Kanelbulledagen

October 4 was Kanelbulledagen. (translation: Cinnamon Bun Day)

A day to celebrate and pay homage to warm, sweet, baked goodness? Why the heck not. Mark it on your calendar for next year, people.

My lovely sister-in-law gave me a heads-up on this. And lucky for me, because I might have passed right by the posters and bakery windows topped up with cinnamon buns without quite having figured it out. While Swedish cinnamon buns have been a tradition dating back to the 1920s, its namesake day was created  in 1999 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sweden's Hembakningsrådet (Home Baking Council). 

A little more online searching reveals that Hembakningsrådet was formed in 1949 by several Swedish food companies that produced flour, yeast, margarine and sugar. So in truth, my excitement about Kanelbulledagen is the perfect consumer response to a crafted promotional and marketing endeavor. But it would seem most of the Swedes and Swedish bakeries share my enthusiasm for Kanelbulledagen, since it's been 13 years since inception and going strong.

Throughout the day the bakeries, and supermarkets, churn out batches of the cheerful little brown, coiled buns. The best Swedish kanelbulle is in my opinion a bread roll that is firm but tender, sweet and a little buttery (without being goopey, toothache-inducing sugary), cinnamon with hints of cardamon, and the little pop and crunch of the requisite pearl sugar sprinkle. Another good thing about Kanelbulledagen - the prices are lower!

So on October 4, after running errands in Lund I made a point of joining the rest of Sweden by swinging by Ramklints Conditori, getting in line and scooping up my share of the warm rolls. At home, we warmed them up and served with tea, especially delicious with the cool autumn weather outside.

...

Since arriving in Sweden, I've been obsessively trying out local cinnamon rolls in search of the perfect creation. Below are my three favorites ... thus far.

Kanelbulle from Lund's Stadsbibliotek (City Library). Most libraries here have a
cafe of some sort tucked away in the building. It's a great idea: to take a break
from studying or to read your library treasures with a coffee and snack. 
Lund's main library makes their own kanelbulle, which the counterlady 
boasted were the best around, and she wasn't far off. Quite buttery
and soft, but delicious flavors, and what I imagine a 
Swedish grandma would serve up.

Impressively decorated chocolate balls

are also offered up at Stadsbibliotek. 

Delectable Danishes at the Stadsbibliotek. Chatting with my mother, 
I mused that the kanelbulle is to Sweden as the Danish is to Denmark.
She asked what the Danes call Danishes ... good question. They call it
weinerbrød, or Viennese bread! Yep, that's right - read it here.

My number one favorite kanelbulle can be found at Vendel Bakery
in Malmö. Great texture with the perfect blend of cinnamon and 
sweetness, organic, and big (that's the American in me, 
I want a good-sized kanelbulle for my 25 crowns).

Vendel Bakery storefront: a modest entryway at street level,
from which you walk down a few steps into ...

... a basement bakery. So cozy and warm inside, and such intoxicating
smells wafting out of the back room. It's a good remedy when I'm
missing Arizmendi Bakery in the Bay Area.

Vendel's cardamon rolls are exceptional too. Both are addictive.

Some of you might recall an earlier posting about Ramklints, in which I tried 
the kanelbulle. This time around the sampling was much more satisfying,
whether because of the freshness or my enthusiasm I can't say. No matter.

Ramklints actually had a poster addressing the cinnamon bun 
in the first person! "We love you, Cinnamon Bun."

Ruby loves you too, Cinnamon Bun!

Weathervanes and more

Several weekends ago, my mother-in-law invited us to the annual community fair in her Lund neighborhood. The big draw for us was that there would be pony rides offered! Ruby is right smack in her horsemania phase.

So despite the cold and drizzle, which doesn't stop the Swedes from getting out and enjoying a spring day, we headed out and had a great time. It was part garage sale, part small-town talent show, and part community outreach all rolled into one. We especially enjoyed the Cirkusvagn - a gypsy-like trailer that appears at local events and provides free art activities! It's run by two fellows from Uruguay and volunteers. The project was weathervanes made from wood stakes, recycled plastic and paint. Ruby and Roger teamed up and with some thought and great concentration painted a cheerful vane that now proudly spins and rotates in my father-in-law's garden.

I was really enthused by the ingenious idea to use liter soda bottles (just the bottom) to create the weathervane's propellor. Jen Ewing, I was thinking of you and all those plastic bottles - maybe vehicles of flight will be next?  My friend, Jen, creates beautiful and whimsical boats out of plastic bottles, and other fun materials. You can check out her work here.

