Crazy about cinnamon

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!