Cinnamon Buns
Monday September 26, 2011
I may in fact be the queen of procrastination.
Time to clean my room? How about I spend the entire day contemplating what to make for dinner instead?
Don’t you think its time I started those NINE term papers/lit reviews I have to do this semester? OH OH I have a better idea! Lets make cinnamon buns!
So that is what I did this weekend. I made cinnamon buns. Lovely, delicious, cinnamon-y cinnamon buns.
Recipe: Cinnamon Buns
Inspired By:Smitten Kitchen's recipe for cinnamon bunsMakes ~16
Ingredients:
Dough:
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/3 cup melted butter or margarine
1 tsp salt
Filling:
1/4 cup softened butter or margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
Frosting/Glaze:
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 brick cream cheese
2 tbsp milk (or enough to thin out slightly)
(combine ingredients and beat until smooth)
Method:Combine margarine and milk and heat until warm (~1100F). Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add 1 cup flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, yeast, egg and salt and mix for 3 min scraping down the sides as necessary. Add the rest of the flour and mix until dough forms a rough ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Stand Mixer: Fit the mixer with a dough hook and knead for 5 minutes on low. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes before mixing again for 2 minutes.
By Hand: Empty onto a lightly floured counter and coat hands with vegetable oil. Knead the dough for 8 min or until smooth and elastic (add small amounts of flour if sticky).
Form into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl. Toss to coat, cover with plastic wrap and a towl and set in a warm, dry place to double in size (1.5-2 hrs).
Deflate the dough and empty onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll dough out into a 11x15 inch rectangle. Spread 1/4 cup softened butter/margarine evenly onto the dough leaving a 1/4 inch border. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon.
Prepare 2 baking sheets with silpats or grease 2 9x13 inch pyrexs. Starting with the long side, roll the dough up into a long log. Cut the log into 1/2-3/4 inch slices (~18 buns) and arrange buns cut side down on prepared pans/sheets.
If using a pyrex you can fit ~12 per pyrex. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for ~45-60 min. This will result in cinnamon buns that you can pull apart from eachother.
If using baking sheets, fit as many as you can per baking sheet but make sure to leave ~2 inches between each one so that as they rise they will not touch eachother. This way your buns will be more fluffy and reach their full potential size.
Preheat oven to 3750F and bake buns for 16-20 min or until golden brown. Invert immediately onto a wire rack to cool before glazing as desired (if you want more of a frosting than a glaze you can use a cream cheese frosting to slather on top of the cinnamon buns).
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