Cinnamon Buns

Yesterday was Selim’s birthday! We celebrated by both having weekend shifts at the hospital. I was only there until 11pm, while he was there overnight, setting me up perfectly to make him post-birthday breakfast. Usually he’s the breakfast guy… It basically requires heavy machinery to drag me out of bed in the morning. But I always get excited for a good surprise, so out of bed I went!

I have two broad goals that I’ve been working on recently in terms of picking new recipes to try. 1) I’ve been wanting to bake more. Baking makes me nervous. You can’t taste it halfway through and adjust. Once it’s in the oven, you’re stuck with it. And 2) I’ve been wanting to make more family recipes from the family cookbook. These things, plus the fact that Selim has been eyeing the massive cinnamon buns at the farmer’s market the past few times we’ve been there, sent me to my Aunt Bobbie’s recipe for homemade cinnamon buns. All of my aunts are great chefs, but my Aunt Bobbie might win in terms of baking. She creates amazing desserts, not to mention really delicious breads and rolls. (Here’s to hoping no other aunts read this post 😉 !)

Update 11/8/16: We decided to submit this recipe to Our Growing Edge, a monthly recipe link-up. The goal of this is to encourage the participants to conquer a food-related goal. As I mentioned above, I’ve been wanting to bake more – I think I’ve made good progression towards this goal with this recipe! This month’s link-up is hosted by Alicia at Alicia’s Bits ‘n Bobs. 

Cinnamon Buns

Recipe courtesy of Ally’s Aunt Bobbie

Ingredients: 

• Dough
  • 2 packages of yeast
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/2 tsp + 1/3 cup sugar
  • 3 cups + 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
• Filling
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
• Icing
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • Several tsp warm milk

Instructions: 

1. Stir yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar into the warm water. Let sit for 5+ minutes, until the liquid begins to froth.
2. Scald the cup of milk. That is, bring it to just under a boil and then remove from heat and allow to cool.
3. Meanwhile, sift together 3 cups of flour, 1/3 cup of sugar, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer.
4. At low speed, begin adding the wet ingredients to the bowl (yeast/water, milk, oil, and eggs). Beat until well-blended.
5. Now slowly add the remaining flour while the mixer is set on low speed. You may or may not use exactly 1 1/2 additional cups – keep slowly adding until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured countertop. Knead for 5-10 minutes until elastic and smooth.
7. Place dough in a large greased bowl. Cover. Allow to rise for ~1 hour.
8. Cream together all of the filling ingredients.
9. Once the dough has risen, return it to your floured countertop. Use a rolling pin and roll out into a rectangular shape. [My aunt suggests roughly 10 x 18. I didn’t measure.]
10. Spread the filling mixture generously across all of the dough except for the very edges (leave ~1/2 inch).
11. Now roll the dough very tightly. The result will be a long log.
12. Using a large sharp knife, slice the log on the horizontal. Aim for your slices to be approximately 1 inch thick. Remove each slice to a foil-lined cookie sheet.
    • The ends of the log might not look as pretty. You can discard or gobble down the misshapen ones while no one is looking.
13. Again, let them rise – this time about 30 minutes.
14. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
15. Bake for 20 minutes. Check on them towards the end – as the edges just start to turn golden, they’re done!
16. While the buns are baking, whisk together your icing. Start with the sugar. Add the vanilla. Slowly add milk by the teaspoon until you achieve your desired consistency.
17. Drizzle icing over the buns to serve. (I think they’re also delicious sans icing, but some might think that’s sacrilege.)

Makes 12-16 cinnamon buns.