Hey! Nice (Cinnamon) Buns!

Cinnamon buns…can you think of a GREATER bun?! The answer is no! Sweet, soft and oh so gooey! They are the perfect breakfast, lunch or dinner! This recipe has a delicious layer of “goo” aka caramel on top (some might call it a sticky bun!), but if you are more of a cinnamon bun with icing type of person, omit the goo and top with your favourite icing instead.

Yield: 12 buns (or you can make 8 ginormous buns)

Ideally use a 9”x13” pan but you can probably use 2 pie pans if you don’t have one

Dough:

• 3 cups All purpose flour

• 1/4 cup milk powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 2 teaspoons or 1 packet Instant Yeast

• 2 Tablespoons Sugar

• 1 1/4 cup milk, warm to the touch but not boiling

• 1 egg

• 1/4 cup butter, melted

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, place the milk, egg and melted butter.

2. In another bowl toss together the flour, milk powder, salt, yeast and sugar just to combine.

3. Pour the dry ingredients on top of the liquid ingredients in the mixer bowl and then mix using the dough hook attachment for 5-10 minutes, or until the dough forms a smooth ball. The dough will still be a little sticky.

4. Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover. Let rest at room temperature for about 1 hour or until doubled.

Goo:

• 1/3 cup butter

• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar

• 1/2 cup Corn syrup, honey OR maple syrup

• 1/4 cup heavy cream (if you don’t have cream, omit this and increase your butter to 1/2 cup)

• pinch of salt

1. Combine all the ingredients: butter, brown sugar, syrup, cream and salt in a small pot.

2. Bring to a boil while stirring, basically we are melting the butter and sugar together, so you don’t need to cook it very much. You can also do this in the microwave if you prefer.

3. Pour the goo into a greased 9”x13” pan and set it to the side until your dough is ready.

Filling/Assembly:

• 1/3 cup - 1/2 cup Butter, very soft basically you want it to be the texture of mayonnaise, so almost melted

• 3/4 cup - 1 cup Brown sugar

• 1-2 Tablespoons Cinnamon

• 1/2 cup Add-in (optional): toasted pecans, toasted walnuts, raisins, chocolate chips, OR dried fruits

1. Once your dough has doubled in size place it onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a rough rectangle shape. Then roll out into a large rectangle using a rolling pin or wine bottle, whatever you’ve got on hand! Since we are making 12 buns, make sure your rectangle is at least 12” wide, but if it gets a bit longer that is no problem. Mine probably was about 15”x9” in the end.

2. Smear your super soft butter all over your rectangle but leave a strip about 1” wide across the top edge without any butter. This strip is going to be the end edge of our roll which we will use to stick the dough to itself and seal the log.

3. On top of the butter sprinkle a nice even layer of brown sugar all over, depending on the size of your rectangle you might need a little more sugar, or a little less, but as long as it’s nicely covered you are set, the measurements for the filling are more by feel, so if you have leftover don’t worry!

4. Next, sprinkle the cinnamon all over the sugar to your liking. If you are putting any add-ins into your cinnamon buns, you can sprinkle them all over the cinnamon sugar layer now as well.

5. Now time to roll! Starting at the edge closest to you, move from one side to the other, rolling the dough on top of itself, tucking in the dough into the layer of cinnamon sugar, until you reach the top edge that doesn’t have any butter on it. Your dough should look like a big wormie and be lying on top of the un-buttered strip of dough.

6. For ease, I like to roll my wormie over so the edge of the dough is on top, then you want to seal the dough together by pinching it all the way from one side to the other so it won’t unravel when we cut it.

7. Now using your sharpest knife cut the wormie into 12 even-ish pieces. The easiest way for me to do this is to cut the wormie in half, then you will have 2 pieces. Now, take each of those pieces and cut them in half, so now you should have 4 even-ish pieces. Then cut each of those 4 pieces into thirds. Viola! 12 even-ish pieces!

8. Now grab your pan that has the goo at the bottom (or if you don’t want goo, just make sure your pan is very well greased, or lined with greased parchment). Place your buns cut side down in the goo into the pan, in a 4 across and 3 down pattern.

9. Cover the pan and let sit at room temperature until doubled and starting to reach the top edge of the pan, about 1 hour. If you want to serve these for breakfast, make your buns the day before, then cover them and place into the fridge overnight. In the morning, take your buns out about 2 hours before baking so they can come up to room temperature and then continue to proof so they are doubled and reaching the top edge of the pan.

10. While your buns are rising, pre-heat your oven to 350*F.

11. When your buns have doubled, pop the pan onto a cookie tray (this is purely to catch caramel drips from falling into your oven which would be the worst to clean…speaking from personal experience) and then place the pan with cookie tray into the middle of the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and sounding hollow when you tap on the dough.

12. Let the pan sit for about 5 minutes at room temperature so it’s not boiling and then using oven mitts and being EXTREMELY careful, place a baking tray or a large platter (something that is larger than your cinnamon bun pan so it can catch the caramel) on top of the cinnamon buns, and flip them over and remove the baking pan. All your buns and delicious caramel should pour out onto the baking tray/platter, but if there are a few stragglers, just grab a spatula and scrape them out.

13. Now time to devour these delicious babies! Best served warm!