Other things that were fun - the local police and fire departments had vehicles and staff out to mingle with the neighbors. Lund's public servants were super nice; and the burly firefighter in the photo below that looks like he just rolled out of bed, was so genial despite the language barrier. For some reason, it just tickled me that the police officers and firefighters were having a good time passing out take-aways and letting kids crawl all over their vehicles. I guess it seems so long since I've seen the San Francisco police or fire departments represented at any community events. I'm sure lack of funds and overworked staff move community events down on the priority list, but a little goes a long way in developing good relations I think.

Local artists, crafters, musicians were in attendance as well. I was particulary intrigued by a display of frivoliteter, "tatting" in English, which I'd never heard of before. It's an European craft of knotting and looping thread into intricate, lacy designs. Seems so detailed and miniature - what I imagine blind, Belgian nuns laboring at in their convents hundreds of years ago. As if knitting isn't frustrating enough to me.

All in all it was a good day. Despite the fact that the pony cancelled its appearance because of the rain.

NY Times visits Sweden!

My cousin, Debi, let me know about this slideshow that appeared on the New York Times website today! I love the NYT, good writing, great photos. The slideshow from the travel section gives a little flavor of Malmö, Sweden's third largest city and about a 20-minute drive from Staffanstorp. Malmö is a port city, culturally diverse and lots of folks commuting from Copenhagen (see Photo 1, the Öresund Bridge which links Denmark & Sweden). It definitely has more of an urban, cosmopolitan feel to it, which is a nice counterpoint to my days in Staffanstorp.


Out of curiosity, I searched the NYT for articles on Lund which is another city in close proximity to Staffanstorp. If you'll recall, I mentioned Lund in an earlier post, home to Ramklints Conditori. I love Lund -- the cobblestones, the soot-stained cathedral, the quaint homes and buildings, and the diversity and energy that hovers around the university. It's one of the oldest cities in Sweden, founded roughly a thousand years ago, and as an American I am intrigued whenever I walk through Lund and notice the constant reminders of its age and history. 


Two NYT links below came up for Lund, again from the travel section dated September 2011: one is a slideshow,* and the other the accompanying article. 

Lund Cathedral's clock

* Photo 7 - The astronomical clock in the Lund Cathedral, Lunds Domkrycka, is pretty fantastical! I remember doing my tourist pilgrimage here years ago - sitting in the cool, dim interior of the church, so quiet and subdued, waiting for noon to strike so the little moving figures would come out and play music. Then at 11:50, a busload of tourists came roving through and blocked my view. It was a little irritating, but comical in retrospect.

*Photo 15 - Roger says this eatery Bulong, translation is "bouillon," is fairly new. He ate there last year and mentioned that the soup was OK, but the owner was really nice and chatty - kind of the opposite of the Seinfeld soup nazi. I love soup and the idea of a soup bar! I'm eager to try out the offerings.

Ramklints Konditori

Running errands in downtown Lund last week, I was craving coffee and a sweet snack, and got it into my head that I really wanted to have a traditional Swedish cinnamon roll, or kanelbulle. Roger suggested Ramklints Conditori, a pastry shop and bakery that's been around since the 1930s.

When we came upon the shop windows, I was enthralled. It's the kind of place I imagine seniors love, somewhere sunny and clean, that although contemporary has enough of the past still attached to it - forest green, velvet seat cushions with Ikea curtains. To me it felt like European café and bakery melded with American diner ambiance. 

The cakes and pastries, traditional as they were, to me seemed so fanciful and lovely! I had my kanelbulle which I have to say was good, but not as tasty as how I remember Roger's Aunt Gunvor's homemade ones. Ruby was in heaven with her chokladbolle, a chocolate ball consisting of cocoa powder, butter, sugar and oats. FYI, Ikea offers both of these treats (albeit sadder and poorer specimens).

That's spettekaka, or "skewer cake", on the left. It has the 
texture of a meringue cookie, and is a specialty of Skåne.

Ruby was all eyes and drool upon entering the bakery.

The traditional Swedish Princess Cake in all its green and pink marzipan glory!

Apparently that creation in the foreground is not traditional -
but clearly an homage to Swedish national pride.

The difficult choices that one faces in life ...

...are tempered by living life fully and with no regrets.