Bake it yourself: The perfect Fall Dessert Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Buns

For a second close your eyes. OK, never mind, wait until you've finished this sentence and then close your eyes and imagine sticky, sweet warm Cinnamon Buns.

OK now that I’ve spoilt any idea of eating anything but cinnamon buns for you, I’ll tell you how this recipe happened. I got a carb craving. These tend to happen when I haven’t eaten supper yet because I am waiting for Kai to come home from work. This craving was different and not just any carbs would do. I wanted bread but it had to be sweet. This caused my quest to find the perfect cinnamon bun recipe.

I turned first to “The Joy of Cooking”. I thought that since it was a classic cookbook, it would be just what I needed to rid my mind of the cinnamon bun torment. Alas, this did not end my suffering. I found the cinnamon bun recipe just wasn’t what I was looking for.

After many tries and many different ways to many buns, I have cobbled together a recipe that I think is perfect. The bread was inspired by Flo Braker’s Lemon Scented Pull Apart Coffee Cake from Baking for all Occasions.  The filling is straight from Michael Smith’s Cinnamon Bun Recipe.

So enough talking, here’s the recipe.

Cinnamon Buns (Makes 9 Buns)

Ingredients:

Dough

Yeast Mixture
2 1/4 tsp. Quick Rise Yeast
1tsp. Sugar
1/4 cup Warm Water (The hottest your tap goes will be fine)

Dry Ingredients
3 cups All Purpose Flour (I use unbleached but either works)
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt

Wet Ingredients
1/4 cup or 4 tbls. Butter (Melted)
1/3 cup milk
2 Large Eggs
1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Filling

1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup or 8 tbls. Salted Butter
2 tbls. Cinnamon


The first thing you’re going to want to do is take your butter for the filling out of the fridge this way by the time you need it, it will be room temperature and WAY easier to work with.

Next you need to assemble your yeast mixture. To do this mix the Yeast, 1 tsp. Sugar, and warm water in a bowl and let it sit for ten minutes. Afterwards it should look like the above picture, all puffy.

While you’re letting the yeast rise, you can assemble the dough’s dry ingredients. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (use your biggest bowl for this step) and make a well or dip in the centre (to put your wet ingredients in).

To prepare your wet ingredients you’re first going to melt your butter and warm up your milk in a separate bowl. You can do this over the stove in a pot but to avoid the burning risk it is also possible to warm in the microwave (which is what I prefer). Pour your butter mixture into the well in your dry ingredients. To lessen the dishes, crack and mix your eggs in the butter bowl and then add them to the well before finally adding the vanilla. 

Hopefully by this point it’s taken ten minutes and your yeast is all puffy. Add the yeast mixture to the well and mix the wet and dry together. After a while you’re going to start to knead the mixture by hand. The wet and dry ingredients will incorporate into a dough after a few minutes (don’t worry I promise it will even if it seems impossible at first). By kneading in the bowl you save yourself a tonne of clean up. Let the dough sit in a warm place for one hour until it has doubled in size.

Meanwhile, you can make the filling. It’s as easy as creaming together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

Now you’re going to preheat your oven to 350º F.

Roll your dough into an oblong shape like the picture above (about 2 feet by 1 foot but it doesn’t have to be precise).

Spread your filling onto the shape getting as close to the edges as possible. I used a butter knife for obvious reasons.

You will then need to roll the dough like the picture above.

Next you need to cut the ends of the dough off as they wont be even, like the rest of the buns, and then cut the dough into nine even rolls.

Place the rolls like pictured in a foil lined 8’ by 8’ baking pan.
Bake your rolls for about 35 minutes until they are golden and cooked through. Let the rolls cool and enjoy your ooey gooey indulgence.

I was thinking next time I might do lemon flavoured buns or maybe something savoury. What kind of swirly bun combinations would you like to try? Happy Bun Making!

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