And then again one last time. This will be your cinnamon roll dough book. We are not looking for perfection in lamination here. We are looking for scrappy. You will find that the butter may get sticky and if this is the case then chill your dough back before rolling a final time.

Other things to note:

The croissant dough should be made a day or two before shaping the rolls. The rolls can be shaped in the evening and chilled over night for an early morning bake. Once they are pulled from the fridge, let them warm and proof for a couple of hours before baking. I usually egg wash the top of the rolls before baking. Bake at 400 degrees F. If you find that the rolls are starting to burn slightly on top then drop the temp of the oven to 375 or 350 or cover them with tin foil. These rolls are cut at around 1 1/2 inch wide before traying. Let them cool before glazing. These rolls freeze incredibly well and last for up to a few months in the freezer. Warm them up in a 350 degree f oven until soft.

Sticky buns are a Christmas thing. They are a mix between a cinnamon roll and a wonderfully sticky, sugary, nutty mess. They make great Christmas gifts for friends and neighbors, can be frozen and pulled out early Christmas morning, warmed in the oven and eaten with a warm cup of coffee or hot chocolate as everyone unwraps the presents.

This recipe is an old recipe my family has always used. I am not sure where it comes from and yields a whopping five dozen buns. For the sake of everyone here I am going to half the recipe as it will be easier to work in a smaller kitchen. Now, if you do choose to make these for gifts, the larger formula will be useful, so just double the recipe I give below for the full five dozen.

The sticky bun dough is a quick dough. It takes a few minutes to mix. First rest is 2 hours, then shaping and final proof for another 2 hours. I will give you the dough formula below but the tutorial will only involve shaping and baking. The dough mix is very easy and doesn’t need a video explanation. If you know how to mix and knead basic bread dough, then you are set.

Cardamom buns offer a special something during the holidays. To understand the full effect it is nice to grind the cardamom seeds yourself opposed to buying already ground. Of course, you can get the ground if it is easier or more readily available, but the act of pulverizing the seeds yourself has a soothing quality to it and the aroma is special. For most baking projects we look for the green cardamom. You can find it in the pods and break the pods open to separate the seeds. A mortal and pestle works best for this.

Like the sticky buns, this recipe calls for a quick dough. It can also be made with the croissant dough. The shaping process is the same and the flavor will be decadent and the rolls flaky. But for our tutorial today, we will do a quick dough. This will be easier and less timely. You can make these cardamom buns in one day.

SHAPING TUTORIAL: