Here’s a very good standard cinnamon bun recipe with a yeasted enriched dough.  It’s easy once you get a feel for the dough. So read through all the instructions, and have a look at the pictures.  There are 2 rising stages so factor that in: 45 minutes each (at least).  So plan accordingly.  Undercooking these would be a sin so make sure you pay attention to what your buns are doing. They should be golden, risen and not gummy where they attach to other buns. Practice makes perfect, and this dough is  delight to work with so it’s fun to learn to be an expert Cinnamon Bun creator.

Makes one pan 9 x 13 of cinnamon buns,  9 large buns

This  cinnamon bun dough recipe is adapted from Food Swings by Jessica Seinfeld

Dough ingredients:  STEP ONE

1/2 cup butter

1 cup milk

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp quick-rise instant yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

Dough instructions:

Warm the milk and butter together in a small saucepan until the butter melts and the milk is lukewarm.  Pour into the bowl of your mixer. Mix together flour, sugar, salt, yeast in a bowl, and add that to your milk mixture. With dough hook attachment, mix  together until rough and combined, then add in eggs and continue to mix until a smooth dough forms.  Continue to mix for 3-5 minutes.

*you can mix this by hand in a large bowl — once your dough comes together, put on a floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes.

Lightly grease a large bowl with oil , place dough in bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Place in a warm place for about 45 minutes – 1 hour to rise until about doubled in size.  If you’re in Canada and it’s winter, a warm place can be hard to find, so I turn my oven on for a few minutes then turn it off, and rise my dough in the slightly warm oven. (so you aren’t waiting around forever).

place kneaded dough into greased bowl, then let rise in warm place for 45 minutes or until doubled

look how nice your dough is when doubled

STEP TWO

Cinnamon bun filling:

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Mix together.

STEP THREE

When your dough has doubled in size,  pour it out onto a floured surface. Roll it out to a large rectangle about  1 cm thick. Treat it with care and not too intense.  Spread with filling. With long side towards you, roll up dough. Slice into equal width rolls — my log was 21 inches so I got 9 rolls about 2.5 inches wide.   Place rolls into greased 9 x 13 pan and cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 45 minutes until doubled in size.  (You can at this point put them in the fridge, and bake in morning- increase baking time by about 5 minutes or so.)

spread filling after rolling out dough

Preheat oven to 375 F, bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.  Spread with glaze after cooling for a few minutes. (Glaze: 1 cup icing sugar, 2 tbsp milk, 1 tsp vanilla).

STEP FOUR

Serve and enjoy. Mange!

You can make them without all the pecan/caramel – still awesome