An Ode to Snúður

My love for cinnamon rolls has been well documented. So you can imagine my happy dance when I found extra special and extremely fluffy and enormous cinnamon roll type pastries in Iceland. Apparently they are called Snúður (no, I cannot correctly pronounce that - anyone want to help?) and they are delicious. 

Below is my little (ehem, gigantic) cinnamon-y and cardamom-y friend from Akureyri. What follows afterwards is my attempt at recreating that doughy goodness - snúður-like cinnamon rolls perfect for brunch or decadent coffee break. Hope you enjoy!

Maybe not the most logistically practical road trip snack, but it was SO SO GOOD.

My Snúður-like creations

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 75g unsalted butter
• 250ml whole milk
• 3 tsps dry yeast
• 50ml sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp ground cardamom 
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon powder
• 420g self-raising flour

For the filling:

• 70g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 100g sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon

For the icing:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 60 ml milk
• 200g brown sugar

Directions:

Warm the milk over low/medium heat, stirring constantly. Stir in the sugar and yeast, then set aside for 5 minutes.

Mix together the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, and butter. Add this mixture slowly to the wet mixture, then pour the entire lot into a bread machine and set to "dough". You can, of course, also choose to make this the traditional way by kneading the dough then covering and leaving in a warm place to rise for at least 60 minutes or roughly doubled in size. I have trouble with room temperature consistency in the tiny London kitchen, so jumped at the chance to use Mom's more accurate bread machine (so fluffy!!!). 

After the dough has doubled in size (60-90 minutes), flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll out half of the risen dough into a roughly rectangular shape about 1 cm thick. Then thoroughly blend the filling ingredients - unsalted butter, sugar, and cinnamon - together and spread half the mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a filling free frame of about 1 cm all around. 

Now carefully roll the dough up as tightly as you can. Let's say side A of the dough rectangle is longer than side B. You will roll side B. So you should be rolling more rather than less - got it?

Using a very sharp clean knife, cut the rolled up dough log into 3 cm wide pieces and place each one swirly side up on a lightly greased baking tray, leaving a little space between each piece. I used both cake tins and cookie sheets/baking trays for my Snúður. With baking trays you can space the cinnamon rolls further apart and they will have defined edges. If you chose cake tins, the rolls will smush together, leaving you with softer, pull apart edges. The choice is yours!

Repeat the rolling and filling spreading steps with the remaining half of dough and filling.

Cover the cake tins/cookie sheets/baking trays with a cloth and leave the dough rolls in a warm place for another hour for the second (and final) proofing. The Snúður should nearly double in size again!

Finally preheat your oven to 200C and bake the Snúður for 7-8 minutes. When finished they should be lightly golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a minute or two before tucking in.

While the Snúður are baking, you can prepare (if you'd like) the icing. Melt the butter in small saucepan, then add the brown sugar and milk, stirring constantly. The icing should begin to thicken after about 2 minutes. Once the icing has reached a smooth consistency, take the saucepan off the heat and set aside for a few minutes to cool. Then spoon on top of the Snúður and enjoy!

These spiced spirals of doughy deliciousness are also excellent (and slightly less sweet) without the icing and/or served alongside Skyr or Smari (a Skyr-like alternative you can find in some US grocery stores).

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!