Autumn is the time for cozy bakes!
As September wraps up and we usher in October, those of us in the northern hemisphere are starting to enjoy chillier weather, warm drinks, and heartier foods.
This is what many people consider to be the start of baking season because the hot oven now brings indoor comfort and cozy smells instead of stifling temperatures that mimic summer heat.
One of the most beloved baked goods this time of year is some kind of spiced, sweet bun.
In this newsletter, I’m going to give you a bit of a spiced bun tour of Europe to hopefully inspire your autumn baking this year.
Make sure you don’t miss the recipe and channel update at the end!
"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."
England
Starting in the British Isles, Chelsea buns are the perfect place to begin.
Created in the 1700s by the Old Chelsea Bun House (famous for both its Chelsea bun year round, as well as its hot cross buns around Easter), these buns never lost their popularity and are eaten as often today as they were in the 18th century.
To make a Chelsea bun, a sweet, yeasted dough is thinly rolled and spiraled with a filling made of cinnamon, sugar, and dried currants.
Their square shape is iconic, so a small baking dish is important when making these to ensure that they push against each other as they bake.
I do have a recipe for hot cross buns over on the channel. Though traditionally eaten during the Easter season, you may be interested in making them this time of year because they are flavored with spices often associated with cold weather, such as cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, coriander, and mace.
And don’t forget about the apple cinnamon rolls that I shared on the channel last year!
Apple dappy was a Victorian favorite made from scone dough rolled with a spiced apple filling. Before baking, a sweet lemon syrup is poured over the top.
Moist from all the syrup that they soak up during baking, they’re best eaten warm from the oven and drizzled with custard!
Portugal
Hopping down to Portugal, the Escarpiada de Condeixa-a-Nova is set apart from other cinnamon buns with their use of olive oil.
A traditional sweet bun dough is cut into individual pieces and then filled with cinnamon sugar.
Both sides are folded over each other after a generous sprinkle of olive oil is applied to the filling.
The folded dough is rolled up and placed on a baking tray that has been generously drizzled with a sugar syrup.
Once out of the oven, the buns are rolled in the hot syrup before serving.
Little is known about the origins of these rolls, as they have been passed down orally from generation to generation.
They used to be made in large portions that were sliced, but in the latter half of the 20th century a bakery started selling them in individual portions and they’ve been made that way ever since!
The Scandinavian countries have become quite popular for their spiced buns in recent years.
You can find korvapuusti in Finland with their unique shape. Their name literally means “slapped ears”.
What sets this cinnamon bun apart is that there is also cardamom in the dough, alongside the cinnamon sugar in the filling.
The best part is the crunchy pearl sugar sprinkled on top!
Exactly five years ago, I shared a recipe for korvapuusti on the channel. I can’t believe Bake Across Europe has been around that long!
You can find the recipe and video below. Excuse the poor production quality 🙈 This was one of my first videos and I had a lot left to learn about video production at the time. We all have to start somewhere!
The Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian cinnamon buns are nearly identical to the Finnish korvapuusti. They only differ in their shaping methods.
You can find them in a variety of shapes—from spirals to intricate twists.
There is even a variation called a cardamom bun that uses a cardamom sugar filling instead of cinnamon sugar.
I actually have a video coming out for that very soon. Keep an eye out for that video. Spoiler alert - I thought they were even better than cinnamon buns!
A fun fact about the Danish version is that they are called onsdagssnegle, or Wednesday snails, in some bakeries.
Snails refers to their shape, of course, and Wednesday is the day on which they are primarily eaten in Denmark.
This tradition began in the 1990s when the national football team took on a bit of a cult following and its games were played on Wednesdays.
Bakeries would sell cinnamon buns to be eaten during the games.
The name and day of the week stuck and they are still called Wednesday snails to this day!
Germany
Snails seems to be the descriptor of choice for many languages because in Germany, the two types of cinnamon buns enjoyed are the cinnamon snail (Zimtschnecke) and Franzbrötchen.
The German cinnamon snail is very similar to the American cinnamon roll in that they are drizzled with icing after baking.
These are enjoyed throughout the Germanic countries, but the Franzbrötchen is a specialty that hails from Hamburg, Germany.
What sets the Franzbrötchen apart is that it is made with a croissant dough that is spread with a cinnamon sugar filling before shaping.
A cross between a croissant and a cinnamon bun sounds amazing, don’t you think?!
Spain
Also made with puff pastry is the Spanish caracola de hojaldre con pasas, similarly called a cinnamon raisin snail.
There are many different varieties, but the traditional ones use cinnamon and raisins soaked in sweet wine or brandy for the filling.
Some fillings also add a pastry cream alongside the cinnamon and raisins.
France
If the Spanish one above looks familiar to you, it’s because it is nearly identical to the French pain aux raisins.
