Danish Cinnamon Twist (Kanelstang)

• servings: 10 servings
• active time: 45 minutes
• total time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

Dough:

1 oz (try 1/2oz) active dry yeast or 1/2 oz instant dry yeast - alternative to fresh yeast

1 1/4 cups milk

2 eggs

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cardamom

18 oz all-purpose flour

Cream:

1 portion vanilla cream

Filling:

200 g butter, soft

200 g brown sugar

4 tbsp ground cinnamon

Topping:

1 egg (beaten)

some sugar icing

100 g chopped hazelnuts

Directions

Dough:

Warm the milk and pour it in a large bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk. If you are using dry/active yeast, add this later together with the flour.

In the milk; add sugar, salt, cardamom, and the eggs. Stir well.

Add the flour stepwise and knead well. Continue adding flour until the dough does not stick to your fingers anymore. The same applied to dough mixed using a stand mixer.

Cover the bowl with a clean dishcloth and set aside some place warm. Let it rise for about 30 minutes.

Filling:

While the dough is rising; In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the filling. Set aside.

The Danish Cinnamon Twist (Kanelstang):

Knead the risen dough a little and divide it into two equally sized pieces.

Using a rolling pin; roll out the two dough pieces into two rectangles (35x45 cm - 12x16 inch).

Equally distribute the filling and the vanilla cream on the two rectangles. Start with the filling.

Roll the dough together into two logs.

Use a pair of scissors; snip half way through the logs and fold the dough to one side. Continue snipping and folding the dough with a distances between each snip of about 2 cm (3/4 inch). See the picture in this recipe for better understanding.

Beat an egg and brush the cinnamon twists with it. Sprinkle the twists with chopped hazelnuts.

Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F) and bake the twists one-by-one for about 10-15 minutes.

When the twists are baked and cooled off; decorate them with icing.