Happy Cinnamon Roll Day! While it’s technically only a holiday in Sweden and Finland, it’s way too sweet of an idea not to write about. Started in 1999 by a trade group of baking goods companies, the purpose is to raise awareness of Swedish baking traditions. If you’re near an Ikea, make sure to check their social media — they might be handing out free cinnamon buns.
You may be asking yourself, “Wait, cinnamon buns are a Swedish invention?” The answer is no … they just like them a lot. Nobody knows where it came from, though a likely candidate is Byzantium, now the city of Istanbul. Recipes have turned up from as far back as the 1500s, in Germany; they then spread to Scandinavia. Germans also brought them to the U.S. One thing that does differentiate the Swedish recipe is the addition of cardamom to the dough. Otherwise, it’s not all that different. Still, we’ll take any excuse to celebrate the sweet treat.
