Hello,

Here is a great recipe for not to sweet but delicious cinnamon buns.  If anyone else has any good recipes please let me know.  I am looking for something ideally a little flakier than this and more along the lines of a danish spiral, but with a cinnamon filling.  Enjoy the recipe!

Skylar

BBA Cinnamon Buns (adapted from Peter Reinhart)

3.25 oz granulated sugar
.25oz salt
2.75oz butter or shortening (at room temperature)
1 large egg (1.65oz) slightly beaten
1 tsp lemon extract or 1tsp lemon zest
16oz unbleached bread flour or all-purpose flour
2 tsp (.22oz) instant yeast
9-10oz whole milk or buttermilk at room temperature or 1oz dry milk and 8oz water
½ cup cinnamon sugar (6 ½ Tbsp sugar plus 1 ½ Tbsp cinnamon)

Mix together the sugar, salt, and shortening on medium-high speed in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment.  The recipe said to "cream" them, so I mixed them until they seemed smooth and well blended.  I never liked the word "cream", because it always seems so ambiguos as to how thoroughly the mixture should be blended.  If you are using the powdered milk, mix the milk with the sugar, but add the water with the flour and yeast.  Mix in the egg and lemon extract until blended.  Then add the flour, yeast, and milk.  Mix on low speed (or stir by hand) until the dough forms a ball.  Switch to the dough hook and increase the speed to medium, mixing for approximately 10 minutes, or until the dough fairly smooth, tacky but not sticky (I wound up adding a little extra flour to make the dough not stick to my hands completeley.  You may have to add a little flour or water while mixing to achieve this consistancy.  The dough should pass the windowpane test (and it did!) and register 77F to 81F on your fancy little thermometer (I wish I had a thermopen so I wouldn't have to wait a half minute for a reading!)  Lightly oil a large bowl and turn the dough in the bowl to coat with oil to prevent a skin from forming.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Ferment at room-temp for approximately 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.  Mist the counter with spray oil and proceed as follows

Roll the dough out into a rectangle 2/3 inch thick and 14 inches wide by 12 inches long for large buns or 18 inches wide by 9 inches long for small buns.  Don’t roll the dough too thin or it won't be soft and tender like a cinnamon bun should be.  Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the dough and roll the dough into a log (I like to roll in towards myself so the finished roll is right in front of me).  With the seam down cut the roll into 8-12 pieces for larger buns or 12-16 pieces for smaller buns.  Place the buns approx ½ inch apart so that they are not touching but are close to one another.  Proof at room temperature for 75 to 90 minutes, or until the buns have grown into one another and have nearly doubled in size.  You can retard the buns in the refrigerator for a couple days supposedly.  I baked them straight away.  Bake the buns at 350F for 20-30 minutes or until they are lightly brown.  Cool the buns in the pan for about 10 minutes and then smear or drizzle the glaze over the top of the buns.  To make the glaze combine: 4 cups sifted 10x sugar with 1 tsp lemon extract or juice and about ½ cup warm milk.  Enjoy the buns!  (Preferably the day they are baked, they stale pretty quickly!)

Notes:
I had to add a bit of extra flour (quite a bit actually) to make the dough workable.  This could be because I used A.P flour versus bread flour, hence lower absorption.

You can put raisins and nuts into your buns!

I used 1% milk versus whole milk.  Is there a difference?  I can’t tell you that, perhaps you can tell me!

I finally tried making some cinnamon rolls and my wife and neighbors claimed they were the best they've had.Of course they would say that anyway.My real critics are my neighbors kids.They agreed with the others so I reckon they were OK.Here are couple pics.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Soft-Moist-and-Gooey-Cinnamon-Buns/Detail.aspx

My mom had a special request for cinnamon rolls for her birthday so I'd like to thank zolablue for the recipe here (It's the second recipe down the list):

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/cinnamonrolls

I'm another happy customer!

I'm mostly posting as a thank you but also with some of my personal experiences that others might benefit from reading about if they choose to make these WONDERFUL and EASY rolls:

1) I used 6g instant yeast instead of a packet (7g) of active dry.  Therefore I added an extra half cup of potato liquid to the recipe because I didn't have to disolve the yeast in the beginning.

2) I used lard instead of shortening.  I don't know if this is the reason that when I added in the eggs, milk, potato, and potato liquid, it came together with rather a curdled look.  I did add the eggs one at a time and when the first one did not mix in smoothly, I broke out the electric beater.  The concern was all for naught, though since once I added the flour everything came together beautifully - So don't worry if you get this curdled looking texture beforehand.

3) I used KA organic AP flour and it took 5 cups to create a workable dough, though I may have been able to get away with even less flour.

4) I couldn't find cinnamon chips at the grocery store so I just spread the sugar out on the buttered rolled out dough and sprinkled the whole thing with as much ground cinnamon as I thought would be desirable - A complete but thin layer.

5) I got 14 pieces out of the roll and packed them into a 9 1/2" x 13 1/2" nonstick metal baking pan that I had sprayed with coooking spray.

