The Joy of Fika & Swedish Kanelbullar

Fika, somewhat like a coffee break in the US,  is an important part of Swedish culture - almost an iconic part.  Each day the Swedes take a break, sometimes in the morning, sometimes later in the afternoon, but it almost always includes hot coffee and a sweet.  And the sweet is usually a Swedish baked good, most likely kanelbullar. 

There is nothing as delicious and traditionally Swedish as kanelbullar.  Sweet buns filled with cinnamon, cardamom, butter, saffron, or almond paste.  These have been a part of our life with the boys since before they were born.  Anna or her mom bake them mostly at Christmas times, but sometimes just because.

Of course on this trip we've come across so many places that sell bullar.  One place in particular, a tiny bakery in downtown Stockholm had the most delicious bullar we've eaten.  Here's my family eating bullar - Kuba with a smörbulle, Anders with a kanelbulle and Anna with a kardemummabulle.  Every single one was delicious in it's own way and every body chose their own as their favorite.  I of course, loved them all because I tasted all of them.

Bullar Translation:
smörbulle - butter bullar
kanelbulle - cinnamon bullar
kardemummabulle - cardamom bullar (recipe below)

Bake away and then brew up a pot of coffee.   The joy of fika!

Swedish kardemummabullar (makes 15-20 buns)
ingredients
dough: 250 ml milk, 1 envelope dry active yeast, 60 g brown sugar, 420 g flour, 1 teaspoon whole cardamom seeds, ¼ teaspoon salt, 70 g butter (room temperature)
filling: 60 g butter (room temperature), 30 g brown sugar, 1½ teaspoons whole cardamom seeds (+ optional: ½ teaspoon cinnamon)
topping: 25 g brown sugar, 25 g water + 1 heaped teaspoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
preparation
dough: Heat milk until it is lukewarm. Add yeast to the milk and stir until yeast has dissolved. Crush the cardamom seeds with mortar and pestle. (You can do this seperately for dough, filling and topping, or all at once. You get a finer result if you pestle the cardamom with some sugar.) Mix together flour, sugar, cardamom and salt. Add milk-yeast-mixture to it. Add in the butter in small cubes. Knead well for about 5-10 minutes. Cover dough and and let it rise at a warm place for at least 40 minutes.
filling: Mix all ingredients for the filling to an even cream.
forming: Roll out dough into a big retangle. Spread filling onto the whole dough so that it covers the entire area. Mark three equal shaped parts with the back of a knife. Fold left side to the middle, than right side. Slice the new retangle into 15-20 equal sized slices. Cut each of them lengthwise again, but not up to the top. Twist each strand a few times outwards, and roll them into a bun (So difficult to explain! You have to watch the illustrations of Johanna.). Repeat with all slices. Place buns on a baking sheet, cover wit a kitchen towel and let them rise for about 30 minutes. Bake them in the oven at 225°C for 8-10 minutes.
topping: Heat water and sugar until sugar has dissolved. Put syrup aside. Crush and mix cardamom and sugar with mortar and pestle. Brush baked buns with syrup and sprinkle with cardamom sugar.