Snúðar or Cinnamon Swirls with Chocolate Icing

When we were on honeymoon in Iceland Mr VST and I discovered and extensively tested out their bakeries. They were awesome selling a lovely range of fresh locally baked cakes, savouries and breads and there was almost always a cafe in there too selling strong coffee just how the Icelanders like it.

One of our favourite items was Snúðar. It was a swirled bun with cinnamon in it and either chocolate or chocolate icing on top. 

When we came back I looked for recipes but it was difficult as I don't have the 'ð' on the keyboard. I managed to find this recipe by searching for Icelandic recipes. 

My first try at making them had a few teething problems but they were still nice. I adapted the above recipe slightly.

So first of all the ingredients are as follows:

Dough:

7g dry yeast
100 ml semi-skimmed milk (warmed in the microwave)
210g plain flour
1 tsp golden caster sugar
30g butter or margarine
1 small egg

Filling:
15g butter
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
25g raisins

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Icing:
4 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp cocoa powder
2 tsp boiling water

1.Heat the milk to 37°C (I guessed at this and just put it in the microwave for a minute or so) and dissolve the yeast in it. 

2.Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl. Crumble in the butter.

3.Add the egg and milk, mix well and knead well.

4.Set dough aside to rise for 15-20 minutes. 

5.Punch down the dough and knead again. Roll out into a rectangular shape, about 20x30 cm. 

6.Melt the butter and brush over the rolled out dough. Sprinkle over the sugar, raisins and cinnamon.  

7.Roll up into a sausage shape and cut into 10-12 slices. Arrange on a buttered cookie sheet with about an inch between them and let rise for 20-30 minutes.

8.Bake on a lower rung of the oven at 200-225°C for 10-15 minutes.

 

9.Mix the icing sugar, cocoa and water together. Pour over the icing while still warm.

I really wasn't concentrating when I made these. I forgot to knead the dough before letting it rise, forgot to put any butter in the dough, didn't let the rolls rise once I had made them and put too much water in the icing and they still turned out OK! Will be interesting to see how the next batch turn out if I manage to follow the recipe properly. Of course these weren't quite as good as the ones we had on honeymoon but they were still nice and I'll definitely be making them again.