The scent of warm, aromatic cinnamon is one that instantly gets your mouth watering. Who can resist the allure of pancakes sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and lemon juice, spicy butter biscuits or fragrant cinnamon buns warm from the oven?
This culinary and medicinal spice has a long and honourable history that dates back to at least 2000BCE in Ancient Egypt – and undoubtedly well before that. In fact, long before the West discovered this fragrant spice, it was prescribed by traditional Chinese medics to warm the body and promote blood circulation. It is considered to have many health benefits, and alternative health practitioners prize cinnamon as a carminative and a vasodilator, prescribing it for indigestion, flatulence, circulation problems and high blood pressure.
THE BARK WITH BITE
True cinnamon is a very thin, smooth, pale yellow-brown bark harvested in the rainy season from the tropical Cinnamomum zeylanicum, or C. verens, plant. The stems are cut off at ground level, the outer bark is scraped off and then each stem is beaten to loosen the inner bark, which is then pulled off in long strips. These roll up into highly fragrant, layered quills when they dry. When you’re buying cinnamon sticks, look for these distinctive layers so that you don’t mistakenly settle for cassia (which is often sold as true cinnamon in supermarkets). Cassia forms a thickish tube of solid bark that has a fairly rough texture and is reddish brown.
From a culinary point of view, true cinnamon is considered superior, with a more complex, delicate and sweet flavour. If you have sourced true cinnamon quills they are soft and fine enough that you’ll be able to grind them in a spice or coffee bean grinder, or with a mortar and pestle, to make your own powdered cinnamon.
HOW TO STORE CINNAMON
Both ground cinnamon and cinnamon sticks should be stored in an airtight storage jar in a cool, dark place. Properly stored, cinnamon sticks can last for two to three years, while ground cinnamon will last for six to 12 month. When it is old, it loses flavour and aroma – taste your spices before adding them to your dish; if necessary, use more than the recipe recommends.
SINFULLY SWEET: RECIPE INSPIRATION
Cinnamon combines superbly with a vast array of sweet and savoury flavours. Ground cinnamon powder adds spicy sweetness when used in baking or sprinkled over baked fruit and hot puddings, while it infuses warm drinks like mulled wine and hot vanilla milk drinks with an exotic sweetness. Whole cinnamon sticks give a wonderful earthy flavour to savoury dishes like casseroles, tagines and curries; pop a whole cinnamon quill into the water when you are cooking rice or couscous to accompany these main dishes. Here are some of our favourite cinnamon-infused recipes.
Spice Biscuits
An excellent buttery spice biscuit recipe really is an essential element of your kitchen arsenal. Fragrant with cinnamon and just a hint of nutmeg, these Spice Biscuits are delicious for afternoon tea, fabulous with coffee, just the thing for kids’ birthday parties and they even sell like hotcakes at school cake sales. Simply arrange the little dough balls on a Rectangular Baking Sheet, press them with a fork and sprinkle them with cinnamon-and-nutmeg-flavoured sugar before baking for 10 minutes until golden brown.
Plum and Cinnamon Tart
Baked stone-fruit desserts are always a wonderful signal that summer is nigh! In this recipe, the tartness of the plums, creaminess of the custard filling and spiciness of the cinnamon come together in a flavour explosion that looks oh-so sophisticated when baked in our Fluted Flan Dish.
Caramelised Apple and Cinnamon Cake
Old-fashioned baked apple goodness combines with very modern convenience in this easy cake-cum-dessert. Caramelise quartered Granny Smith apples on the stovetop with butter, sugar and a generous spoonful of cinnamon, and then stir up a couple of NoMU breakfast muffin mixes, pop the lot into a TNS Rectangular Cake Tin, and sprinkle with butter-roasted pecan nut crumble before tucking in.
Cinnamon Buns
One-pot wonders are usually savoury, but this sweet treat made in your cast-iron casserole is a wonderfully fragrant exception. It looks unattainably professional, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised how easy it is. Instant yeast is the secret to the quick-rising dough, which is then rolled into a rectangle, brushed with sugar-water syrup, sprinkled with lashings of cinnamon and raisins, rolled into a log, sliced into individual buns and baked for just half an hour!
Coffee Zabaglione
For the grown-ups: bake this ultralight Italian-style custard dessert infused with Marsala or coffee liqueur in individual stoneware Espresso Mugs, and then serve it dusted with cinnamon to offset the exotic flavours. Dip the ultracrisp butter biscuit curls into the dessert, making sure to scoop up a good mix of cinnamon with each decadent mouthful.
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