Korvapuustit - Finnish Cinnamon Buns

This is the best recipe I have for Finnish Cinnamon Rolls / Cinnamon Buns. These are most commonly eaten with afternoon coffee, which Finns typically drink around 2 pm (lunch is at 11 am - noon), but they can be of course be enjoyed at any time of the day, e.g. at breakfast, with 5 o'clock tea, or as a snack with fresh milk.

I write this one in English for my non-Finnish speaking friends. Finnish friends will find a recipe anywhere. :-)

This is the second recipe I write in English, and I mostly read Finnish or French cookbooks, thus please notify me if there's something really strange e.g. in the vocabulary.

 Finnish Cinnamon buns
~32 buns, 3 hours, active cooking time 1 hour

Ingredients

Dough

• 5 dl (2.1 cups) milk
• 1 egg
• 2 dl (0.85 cups) sugar 
• 1 tablespoon ground cardamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 22 g dry yeast or 50 g fresh yeast
• 13-15 dl (5-650 g) wheat flour
• 150 g butter (softened in room temperature or in microwave - not liquid, though)

Filling

• 100 g butter (softened in room temperature) 
• ~1 dl (0,4 cups) sugar
• cinnamon

On top

• 1 egg
• pearl sugar (optional)

Instructions

If using fresh yeast:

1. Warm up the milk to ~37 degrees Celcius, and mix the yeast into it in a large, preferrably round bowl.
2. Add the egg, sugar, salt and cardamon and mix.
3. Add some flour, and mix using a whisk, to get some air into the dough. Continue adding flour until using a whisk is impossible. Then switch to kneading the dough with your hand, adding flour ~1 dl (~1/2 cup) at the time.
4. When the dough is more dense, but still attaches to the bowl, add the soft butter. After kneading the butter into the dough, continue adding flour and kneading, until the dough is easily removed from your hands and from the bowl.
5. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth, and leave it to a warm place for roughly 40 minutes. It should at least double in volume during that time.
6. Knead the dough to remove air bubbles, and divide it in two. Spread some flour on a clean table, and roll the pieces into rectangles of roughly 30x60 cm in size. Spread the butter on top, then add sugar and sprinkle cardamon.
7. Roll the rectangles into long rolls (60 cm long). Leave the free end under the roll. Cut into trapezoids with the shorter side being ~2 cm, and longer side 4-5 cm long. 
8. Place the rolls upright on a baking tray covered with parchment paper, a with the 2 cm long side on top, and press with your finger, to make them flat. Leave some space between the rolls, they will expand!
9. Cover the rolls with a clean cloth and leave them for roughly 30 min to a warm place.
10. Heat the oven to 200-225 degrees Celcius.
11. Mix the egg white & yellow, use a brush to spread it on top of the buns. If you have pearl sugar, use it to decorate the buns.
12. Bake one tray at the time for 10-15 minutes in the middle level of the oven, until the buns get some brown colour.
13. These are best when fresh, but also ok if stored e.g. in a plastic bag and eaten the next day. You can also freeze the buns, unfreeze them in room temperature and heat a little bit in the oven just before eating.

If using dry yeast,

1. Warm up the milk to 40 degree and pour it into a large, preferrably round bowl. Add the egg, salt, sugar and cardamon and mix.
2. Mix the yeast into some flour and add it to the milk.
3. See steps 3-13 above.

The buns before baking in the oven:

The following pictures have nothing to do with the buns, except that all these pictures were taken in October this year. We had a really beautiful October with the sun shining on most days, so I just wanted to put them here in the middle of the November darkness!

White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberries

Welcome to the first English post in my "Career Mum's Everyday Cooking" blog. I will mostly continue to write in Finnish, but did an English version of this Cheesecake recipe to enable both my English speaking friends, as well as the followers of Elisabet52 Pinterest site to bake this delicious cake.

My son turned two years old last week, this was his birthday cake.

White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberries
20 cm/8 inch springform pan, 8-10 portions. Cooking time 1 h 30 min, active time 40 min

Ingredients
For the bottom and sides

• 200 g/7 ounce Digestive biscuits
• 150 g/5,3 ounce butter

Cheese mixture

• 400 g/14 ounce cream cheese
• 250 g/9 ounce quark
• 1 dl/0,4 cups milk
• 0,6 dl/0,25 cups potato flour
• 200 g/7 ounce white chocolate
• 2 dl/1 cup fresh raspberries
• 0,5 dl/0,2 cups white sugar

On the top

• 2 dl/1 cup fresh raspberries
• icing sugar

Instructions

1. Cut a piece of parchment paper of the size of the bottom of the springform pan and place it on the bottom. Spread some melted butter on the sides of the pan.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 175 celcius/350 Fahrenheit.
3. Using a blender or a food processor, finely chop the Digestive biscuits. Mix with the melted butter. Apply to the bottom and sides of the pan.
4. Prepare the cheese mixture. Soften the cream cheese with a mixer. Add the quark. Add the milk eggs and sugar, while mixing all the time.
5. Melt the white chocolate and add it to the mixture. Add the potato flour through a sieve, while mixing all the time. Finally, add the raspberries.
6. Pour the mixture in the pan. Bake in the oven for approximately 50 min, until the cake has obtained a beautiful colour.
7. Wait until the cake has cooled down. Remove it from the pan, and add the raspberries and icing sugar on the top. Use a sieve with the icing sugar.
8. Enjoy!

My son enjoyed the cake as well, although he started by eating all the raspberries.