6) I made vanilla icing and did not use the full amount of milk since I was leaving out the chocolate and it would have been too watery.

I know that it looks like I went crazy with the icing (I actually did have some left over!) but once the roll was on my plate it looked perfect!

Summer

Starter Dough

• AP Wheat flour (9,5% protein, i.e. nothing special)
• Milk 250 ml
• Sour cream 100 ml
• Yeast, more than for your ordinary non sweet doughs.

Rest for 45 min

Then add

• White syrup (or sugar, but white plain syrup makes it more moist)
• One egg
• Ground cardamom seeds. First roast them quickly on the stove until they crack open, then grind the black seeds inside.
• Some more flour or any old white dough lying around.
• Salt
• 200g butter in cubes at room temperature is added slowly after 4-5 minutes of machine action.

Rest, divide if necessary and shape each to a smooth heap, rest again. Roll out to 0,3-0.5 cm thickness.

Spread evenly with a soft mix of:

• Butter
• Vanilla flavouring
• Cinnamon

Roll together. Be careful not to roll to thin. Rolling "back" to a thicker size creates a less attractive end result. With QUICK cuts and a non-jagged knife cut the roll in around 3 cm thick slices. Place with minimal space apart on a baking sheet. Not totally together but tight together. Optional: Fill the small spaces in between each roll with raspberry jam.

Let it rise, possibly in a mildly heated and dampened oven, though careful not to melt the butter filling.

Brush with a whisked mixture of

• One egg
• 2 tbsp water
• A pinch of salt 

Sprinkle over some chopped nuts or almonds.

Bake for about 15 min at 225 degrees C in the middle of the oven.

Cool as quickly as possible perhaps even outside to retain moisture.
When cool, garnish with some icing sugar, lemon juice or water mixed to form a thick paste. When half was used i dropped a few drops of Grenadine in what was left and got two colors.

The result from real butter, sour cream, white syrup gives a fantastic taste and moisture while the pre-dough procedure ensures a stronger gluten structure to form and support the rise without the interference of too much sugar initially. As you can see from the picture I only filled some of the gaps with raspberry jam, but the result was good and next time I'll fill them consistantly.

Adapted from the recipe in Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

I'm finding the sweet dough as he made it too sweet. 6.5 tablespoons of sugar is just too much to me. I reduced it a little in my final dough, but just by 1/2 a tablespoon. The next time I make this it will be with the amount I show here.

6 tablespoons butter, shortening, or margerine (I used butter, but that's a taste thing)
4.5 tablespoons sugar (evaporated cane juice here)
1.5 teaspoons salt (slightly course sea salt)
2 eggs
1 pound flour
2.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup buttermilk

Cream first 3 ingredients. I proofed the yeast in about 1/4 cup of the buttermilk, lukewarm, then added that with the rest of the milk with the rest of the ingredients. I mixed for about 10-12 minutes by hand until the dough was starting to come together really well and the gluten had started forming, then did 2 stretch and folds at 40 minute intervals, letting the dough have an hour before shaping and proofing. I filled the rolls with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon to 6 tablespoons dark brown sugar and proofed them for about an hour before putting them in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

This produced the lightest, flakiest cinnamon rolls I've made to date. I really love them. I have a feeling that this may become my go-to sweet dough.

Sorry about the no picture thing. Maybe tomorrow if they're not all gone. :)

I was inspired from Teresa at her Northwest Sourdough website to try her sourdough cinnamon rolls pictured there, but the closest actual written recipe I could find to that was her Festive Hawaiian Roll recipe. After studying a lot of other sweet dough recipes and brioche recipes, I decided to make a hybrid dough with what I thought were the best aspects of each, that would also use only sourdough starter as the leavening agent. The main differences from NWSD's recipe is my addition of eggs and buttermilk, plus I added 4 times the amount of butter, bringing the butter content up to 11%, which is still not as high as many sweet doughs and not nearly as high as brioche.

This recipe will make about 16-24 large and airy, but rich and tender Cinnamon Rolls. We don't like excess cinnamon flavor in our rolls and so use about half the amount of cinnamon usually called for in the filling of similar recipes. We are also not *fond* of white fondant glaze, so I made up this cream cheese/buttercream glaze to provide a more flavorful topping that complements the flavor of the rolls well. I also did not use any nuts in these, but they could also be added to the filling if desired.

Beware of these rolls: Due to the potato and buttermilk in the dough, these are by far the richest, most moist, tender, and flavorful cinnamon rolls we've ever had, the dough itself is fragrant with vanilla and butter, it almost does not need the filling or icing. The sourdough made these extraordinarily airy and puffy with no commercial yeast added. Because these are so rich, they will be reserved for special occasions or special visitors in our house, they are far too addictive to keep around otherwise. Because they are also so light and billowy - similar to a good sourdough waffle, they are not overly filling and heavy in your stomach.

The total preparation time is about 36 hours to allow for the long cool ferments. If you want to serve these rolls on a Sunday morning, you need to build the levain the preceding Friday evening.

