Norway Memories Skillingsboller.

I'm sat on a train and there's an unexplained alarm ringing. Is it a fire alarm? Might I die? I hope not because then I wouldn't be able to tell you about these fabulous friends of mine.

They're called Skillingsboller (as in shilling bun, as in in olden times they cost a shilling) and I came across them on my recent trip to Norway. I didn't eat one myself but I saw them looking loveerly in a bakery and a travelling companion ate one and just darn instructed me to make them. 

Well as I mentioned before, I'm a bit of a fan of baking requests/instructions, so home I went to switch on the oven.

This is the sort of recipe that looks complicated and effort-ful, but it is actually veryvery simple and requires very little energy. And the end result is sweet and squishy and warmly spiced. The perfect partner for a big mug of coffee and a 'wee sit doon' (oh good heavens, it's a good job I'm spending some time south of the border). With Love and Cake.

Norwegian Skillingsboller

adapted in a round about way from Nigella's How To Be a Domestic Goddess

A few notes:

• These are definitely best eaten on the day of making, after that a quick zap in the microwave helps them along a bit.
• I started off with 300g of flour but needed to add heaps more to make a viable dough, so I'd start with 350g and be ready to add more if needs be.
• Some recipes say to nestle the buns together and bake, so you have to tear off buns from a big sheet of them, others say spread them out...you do what ever you fancy but if you go for the spread out option they'll need 5 or 10 minutes less in the oven.

Makes around 10

You will need

a baking tray, lined

For the dough

350g plain flour

50g granulated sugar

3 tsp dried yeast

50g butter

200ml milk

1 egg

For the filling

75g soft butter

75g granulated sugar

1 heaped tsp cinnamon

• First things first, pop the butter and milk into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
• This needs to be left to cool for a good 5 minutes, so meanwhile, weigh out the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl.
• Now whisk the egg into the buttery milk and pour into the bowl with the flour.
• Time to get your hands in there and bring everything together to a soft dough, adding more flour if you need.
• Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
• Pop the dough back in his bowl and leave somewhere cosy for an hour or until just about doubled in size.
• Meanwhile make the filling by mixing the butter, sugar and spice together.
• After the hour, turn the dough out onto a clean floured surface and roll to a rectange of about 40x25 cm.
• Spread over the cinnamony butter and roll up from one of the long ends like a swiss roll.
• Cut, with a nice sharp bread knife, every 2.5 cm and lay each bun, swirl side up/down onto the baking tray with a couple of cm gap between each one.
• Now leave them to rise back in the cosy place for another 15 minutes to half an hour while you preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
• When the buns have puffed up a bit, pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, until they look golden and beautiful.
• Cool for a bit but eat while still warm, as soon as possible, while pretending you're tucked up in a wood cabin next to a roaring to fire.