food

Making Cinnamon Buns with Dry Yeast

Forestwood
kanelsnegle at last

I have always been reluctant to use yeast in the kitchen. I have had bad experiences with dry yeast sachets.

Either I heat the yeast granules far too much in my anxiety to make the dough rise, or the resulting dish tastes of something that I really can’t describe. It’s not an awful flavour but a slight kind of aftertaste. It is not sweet. I am not sure if this is yeast or something else.

Photo Credit: by PurplePumpernickel

However, when Ju-Lyn posted a Recipe for Cinnamon Rolls, I desperately wanted to make them.

Cinnamon Pastries in Scandinavia

The taste of cinnamon scrolls takes me back to Denmark and Finland, but generally all of Scandinavia. In Denmark, you see these rolls and pastries everywhere, from 7/11 stores (which surprisingly are some of the best), to small cafes and even gas stations kiosks. They are both ubiquitous and synonymous with Scandinavian traditions. Whether they be soft sweet bread or the flaky Danish style pastry, cinnamon is the main theme.

The first thing my daughter wanted to do on our return to Denmark was to eat a Cinnamon ‘snail’ or ‘Kanelsnegle.’ This is the kind of flaky pastry that is thin and wound round and round similar to the shape of a snail’s shell.

A cinnamon bun in Finland

Eating various kinds of cinnamon pastries is some kind of birthright in Denmark, and I have it. No question. I enjoyed a huge cinnamon bun in Helsinki one year. I didn’t eat anything else until dinner that day.

Cooking with Yeast

It is not that I have not cooked with yeast before. I have. I used to make my own bread but that was using baker’s fresh compressed yeast and it was brilliant. A never-fail kind of yeast that was guaranteed to make bread products rise beautifully. Not so the sad results of my experiences with the dried variety of yeast.

Nevertheless after 38 years, I decided it was too time to try again or hang up the dried yeast forever. And Cinnamon buns was the perfect tester. Ju-Lyn’s Cinnamon bun photographs looked perfect and the texture was soft and bouncy.

Furthermore, Cinnamon is so good for you. Packed with Antioxidants, cinnamon may lower blood sugar as well as assist in managing heart disease and inflammation in the body.

The Result of Cooking Cinnamon Buns with Dry Yeast

This was the moment of truth. Would they be hard as rocks or soft and bouncy?

I can reveal that I was over the moon with the result.

No aftertaste and a nice even texture on the rolls. They rose as the recipe suggested and Ju-Lyn’s clear recipe tips helped enormously. One minor adjustment would be to substitute water instead of milk but that is only personal preference.

Here they are:

If I can convince you to make them or at least experiment and you would like the recipe, you can find it at the blog: purplepumpernickel.

You can make cakes with cinnamon too.

#onecakeaweek at the Home by the Sea.

Sunrise

Also linking to the Virtual Tea Party, hosted by Su at zimmerbitch.

Published by Forestwood

A philosophic Aussie writes here at StPA, one who will readily admit to loving Scandinavia. I'm interested in global politics and what drives us to be who we are. Scratch the surface and you'll find a practical Environmentalist with an egalitarian bent, trying to unleash a little creativity via the written word. Scandinavian culture, literature and traditions are close to my heart, even though I'm Australian. Travel and courteous discussions greatly broaden the mind, so I travel if I can and am always up for a vigorous, respectful discussion. I'm an avid reader, a writer and I enjoy photography and crafts, particularly traditional art forms. I hope you'll find 'Something to Ponder About,' in my WordPress Community.

33 thoughts on “Making Cinnamon Buns with Dry Yeast”

    1. Thank you for posting a recipe that tempted me to overcome my prejudice about dried yeast. It is a very easy recipe to follow and I may make them on a regular basis from now on.😀

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  4. I also have mixed experiences using dried yeast Amanda but earlier this year I bought a bread maker which I realise is cheating a bit but now I can make perfect dough using dried yeast for cinnamon buns and fruit iced buns. I just need to roll it into shapes and stick it in the oven! Trouble is they are so moorish, we always eat too many when the original plan is to freeze batches.

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    1. That is the danger with baking, Marion. We eat far too much of it afterwards. But I have a question. Do you have to prove the dough a second time, before baking, after the bread maker has made the dough?

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    1. I guess you do need eggs to make many baked goods, don’t you? I wonder if there was another way to make them with a fermented kind of rising agent? What do you use in cooking as an alternative to eggs. And I guess some people, (not all) grow out of egg allergies, so I will cross my fingers they do.

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      1. Exactly, let’s hope it goes away. You can replace eggs with chickpea flour but usually we just leave eggs out. The texture is looser but it doesn’t matter. I’ve baked bread rolls, no need for eggs, but most sweet baking does need eggs indeed

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  6. You’ve pandered my weak spot tonight for sure. A good cinnamon bun I’m sure must be up there as one of the greatest taste sensations there is. I love them. My favourite is a replica Cinnabon, but it’s definitely a special occasion treat. My mouth was watering just looking at your photos.

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    1. Cinnamon buns or Cinnabon should be occasional treats in a healthy diet, Chris. Thanks for the compliment on the photos. I try to compensate for more exercise on days that I eat sweet treats, but I doubt it fully compensates for the extra calories. Do you have a recipe for something similar?

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  8. Your cinnamon rolls look lovely and made me hungry for some. I’m ready to try again. I used to bake with dry yeast all the time. But it won’t wait very long before the yeast goes off and won’t work. They date them in the store so if you get a fresh package and use it right away with the right temp of water it will all go well. I baked banana bread yesterday. A true fail that will be mostly tossed. I don’t bake enough anymore to get in the rhythm of it. Looks like I will be adding another try of that to my list of things to bake as well. And here we are trying to get off some extra covid pounds.

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    1. Sorry to tempt you with treats. Thanks ever so much for mentioning to use the yeast asap. That is most likely why it never worked on previous attempts. Shame about the Banana bread. Can you turn it into a trifle?

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