Chai Tea-Spiced Cinnamon Buns

A Swedish favourite, baked American-style, with a layer of lemon frosting on top.

Words by Sophie Miskiw. Photography by Johan Ståhlberg. Recipe by David Sandberg.

“I was inspired by that Fall feeling, the kind of weather when it’s raining and windy outside and you curl up underneath a blanket with a cup of tea.”

What you need

Dough

300g Milk 8 Sachets of Chai tea 30g Compound yeast 450g Flour 1 Egg 3g Salt 5g Cardamom 90g Caster sugar 100g Butter (room temperature)

Filling

60g Caster sugar 60g Brown sugar 15g Cinnamon
150g Butter (room temperature) 1 Egg (for brushing the buns)

Frosting

60g Butter (room temperature) 130g Icing sugar 150g Cream cheese 1 tbsp Lemon juice 0,5 tbsp Vanilla sugar

How to make them

Dough

  1. Pour the milk in a pot and add the sachets of Chai tea. Let it simmer for 10 minutes, remove the sachets and place the pot to one side
  1. Crumble the yeast in a bowl
  1. Weigh out 200g of the Chai-infused milk
  1. When the milk is at around 30-35 degrees C, pour it on top of the yeast. Stir until the yeast is dissolved
  1. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the butter) and start kneading in a stand mixer with a hook on low speed. When the dough is combined increase the speed to a medium and start adding the butter a little at a time
  1. Let it knead for about 10 minutes and after that check to see that the gluten is developed with a window pane test (roll the dough in your hand and slowly stretch it out, if you are able to get it so thin that you can see through it without it breaking, it’s ready)
  1. When it’s done, put a towel on top of the dough and let it proof for 20 minutes
  1. Grease the sides of an oven-safe tin (around 37x25cm) with butter. Line the base of the tin with baking paper

Filling

  1. Mix all the ingredients for the filling
  1. Roll out the dough to a square of 50x30 cm
  1. Spread out the filling and roll from the far end
  1. Cut the roll in 15 equal parts
  1. Put the pieces in the tin with equal spacing between them, cover and let rise until they double in size, about 1-1,5 hours
  1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
  1. Brush the buns with the egg and bake in the middle of the oven for about 25-30 minutes.
  1. Let the buns cool down

Frosting

  1. Whisk together all the ingredients in a bowl
  1. Spread the frosting on top of each bun
  1. Enjoy!

David Sandberg is a Gothenburg-based pastry chef who in 2017 appeared on the Swedish baking program Hela Sverige Bakar. He worked as an auditor but decided to follow his passion for baking in 2019 when he began to study at the Culinary Arts Academy in Switzerland. Now he works as an auditor again but bakes on the side. The dream is to be able to run his own baking business.