I can’t classify this as a spiced bun, however, because the French version does not contain cinnamon or any other spices.
But it’s easy enough to throw some cinnamon into the pastry cream to bring some autumnal fragrance to your French baking!
Estonia
Remember the Estonian kringle that I shared with you last year? My 10-year-old son still remembers it and asks me to make it all the time.
Instead of making individual spiced buns, the Estonians take an enriched dough and roll it with a chocolate cinnamon filling that is braided into a wreath.
After baking, the kringle is drizzled with chocolate icing and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Make sure to slice into it while it is still warm from the oven!
And just like the Estonians do, you can play around with different flavors. They also come filled with cinnamon sugar, cinnamon raisin, apple, nuts, Nutella, marzipan lingonberry, and the list goes on!
Scroll down to find a new recipe that I’ve never shared before!
Did I miss any spiced bun recipes that are your favorite?
Feel free to reply to this email and share them with me!
I’m always looking for new recipes to add to the channel.
I was so intrigued by the use of olive oil in the Portuguese version of the cinnamon bun that I had to give the recipe a try!
These were surprisingly light and fluffy. The bun itself was lightly sweet, but the caramelized syrup from the tray gave a chewy sweetness to the crust.
I highly recommend giving these a try as an interesting variation on the cinnamon buns you may be used to!
Escarpiada de Condeixa-a-Nova
makes 22 buns
Ingredients
1000g / 8⅓ cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
75g fresh yeast / 19g (2 tbsp) instant yeast
50g / 3½ tbsp unsalted butter, softened
425g / 2 cups + 2 tbsp sugar, divided + extra for sprinkling
4 tsp ground cinnamon
olive oil, for oiling
Method
Put the flour, yeast, butter, salt, and 50g (¼ c) of the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Turn the mixer on low to briefly incorporate the dry ingredients, and then start adding 800ml / 3¼ cups of tepid water, a little bit at a time. It is likely that you won’t need to add the full amount of water. Stop adding water when a smooth dough that pulls away from the sides of the dough has formed. You should be able to poke the dough and not have it stick to your fingers. Continue mixing the dough on medium speed for about 15-20 minutes, or until it can pass the windowpane test. This is where you stretch a small piece of dough and if it doesn’t rip and you can see light through it, then the gluten has properly developed. Let the dough rise in a covered bowl until it has doubled in size, about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
While the dough is rising, whisk together 300 g / 1 cup of the sugar with the cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil, just until the mixture is lightly moist and comes together when pinched. Set this aside.
Once the dough has risen, punch down the dough and divide it into 22 pieces. If you have a kitchen scale, you can weigh the dough in grams and then divide that number by 22. This is the number of grams each piece of dough should roughly weigh to be of equal sizes.
Sprinkle some extra sugar onto your work surface and have a small bowl of olive sitting next to your work space. Stretch each piece of dough into a rectangle. Place the rectangle of dough on the sugared work surface and then put a generous scoop or two of the cinnamon sugar into the center of the rectangle. Spread it across the surface. Dip your fingers and knuckles into the bowl of olive oil and let the oil from your hand drip across the surface of the cinnamon-sugar-spread dough rectangle. Alternatively, if you don’t want to get your hands dirty, you could use a teaspoon to drizzle the oil across the surface. Now, fold the dough like an envelope and turn the dough 90° after folding it. Roll the folded dough into a cylinder and place it on a baking sheet. Repeat this process for each piece of dough. Place the rolls about 2 inches (5 cm) apart because they will spread during baking.
Let the buns rise covered for about 20-30 minutes, or until they have considerably puffed up.
Preheat the oven to 220℃ / 425℉. Mix together 400 ml / 1⅔ cups warm with the remaining sugar and stir it together until the sugar is dissolved. Pour this sugar water around the risen buns on the tray. Bake the buns on the middle rack of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown and the sugar syrup is bubbling.
After removing the baking sheets from the oven, immediately roll the baked buns in the sugar syrup so that the whole surface is covered. Place the buns on a rack to cool. Do not leave the buns on the baking tray with the sugar syrup. As the syrup cools, it will cause the buns to stick to the tray and you won’t be able to remove them (ask me how I know 😉). Enjoy these buns warm from the oven!
Thank you for reading September’s newsletter! I apologize that it is a few days late.
In case you missed the community post on YouTube, my family and I are in the midst of a big life transition right now. We are building a house and moving (and the finish of the build keeps getting pushed out).
Because of this, I no longer have time to make weekly videos. So, for a couple of months, I will only be publishing 1-2 videos per month.
Once we are settled in our new home and back to a normal routine, I hope to return to my regular weekly video schedule.
In the meantime, I will be concentrating a little more on the newsletter than on the channel.
It’s much less time consuming to share recipes via email than it is to film and edit them. So, you may start to receive more emails with exclusive recipes that aren’t on the channel yet.