Giant Skillet Cinnamon Bun (lighter version)
This lighter giant skillet cinnamon bun can be made with spelt or regular flour. It is layer upon layer of cinnamon goodness, but has surprisingly less fat and sugar.
This skillet cinnamon bun is off the scale delicious. The only downside is: you will have to share it.
Cinnamon buns (known as kanelbullar here in Sweden) are lovely. What’s not to like? The soft, gently fragrant dough, irresistible cinnamon butter filling and sweet drizzle of frosting. But what if you could have all that only lighter? Yes, lighter cinnamon buns. Oh my life.
This skillet cinnamon bun is huge. A giant of a bun. It has much less butter and sugar than regular cinnamon buns but lacks none of the awesomeness that is cinnamon bread.
And yes, you may be rolling your eyes wondering how many times you’ve heard that claim before, but this is no claim. This is bona fide fact, my friends.
The idea of making a monster of a giant cinnamon bun isn’t a new one. It is a little fiddly to do, I will admit, and took a couple of goes before I got it right. The first time my strips were too thick, making the bun too tall. This time around, I made the strips of dough much thinner but that meant they were harder to manoeuvre. But you know what, the little trouble it did give me was worth it in the end. So worth it.
The dough in this skillet cinnamon bun is the softest I have ever eaten on a cinnamon bun. The way it has rolled produced layers and layers of deliciousness. It was divine. Be careful though because one slice is, in reality, probably five cinnamon buns. Nah, just kidding. It’s only three.
Other recipes that include cinnamon
Cinnamon is such an amazing ingredient in both sweet and savoury food. I honestly don’t know what I would do with it. Here are a few more recipes that include the versatile spice:
- Chocolate cinnamon rolls
- Spelt cinnamon and honey cake
- Cinnamon bun sockerkaka
- Spelt cinnamon swirl bread
- Cinnamon muffins with almond streusel
Giant Spelt Skillet Cinnamon Bun (lighter version)
Ingredients
Dough:
- 250ml (1 cup) milk
- 50g (3½ tbs) butter
- 1 egg (medium)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 360g-480g (3-4 cups) spelt flour (see note 2)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp cardamom
- 7g (2¼ tsp) dried yeast (see note 3)
- 2 tsp salt
Filling:
- 1½ tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1-2 tbsp cinnamon (depending on how much you like it)
Drizzle:
- 2 tbsp milk
- just enough icing sugar to make a thick paste
Instructions
Dough (see note 1)
Bread Machine:
- Add the egg, milk, butter and vanilla to your bread machine pan.
- Then add 450g (3⅔ cups) flour and the remaining dry ingredients, taking care to keep the yeast and salt separate as much as possible.
- Set your machine to make dough.
- On a well-floured surface (the dough will be sticky) work in just as much flour as you need to make a soft, pliable, but still a little tacky, dough.
Stand Mixer:
- Gently heat the milk in the microwave until just lukewarm (around 37–40°C / 100–105°F). Stir in the butter (it will soften nicely).
- Add the milk and butter mixture to your stand mixer bowl along with the egg. Work together until everything is well mixed.
- Then add 360g (3 cups) of flour along with the remaining ingredients. Mix until combined.
- Gradually add extra flour as needed one tablespoon at a time, allowing it to incorporate fully before adding more. You may not need the full amount stated, or you could need more. Be careful not to add too much, as this will make the bread dense.
- After a few minutes, the dough will start to pull away from the sides of the bowl. You may notice your machine working a little harder (mine starts to make a clumping sound). The dough will still be sticky and will slip easily from the paddle.
- Using a spatula, scrape the dough from the paddle. Add a little more flour and continue kneading until the dough pulls completely away from the sides of the bowl and most of the bottom. It will no longer drip from the paddle but should come away easily when pulled. The dough should feel tacky, but not stick to your fingers.
- Cover the dough and leave it to proof in a warm place until it has doubled in size, usually 60–90 minutes.
- Knock back the dough on a lightly floured surface and form it into a rough ball.
Both Methods:
- Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF) and grease a small-medium skillet, or a round baking tin.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a large rectangle - around 40 x 50cm (15¾" x 19½"), keeping one of the shorter sides facing you. At this point the dough will be very elastic (which is perfect), but it means that it will bounce back a little.
Filling:
- Melt the butter.
- Combine the sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl and add to the melted butter. Give it a little stir, just to mix everything together.
Assembly:
- Dollop little bits of the filling all over the dough and spread it about fairly evenly with a knife.
- Taking a pizza slicer, cut the dough into around 8 strips of about 4-5cm (1½ - 2") thickness.
- Starting with the first strip, roll it all the way up to the top. Move it over to the start of the second strip and repeat.
- Continue to do so until you've used up all the strips of dough. It's not an easy process at all especially when your bun roll gets bigger, but it doesn't have to be perfect - mine most certainly wasn't.
- If it gets very hard to handle, just move what you've already assembled to your skillet or pan, and then wrap the remaining rolls around the outsides.
- Place on your skillet or pan, cover and let rest for around 20-30 minutes.
- Bake in the oven for around 18-20 minutes.
- Make sure it is baked through, but don't over-bake it (turn it upside down and knock on the bottom. Bread that is ready will sound hollow).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Drizzle:
- Add two tablespoons of milk to a bowl and gradually add just enough icing sugar to make a thick paste. Pour it over the giant bun, slice and enjoy!
Notes
- I have made the dough using both a stand mixer and bread machine with identical results. I have not made the dough by hand, but I see no reason why you couldn't do so!
- You can use spelt or regular flour for this recipe (just use the same amount).
- In Sweden we have something called dried yeast. It is used both in warm liquid to proof and also added directly to flour. I am aware that the US has two options for dried yeast, and I believe instant yeast is the most similar for the purpose of making this particular bread.
5 thoughts on “Giant Skillet Cinnamon Bun (lighter version)”
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I want to know where I can import to Brazil spelt floor for bakery and how much it coasts
I’ve just Googled it and it is “farinha de espelta”. I would think you would be able to but it there or if not, on Amazon!