Kanelsnurrer – Norwegian Twisted Cinnamon Buns

Scandinavians sure love their cinnamon buns, so it’s no surprise they have so many different variations of them. In Norway you’ll find kanelboller, skillingsboller, kanel i svingene, and kanelsnurrer – also called kanelknuter. These names are often used interchangeably, but kanelsnurrer and kanelknuter are usually slightly smaller buns twisted into a knot.

The twists actually make kanelsnurrer extra delicious, because there’s cinnamon sugar butter folded into each twist. Plus I just love the texture of these.

Bergen is actually famous for its skillingsoller, so I may have broken a law or two by baking kanelsnurrer here instead – please don’t tell anyone in Bergen.

This is the classic version of kanelsnurrer, made with a buttery cardamom dough and filled with cinnamon, brown sugar and butter. They’re simple but oh so tasty. You can use a stand mixer to make these, or you can knead them by hand. If you’re using a mixer, dissolve the yeast in cold milk instead of warm, as the dough heats up quite a bit in the mixer, which apparently can kill the yeast. But if you’re making these by hand you’ll want to dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk.

In Norway we usually use fresh yeast for baking, but you can also use dry instead.

Make sure to let the dough fully rise so it’s about double in size. This ensures that the dough will be easy to roll out and twist into knots.

I’ve seen many different ways of forming the knots, and I don’t think your technique here matters too much. Just make sure that you twist the dough a lot before making the knot. To form the knots, I twisted each strip of dough and then held out two of my fingers and wrapped the twist twice around my fingers and then pushed the end through the hole in the middle. See the video below if you’re confused.

Be careful not to over bake these, and then the buns become dry. I baked mine for exactly 10 minutes – until the tops were golden brown and the bottoms light brown.

These are best served warm! These also freeze well, and then if you pop them back in the oven they’ll taste freshly baked again. I also sometimes simply defrost them in the microwave and then toast them.