Cinnamon Buns

Cinnamon buns. What can I say about cinnamon buns? They are awesome. When I was little I would take a cinnamon bun and start unraveling it, eating it from the outside in. My strategy was that I would start with the fluffy, bready part, and make my way into the gooey, sweet insides. Is there really any other way?

These cinnamon buns are finger-lickin good. They take a while to make (which you can clearly tell by the lighting quality of these pictures), but they are so worth it. I’m telling you, all this snow is teaching me some baking patience, and man is it paying off.

Cinnamon Buns

adapted from The Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion

Dough

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp yeast
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp nonfat dry milk
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg plus enough water to make 1 cup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp soft unsalted butter

Filling

• 1/4 cup soft unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Icing

• 3 Tbsp heavy cream
• 1 cup powdered sugar

To make the dough, combine all of the ingredients, either by hand, or with a mixer until a smooth dough forms. Seriously, no special method with making the dough, I just dumped all the ingredients  together until I got something nice. Take the dough and put it in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until it doubles in size.

After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly greased surface and roll out into a rectangle that measures approximately 11 x 20 inches. Spread a thin layer of butter on the dough and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Roll the dough along the long edge into a log. Using a serrated knife, cut the log in half. Then cut each half in half (so you have 4 equal pieces), and then cut each piece into 3 pieces, so you end up with a total of 12 pieces.

Place the buns into a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch pan.

Cover the buns again, and let them rise for 45 minutes to an hour until they are puffy.

Bake at 375º for 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown. Let them cool for 10 minutes or so before icing.

To make the icing, mix the heavy cream and powdered sugar together to make a glaze and spread over the buns. Makes 12 buns.