Every Finnish boy and
girl, big or small, has the taste of kaneliässä biscuits in his or
her culinary memory. Our grandmothers and mums have been making them
for every wedding, funeral, christening, birthday and Christmas since
times immemorial. Its status as a classic is easy to understand:
what's better than butter, sugar and cinnamon? I think I've met one
person in my life who said they didn't like cinnamon. I don't
remember their name. I'm not saying there's a connection but...
Seriously speaking,
cinnamon is one of the Finns' favourite spices in pastry – not so
much in savoury food. It makes an appearance in many classic Finnish
pastries and puds. Perhaps due to its popularity, roughly once a year
an article about the dangers of cinnamon pops up. This is usually
around Christmas: some of the most traditional Finnish Christmas
pastries contain cinnamon and it's in glögi, our variation of mulled
wine. The culprit is of course coumarin, which can be harmful to the
liver if eaten in large quantities. However, ”large quantities”
would mean spoonfuls a day on a regular basis. I love cinnamon but
come on, who would eat that much with such regularity? I bake with
it, sometimes cook with it and occasionally sprinkle some in my
coffee but so far my liver seems to be working fine. And, to be
perfectly honest, if it ever keeled, I'm pretty sure cinnamon would
not be the guilty pleasure to blame, if you get my drift. Besides, if
you'd get worked up every time the authorities, health and/or fitness
experts or the media warned you about the dangers of a particular
food you'd never eat anything, or you'd eat but wouldn't enjoy it.
Finland recently topped the Nanny State Index (by London-based
Institute of Economic Affairs) as the least liberal country in the EU
in terms of food, drink and smoking. Recommendations, regulations and
taxes concerning these three product groups are the strictest within
the EU. Well, at least we came in first for once.
This questionable title
provides a nice segue to the Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira,
according to which the most common cinnamon variant imported to
Finland is Chinese cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia). Wikipedia tells me
that the same is true for the UK and the US. That baffles me a little
as when living in England I used to bring cinnamon back from Finland
because the cinnamon sold in English shops didn't taste the same to
me. Perhaps I chanced upon the less common and more expensive Ceylon
cinnamon which is milder in flavour and, incidentally, has
significantly less coumarin than any other variety.
In any case, cinnamon
is the nation's favourite and the star of these lovely buttery
biscuits. You can form them in any shape you wish but for some reason in Finland they are always in shape of the letter S, hence the name
kaneliässät, literally ”Cinnamon S's”.
KANELIÄSSÄT (CINNAMON
BISCUITS)
Ingredients
200 g butter
2 dl sugar
1 egg
4 dl wheat flour
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
Coating
¾ dl sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Beat together the
butter and sugar and then whisk in the egg. Combine the dry
ingredients and mix in with the butter & sugar with a spatula or
a wooden fork. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge
for a couple of hours.
When ready to bake, mix
the sugar and cinnamon for the coating on a plate. Then take about ¼
of the dough at a time and keep the rest waiting in the fridge. Roll
the dough on the work surface to create a bar about the same
thickness as your little finger. Cut the bar into 5-7-centimetre long
pieces. Roll the pieces in the sugar & cinnamon mix to coat them
and twist into an S shape and place on a baking tray. The biscuits
will spread quite a bit in the oven so don't place them too close
together. Bake in 200 degrees Celsius for approximately 10 minutes.
Enjoy!
