comfort food : emma ranne

All photography supplied by Emma Ranne

Classic Scandinavian Cardamom & Cinnamon Buns

(approx. 7 big buns)

vegan friendly recipe

The dough:
50g vegan margarine

3.5 dl (350ml) oat milk

11 g dry yeast

52 g sugar

500 g flour

10 g ground cardamom 

7 g of salt

The filling:

100 g margarine

80 g coconut sugar

5 g Ceylon cinnamon

Topping ideas:

Brushing liquid: 2 tbsp syrup + 2 tbsp soygurt + 1 tbsp hot water

pearl sugar & pumpkin seeds for decoration

1. Start by melting the margarine and oat milk in a little sauce pan. Allow to cool down to approx. 42 C (or according to the activation temperature of your dry yeast). If you don’t have a thermometer you want to aim for something that feels slightly warmer than your hand temperature. Mix in the dry yeast and allow to dissolve.

2. Open and grind the seeds from your cardamom pods with a pestle and mortar. This takes some patience and arm power. If you have to wait for the margarine and oat milk to cool down, you can do this meanwhile. Alternatively you can swap the pods for ground cardamom.

3. Mix the margarine and oat milk mixture, cardamom, sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl. Add the flour little by little and knead for about 10 minutes. If you have a Kitchen Aid or similar device with dough hook, you can use this to work the dough.

4. Cover the dough with a clean tea towel and allow it to rest for one hour. It should approx. double in size. Meanwhile prepare your filling by combining the margarine, coconut sugar and cinnamon. I like to do this with a hand blender.

5. Roll out your dough and shape it into a rectangular shape. Add the filling spreading it out using a spatula. Fold the dough, cut it and shape it into buns. For instructions I recommend googling ’’kanelsnurrer’’ for inspiration. I also have a highlight with instructions on @nordicsunbeams

6.Place on a baking sheet and allow to rest for another 40 minutes under a tea towel. Before baking brush the buns with the syrup and yogurt mixture and decorate with pearl sugar and seeds.

7. Bake for approx. 10 minutes at 200 C.

Could you share a little about yourself?

My name is Emma and I am from Helsinki, Finland which is currently also my home. Even though both my parents are from Finland I grew up in the Netherlands which I consider my second home. 

I recently started my final year of marketing studies at university and am currently working on my Master’s thesis in which I am looking into fashion libraries. I am very interested in learning about marketing and communications in the context of sustainable consumption. 

Besides studying I work in E-commerce which has been an amazing learning journey in terms of practical marketing skills such as SEO, social media advertising, (very) basic coding and other useful tricks they don’t really teach us at school.

Creativity has been present in my life as long as I can remember and it is something that brings me a lot of joy. At the moment it’s time spent in the kitchen when I feel the most creative. Trying out new recipes, experimenting with flavour combinations and have fun with plating the food is one of my favorite ways to empty my brain. 

A couple of years ago I started to share my food on Instagram and that’s how @nordicsunbeams was born. It’s become a little creative project through which has given me so much ranging from endless kitchen inspiration to some of my closest friends. 

Where do you draw your inspiration for your recipes from?

There’s so many sources to draw ideas from: restaurant menus, cookbooks, seasonal produce, podcasts, Instagram, memories, conversations, markets or even just the grocery store. I tend to especially pay attention to flavour combinations and keep a long list in my phone notes of pairings I’d like to try out. 

You also run a beautiful dinner experience called 'Helsinki Supper Club' - could you share a little about this?

A couple of years ago I got a weird 23 pm idea to organize a dinner party for followers of nordicsunbeams. I asked in my stories if anyone would be keen to join, and a couple of weeks later I found myself at my kitchen table together with five girls from Helsinki that I had never met before. These same girls have since become some of my best friends. That random 23 pm thought was maybe one of my best thoughts yet.

I’ve been organizing a couple of smaller dinner and breakfast gatherings for followers, limited by the size of my tiny dining table. This spring me and my boyfriend, who’s also very passionate about food, came up with the idea of making the supper club more of a thing. The idea is to invite people to our home to enjoy a home-cooked meal while meeting new people. After our first event lockdown happened, but I hope we get to organize something again soon.

Connect with Emma and many more recipes - @nordicsunbeams

Helsinki Supper Club