Korva…what???

Namely, the traditional Finnish sweet buns stuffed with cinnamon (absolutely, my favourites :)).

If you visit the Ikea’s food section on a regular basis, you might have noticed kanelbullar, the Swedish cinnamon buns twisted as a spiral. Well, korvapuusti are the Finnish version of kanelbullar. The only difference is in the way of folding: korvapuusti are twisted around their horizontal axis and squeezed a bit in the centre. Korvapuusti literally means “cuff on the ear” and their shape would actually remind this…ahem…gesture?

I got the first recipe for korvapuusti from my friend Anne, when I still lived in Finland. Lately, anyways, I felt the need to develop my own recipe. The procedure I came up with is a bit lengthy, but definitely worth the effort! You can refer to the former post for tips and tricks on how to make brioches.

Korvapuusti (Finnish sweet cinnamon buns)

(Doses for about 10 buns)

For the dough

• 500 g of strong flour

• 150 g of sugar

• 100 g of milk

• 50 g of lukewarm water

• 70 g of soft butter

• 3 eggs

• 7 g of dehydrated yeast (or 14 g of fresh yeast)

For the filling

• 3 tablespoons of cinnamon

• 6 tablespoons of sugar

• 80 g of melted butter

For the glaze

• sugar as needed (the recipe calls for pearl sugar, but I can’t find it here)

• maple or corn syrup as needed

In a bowl, dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water. Add then 50 g of flour and knead. Cover the dough with some film paper and leave it to leaven for 1 hour.

After this time, pour 350 g of flour, all the sugar and the milk into a standing mixer’s bowl. Add the leavened dough and knead the ingredients with the standing mixer’s hook at low speed (1-2 with the Kitchen Aid). Add 1 egg and keep kneading. As soon as the dough develops threads, add a couple of tablespoons of flour. Allow the dough torquing. Add 1 more egg and the flour, as described before. Add the third egg and the remaining flour. Allow the dough torquing.

Now, you can incorporate the butter. This is always a delicate step, because the dough loses the torquing once in contact with fats. Keep kneading and allow the dough torquing. If the dough doesn’t torque, refer to the post about the dough that doesn’t come right and relative tips.

Stop the standing mixer, remove the hook and cover the bowl with some film paper. Leave the dough to leaven for 1 h. After this time, fold the dough as showed in pictures 3,4,5 and 6, here. Transfer the dough into some hermetic container and leave it to rest in the fridge overnight.

The morning after, remove the dough from the fridge and leave it at room temperature for 1 h.

Spread the dough with the aid of a rolling pin, so that the dough will have a thickness of about 0.5 cm. Stir the melted butter with the cinnamon and the sugar, and brush the mixture on the inner surface of the dough (if the mixture is too thick, add more melted butter). Roll the dough around the horizontal axis and cut rolls of about 7 cm width. Squeeze each bun in the centre with the aid of your fingers and place the buns on an oven pan covered with parchment paper. Leave the buns to leaven for 1 h.

Bake the buns at 180 C, in preheated, convected oven. They’ll be ready when the surface turns golden-brown.

Remove the buns from the oven, let them to cool down and brush each korvapuusti with the syrup. Sprinkle the buns with sugar and…enjoy! :)