In Search of the Perfect Cinnamon Bun

It seems that every guest house or B&B serves fresh, hot, home made cinnamon buns at some point. I love to bake bread and haven't had time to do it much in recent years, but thought this would be my opportunity to get back into it. I come from the era where bread was made slowly, allowed to rise, punched down, allowed to rise some more, and so on. But many of the recipes I've been finding in my favourite breakfast cookbooks seem to either skip the "rising" step entirely or have just one brief period of resting. Sure looked like an error to me but I thought I should at least give them a try using the recipe as written. It only took me a few days of running a guest house to realize how important it is to do as much of the work as possible the night before. So, before I even attempted the recipes, I decided to try keeping the dough in the refrigerator and baking them off in the morning. Nothing like waking up to the smell of fresh baked cinnamon buns, even if you're the sort of person who would never allow such decadent food to cross your lips! I whipped up the dough, which took only a few minutes, and placed it in a bowl in the fridge to rest over night. In the morning, it didn't appear to have risen very much at all, but I made up the rolls and placed them in my pan. The recipe didn't call for any further rising, so I immediately popped them in the oven. To my surprise, they came out beautifully risen and golden brown. A little cream cheese frosting, and my husband was licking the frosting off of his face for the rest of the day (he gets the benefit of my experimentation!). So, here's the recipe I tried, including my alterations:

Dough

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 c. warm milk (105 degrees F)

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/3 c. melted butter

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

4 c. all-purpose flour

Filling

1 c. packed brown sugar

2 T. ground cinnamon

1/2 c. coarsely chopped walnuts

1/4 c. butter at room temperature

Pan (9" x 13")

1/4 c. melted butter

1/4 c. brown sugar

Icing

1/2 of an 8 oz. pkg cream cheese (softened)

1/4 c. butter (softened)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. icing sugar

(may need up to 2 tsp. milk if icing is too stiff)

Method

Stir yeast into milk until dissolved (in large bowl). Add sugar, melted butter, salt, eggs, and flour, and mix well. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead 10 to 15 times, then shape in a ball. Place in a bowl, cover with clean tea towel, and keep in the refrigerator over night. (Or if you're making them right away, allow the dough to rise for 1 hr. prior to shaping into rolls)

In the morning, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough to about 16" x 20" rectangle. Mix together dry filling ingredients. Spread butter over dough to within 1/2" of edges, sprinkle with cinnamon mixture. Starting from long side, roll up and pinch edges tightly. Slice with sharp knife into 12 pieces. In 9" x 13" baking pan, stir together the brown sugar and melted butter. Place cut pieces of the roll on top. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, turn over onto a piece of parchment paper. Leave the pan in place to allow the sticky toffee bottom to soak down over the rolls. Remove pan and when partially cool, turn rolls upright. Spread with a generous amount of icing. Enjoy!

Next time I'm going to try forming the rolls right away, then leave them in the fridge over night and bake them off in the morning. I'm hoping that will work just as well and much less to do when I'm casually sauntering (make that "rushing") around making breakfast!