Kanelstang - Danish Cinnamon Twist
from http://nordicfoodliving.com/

Kanelstang, or Cinnamon danish, is one of the more common pastries in Denmark. They are kinda like a large cinnamon roll cut up. Compared with real pastry (Danish pastry) where you roll layers of butter into a dough, this recipe is really easy to make.

This is a recipe for a traditional Danish cinnamon twist which we in Denmark call Kanelstang – directly translated Kanelstang means cinnamon rod. A Kanelstang is a famous, old and very traditional part of the Danish pastry cuisine and can be bought in most bakeries and some super markets in Denmark. They are typically served together with a cup of coffee or sometimes as “dessert” after breakfast. Most people buy the cinnamon twists from the bakeries which actually are pretty good. However, making your homemade Kanelstang is actually relatively easy and it taste delicious – especially the smell, when the cinnamon twist is in the oven, is wonderful.

A cinnamon twist has an elongated shape and two fillings, vanilla cream and cinnamon filling. Serve the cinnamon twist together with a cup of coffee, tea or some homemade hot cocoa.

This recipe gives you two cinnamon twists – if you cannot eat them both you can put one in the freezer, and then reheat it later. This way you always have something delicious to serve when having unexpected guests.

Dough:
50 g (2 oz) yeast
3 dl (1 1/4 cups) milk
2 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom
500 g (18 oz) all-purpose flour

Vanilla Cream: 1 portion vanilla cream (see recipe below)

Filling:
200 g (7 oz) butter, soft
200 g (7 oz) brown sugar
4 tbsp ground cinnamon

Decoration:
1 egg, beaten
some sugar icing
100 g (4 oz) chopped hazelnuts

Vanilla Cream:
Start by making a portion of vanilla cream (see recipe below). You can use the powder vanilla cream from the super market which only needs to be mixed with milk. However, we strongly recommend to make your own and homemade vanilla cream. You can follow our recipe for vanilla cream which is super easy.

Dough:
Warm the milk and pour it in a large bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk.

In the milk; add sugar, salt, cardamom, and the eggs. Stir well.

Add the flour stepwise and knead well. Continue adding flour until the dough does not stick to your fingers anymore. The same applied to dough mixed using a stand mixer.

Cover the bowl with a clean dishcloth and set aside some place warm. Let it rise for about 30 minutes.

Filling:
While the dough is rising; In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the filling. Set aside.

The Danish Cinnamon Twist (Kanelstang):

Knead the risen dough a little and divide it into two equally sized pieces. Using a rolling pin; roll out the two dough pieces into two rectangles (35×45 cm – 14×18 inch).

Equally distribute the filling and the vanilla cream on the two rectangles. Start with the filling.

Roll the dough together into two logs. [Place on baking sheets.]

Use a pair of scissors; snip half way through the logs and fold the dough to one side. Continue snipping and folding the dough with a distance between each snip of about 2 cm (3/4 inch). See the picture in this recipe for better understanding.

Beat an egg and brush the cinnamon twists with it. Sprinkle the twists with chopped hazelnuts.

Bake the twists for about 20 minutes at 200 C (400 F). We prefer baking them one-by-one.

When the twists are baked and cooled off; decorate them with icing.

Makes 2 cinnamon twists

Homemade Vanilla Cream

2 eggs
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
3 dl (1 1/4 cup) milk (~1.5%)
seeds from a vanilla bean

Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan including the empty vanilla bean. Whisk it well together.

Heat up on medium heat, while whisking constantly, until the cream is boiling and getting thicker.

When the cream has your preferred consistency; take it off the heat and pour it in a bowl.

Remove the empty vanilla bean and let the cream cool off.

1/2 liter (2 cups)