The Perfect Loaf is a column from software engineer turned bread expert (and Food52's Resident Bread Baker) Maurizio Leo. Maurizio is here to show us all things naturally leavened, enriched, yeast-risen, you name it—basically, every vehicle to slather a lot of butter on. Today, a sourdough version of Danish kanelstang.
If you’ve ever baked pain d’épi, which is a classic French baguette made to look like a stalk of wheat, you’re familiar with the charm of rolling, snipping, and twisting, yielding a baked good that livens up any dinner table. Instead of scoring the dough with a razor blade and letting it rise straight up, the bread is cut with scissors into alternating petals. The Danish kanelstang (which translates to “cinnamon stick”) has the same vibe as the pain d'épi, but just filled with sugar, butter, and warm spices. Think American-style sweet cinnamon roll with fancy French shaping—a mix of flavor and aesthetic that’s perfect for a morning or afternoon treat.