Kanelbullar - Swedish Cinnamon Knots

This was on my baking list for a long time. Since all the GBBO´s and German Das Grosse Backen the baking virus has effected me too. I was watching YT travel vlogs from Stockholm. FIKA or the Swedish art of enjoying coffee and baked goods at many times of the day is so nice.
During this cold November Sunday baking makes the whole apartment smell so lovely.

Cardamom and Cinnamon are the spices of these knots.  Here they are the spices for many winter or Christmas bakes. In Sweden you will find them all year round.

When I first checked many different recipes for the size of this bake, I found a couple of methods to form this baked goodies. Many just turn them into rolls, other into balls and this method was the tricky one: knots. One a Swedish recipe site was a good row of pictures to show how it was done.

I am not a huge fan of bakes that are overly sweet. When I checked the recipes, all used a good amount of sugar to mix with the cinnamon and spread on the dough. I think, cinnamon has a kind of sweet taste on its own. I did not use sugar on the inside and it tasted nice.

recipe for 10:
500 g flour
25 g fresh yeast
250 ml whole milk
75 g butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
75 g  sugar

75 g butter
60 g sugar - optional
1 1/2  tbsp cinnamon
1 egg yolk
coarse sugar

Warm 200 ml milk and melt the butter in it. Pour the rest of the cold milk in and check the temperature. It should not be warmer then 40 C.
Make the dough and let it rest for 45 min.

Heat up the oven to 180 C.
On a floured surface, roll it into an rectangular with 1 cm thickness.
Melt the butter and let it cool down a bit. If the butter is too warm, it will run all over the place.
Spread the butter with a brush on top of the dough.
Sprinkle the cinnamon on top.
Now you can add the layer of sugar if you want.

Fold one third of the dough over and shut it with the other third.
Cut in two halves.

Cut each side in 5 equal slices.
Cut each slice 3/4 lengthwise without cutting it completely.
Stretch and twirl each slice and form a knot, tucking the end under.
Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle the coarse sugar on top.
Bake for 20-25 min.