Really like this cinnamon buns recipe from the Americas Test Kitchen Bread Illustrated cookbook. We made these on Christmas morning and have made them since for a nice Sunday breakfast. I prefer to make the dough the day before and let the buns rise in the fridge. The morning of you just have to bake and apply the icing. The day before you must allow the dough 2 1/2 hours so I usually make the dough in the evening and before bed roll out, add topping, and slice. The icing adds a lot of sweetness and makes it gooey so could be omitted but I like the whole thing together.
Makes 8 large buns.
Ingredients
dough
- 4 1/2 cups (21.25 oz) all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (2 oz) cornstarch
- 2 1/4 t instant yeast
- 1 1/2 t salt
- 3/4 cup (6 oz) whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (3.5 oz) granulated sugar
- 12 T unsalted butter (softened)
filling
- 1 1/2 cups (10.5 oz) light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 t cinnamon
- 4 T (2 oz) butter softened
glaze
- 1 1/2 cups (6 oz) confectioners sugar
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 T whole milk
- 1 t vanilla extract
Steps
dough
- whisk flour, cornstarch, yeast, salt in bowl of mixer
- in separate bowl whisk milk, eggs, sugar until sugar dissolves
- with dough hook, slowly add wet ingredients to four mixture
- mix low about 2m scraping bowl down if needed until no flour streaks
- increase to medium and add butter 1T at time and knead until dough looks elastic, about 3 more minutes
- knead by hand adding some flour for about 30s and form a ball
- put dough in oiled bowl and cover
- let rise until about doubled in size, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours
filling and rolling
- in a 13x9 baking pan, make a foil sling by folding 2 sheets of aluminum foil, spray or rub with vegetable oil
- in a bowl combine sugar, cinnamon, salt
- after dough has risen, push down to deflate
- roll out on floured surface to about 18 x 18 inch square
- sprinkle sugar mixture over dough leaving about a 1 inch border on all sides
- spread butter over mixture in small pieces
- tightly roll the dough into a cylinder
- pinch the ends and press the seam
- with a serrated knife slice cylinder into 8 pieces
- place pieces into the baking pan cut side down
- cover with plastic wrap and let rise overnight for about 12-16 hours
bake and glaze
- take rolls out of fridge about 1 hour before baking
- preheat oven to 350 F
- bake for about 35-40 minutes until the buns are turning golden brown and the filling has melted
- make glaze by whisking all confectioners sugar, cream cheese, milk, vanilla until smooth
- top buns with half of glaze, let cool for about 15-20m
- lift foil sling and add remaining glaze
- serve warm
- can keep wrapped for several days
