Cinnamon Buns

My first encounter in making cinnamon buns was in grade 7 cooking class. That's pretty much the only thing I remember making in that class (is that good or bad?). Anyways, I still love making them as they are just so so ooey, gooey, cinnamon-ey, and just plain delicious. I came across a recipe from pioneer woman and it is the recipe that I am using here today (although slightly changed).

I had been wanting to make cinnamon buns for a few weeks but didn't have the chance to do it as it takes a few hours. However, the other day I had a free afternoon and you bet I whipped these things up.

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Heat your milk, oil and sugar in a large pot over medium heat. Do not let the mixture boil, but just heat everything up nice and warm. This is an important part: make sure to set the pot aside to cool to lukewarm before going to the next step. We do not want our yeast to die!

After the mixture has cooled to a lukewarm temperature, sprinkle the yeast on top and let it sit for 1 minute.

After the yeast has gotten a bit bubbly, add in 8 cups of flour and stir, stir, stir! But not too much now, just until it's all combined. Oh and it's not that I can't count (the ingredients say 9 cups of flour), but the other cup of flour will be used later. After this is done it gets to sit for an hour to rise! I know that there are many different methods people use to help rise the dough, but my go-to is to turn the oven light on and stick in the pot that is covered with a tea towel. Works like a charm.

Once the dough had doubled in size (an hour or so), add in the baking powder, baking soda, and the remaining 1 cup of flour (told you so). Stir until all combined together! At this point you can use the dough right away or save it in the fridge for up to 3 days (if you resist the urge to make these cinnamon buns).

Take out half of the dough from the pot as this will be used to make the first set of buns. On a floured surface roll out the dough into a large rectangle that is about 30x10 inches. Like this:

Now we get to put the yummy filling on the dough!  Pour roughly 1 cup of the melted butter over the surface of the dough and spread it around. Next, sprinkle half of the cinnamon and one cup of the sugar (I did a 50/50 of brown and white). If you want to add more (or less) of the cinnamon or sugar, go right ahead, no one is stopping you. I opted to add a little more butter, sugar AND cinnamon (don't judge) because I wanted to have an ooey, gooey centre.

Roll, Roll, Roll. No, not the kind of rolls that you WON'T be getting once you eat the finished product of this. Didn't you know this was a NO CALORIE treat? I am talking about rolling in the dough! Beginning from the side farthest from you, roll the dough tightly towards you. You will definitely have to use both hands as this step is slightly tricky because the dough is so long. Once you have rolled the entire thing, pinch the seams together so everything stays intact. In this picture I had cut off the little nob at the end of the roll.

Move your rolled dough to a cutting board and either with a knife or dental floss or with whatever tool you use, make about 1 1/2 ince slices. The log will make roughly 2 dozen rolls. You can now take the other half of the dough and do the same process to get this yummy result!

Now you can put them into a round baking pan or you can just put them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Your house will smell delicious as these are in your oven.

Now, if you're like me you like icing on your cinnamon buns. I won't be posting a recipe for the icing because I didn't have the ingredients I wanted to make the right icing so I made a simple one with icing sugar. However, I didn't think it was note-worthy, so you can go use your favourite icing recipe! (maybe even share with me too!)

Dough

4 cups of milk

1 cup vegetable oil
4 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast (or 2 packages)
9 cups flour
1 heaping tsp baking powder
a little less than 1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sale

Filling
2 cups melted butter plus + more if needed
1/4 cinnamon (this is what the recipe says, but I would say I almost doubled it)
2 cups sugar + (I used one white one brown)