Giant Spelt Skillet Cinnamon Bun (lighter version)

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 spelt 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.

If you are reading this, chances are that you are also looking for ways to incorporate more spelt into your life. You may already know all about its amazing qualities but if not, have a read of this informative article from Medical News Today.

Spelt makes beautiful bread, delicious cookies, gooey brownies, soft cakes. You name it, really.

The idea of making a monster of a giant cinnamon bun isn’t a new one. I sat drooling watching this video from Tasty and wanted to create a similar effect. Although the method of cutting the dough into strips and rolling it up is theirs, the recipe and ingredients are mine and bear no real resemblance.

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 the same thickness as those  in the video, but I found it made 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 spelt 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.

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Giant Spelt Skillet Cinnamon Bun (lighter version)

This giant spelt skillet cinnamon bun is the best cinnamon roll I have ever tasted. Super soft bread machine spelt flour dough with less sugar and fat.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Swedish

Keyword Spelt Cinnamon Bun

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Proofing/machine 2 hours 30 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

Dough:

• 1 egg
• 250ml milk
• 50g butter
• 400g spelt flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cardamom
• 7g dried yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt

Filling:

• 1½ tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1-2 tablespoon cinnamon (depending on how much you like it)

Drizzle:

• 2 tablespoons milk
• just enough icing sugar to make a thick paste

Instructions

• Add all ingredients for the dough to your bread machine and make the dough as per manufacturer's instructions. 
• When the dough is ready, pre-heat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF) and grease a small-medium skillet.
• Heat the butter and set to one side. Take the dough from the machine (it is very sticky) and quickly knead for around 30 seconds on a well-floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a large rectangle (around 40x50cm) with one of the shorter sides facing you (you will need to work the dough hard as it will be so elastic it will fight you every step of the way - that's a good sign).
• Mix the sugar, vanilla sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon together in a bowl and add the melted butter. Mix to combine. Dollop little bits of the filling all over the dough and spread it about with a knife (there will not be enough to fill every inch of the dough but you don't need it to). If you love cinnamon, sprinkle a further 1 tablespoon over the gaps not covered by the filling.
• Taking a pizza slicer, cut the dough into around 8 strips of about 4-5cm 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 you are unsure what I mean with these instructions, take a peek at the video link above.
• Place on the skillet, cover and let rest for around 20-30 minutes. Then bake in the oven for around 18-20 minutes. Make sure it is baked but don't over-bake it. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
• For the 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.