This is a great “quick” cinnamon bun. I make them the night before, and then bake them in the morning. So they should probably be called Saturday night buns, since that’s when most of the cooking takes place. But you could do them from start to finish in the morning if you like (You’ll just have to get up earlier so you don’t miss church and defeat the whole purpose of Sunday morning cinnamon buns). It looks like a lot, but believe me after you’ve made them once it’s really super easy.

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1 envelope (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (100^oF to 110^oF)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
Icing:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Use a bread maker for the dough if you have one.
1) Bring milk to boil and then set aside.
2) Add water, yeast, and sugar together (bloom yeast for a few minutes). Then add beaten eggs, and butter.
3) Add flour (~4.75 C for bread machine) and salt to yeast, followed by milk (make sure milk is cooled to below 110^oF!!).
4) Set bread maker for dough and do something else while the machine does all the work.
4) a. [No bread machine] Or mix well and kneed by hand for 10-15 minutes, adding flour as needed. Dough should be moist and soft.
4) b. [No bread machine] Let dough rise covered and in warm place for 1-1.5 hours.
5) Prepare filling (mix everything together) and coat two 9-inch round baking pans with nonstick cooking spray.
6) Punch down dough. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to an 18 x 12-inch rectangle. Spread the butter-sugar mixture over the dough. Sprinkle with nuts and raisins. Starting on one long side roll up jelly roll fashion and pinch seam to close.
7) Cut crosswise into 14 generous 1-inch pieces. Arrange 7 pieces, cut-side down, in each prepared pan. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the following morning or cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm spot until buns double in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.
But trust me, letting them sit overnight is the way to go
8 ) Fetch buns from fridge next morning and place in oven (TURNED OFF) with a large bowl of boiling water. Close door and let them wake up for 15 minutes.
9) Remove buns and water, preheat oven to 350^oF, return to oven and bake 25 - 35 minutes.
10) Make icing by mixing everything together in stand mixer, adding the powdered sugar slowly. Serve with warm buns!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Alton Brown, American, Bread (Yeast), Breakfast, Dessert, blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.