Approx. 12 hours before making the final dough, build the levain as follows:

Levain Build:

grams          Item
150       100% hydration sourdough starter, recently fed and ripened
340       Lukewarm water
340       AP flour
850       Total Wt.

Let this mixture sit at room temperature until doubled (usually overnight, if your starter is fast and the levain is active early, keep it in the frig. until ready to make dough). Meanwhile, make a small amount of mashed potato by boiling or microwaving (covered) 1 medium peeled & sliced potato in a little water until soft. Mash with fork and a little milk until smooth.

Final Dough:

grams     Item
113       1 stick Unsalted butter, softened
225       3 large eggs
42        1 ½ TBSP Honey
24        2 TBSP Vanilla Extract
130       Mashed potato
195       ¾ c. Buttermilk or whole milk
850       Levain
700       AP flour
21        Salt
2300       Total Wt.

Once levain is ripe, make the final dough. First cream the softened (not melted) butter by hand or in mixer with paddle attachment, then beat in eggs, honey, vanilla, and mashed potato and continue mixing. Stop to scrape down sides of bowl with spatula as needed and continue to mix just until well-blended. Switch to dough hook and add buttermilk and levain until blended, then gradually add flour and salt and continue mixing with dough hook until well-blended. Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula, cover, and let rest 20 min. After rest, uncover and continue to mix with dough hook another 2-3 minutes (or by hand, fold in bowl with plastic bowl scraper for 3 min.). This will be a very soft, sticky dough, around 71% hydration if you count the liquid from eggs and milk, but not counting the butter.

Place the dough into a container sprayed with cooking oil, cover, and bulk ferment in a cool location (55-65F) until doubled, approx. 8-12 hours depending on temperature and how fast a riser your starter is. Every few hours, give the dough a stretch and fold, for a total of about 2 folds.

Meanwhile, make the filling as follows:

Filling:

grams       Item
170       1 ½ sticks Unsalted butter, softened
85        Cream or half&half
300       Dark brown sugar
180       Raisins
3         1 ½ tsp. Cinnamon
12        1 TBSP Vanilla extract
750       Total Wt.

For the filling, add all above ingredients to a medium sized saucepan and bring to a low boil over medium heat while stirring. As soon as the mixture boils, take off heat and chill to a spreadable consistency before using.

After dough has doubled, divide it into 2 pieces on a flour-dusted surface (it may be sticky even though the butter should be solid from the cool temps), then roll out each piece of dough into a rectangle shape about 10 x 16 inches across. Spread the filling across each rectangle of dough, leaving 1 inch clean where the outer seam edge of the roll will be and then taking the opposite edge, roll up the dough gently but firmly and seal the seam.

Slice each log into 8 or 12 rolls (depending on how big a rectangle you rolled out and how large you want the rolls to be) with serrated knife and place them just barely touching each other on baking parchment on sheet pan. Don't worry if log gets flattened as you slice each roll, you can straighten them out once placed on the sheet pan, and they should rise very high and straighten out when proofing. Spray tops of rolls lightly with cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap, and slowly proof rolls overnight or up to 12 hrs. in the refrigerator or cool place between 45 and 55F until the dough is about doubled and puffy looking. Bake right out of frig. at 400 degrees for about 25-35 minutes until light golden, or until the center of dough registers about 195-200F on instant-read thermometer. Do not let the rolls get very brown. Melt about 4 TBSP of butter in microwave and as soon as rolls are out of oven, brush them with the melted butter to keep crust soft before icing them.

Here are the rolls right out of oven and after being brushed with butter, they had a great amount of oven spring and rose tremendously during the bake:

While rolls are baking, make a glaze/icing as follows:

Cream Cheese Glaze:

grams       Item
56        ½ (4 TBSP) stick Unsalted butter, softened
56        4 TBSP. Cream cheese
165       ¾ c. Confectioner's sugar
65        ¼ c. Milk, whole
2         ½ tsp. Vanilla extract
344       Total Wt.

Microwave the butter and cream cheese together until very soft but not melted. Whisk them together while adding the vanilla, powdered sugar, and enough milk to thin out the icing to a drip-able consistency.

Let the rolls mostly cool before glazing them with icing. Dip a wire whisk in the icing and drizzle across surface of each roll in crisscross pattern. Serve and enjoy.

(NOTE: I've not yet tried this, but it should also be possible to chill the un-sliced logs in frig overnight and slice just before baking, or freeze the logs for up to 1 month, take out the night before baking and defrost in frig. Next morning, remove from frig., slice, and let warm up at room temp about 1-2 hours before baking.)

It's a good thing we had a house full of guests this past weekend to help us put away not only the cinnamon rolls, but also these Vermont Sourdough boules, and cherry-sunflower-seed levains.

I made cinnamon rolls for the second time today. I used the recipe from SusanFNP's "Wild Yeast" blog, a wonderful site for bakers. The recipe is adapted from Michael Suas, with whom Susan has taken classes at the San Francisco Baking Institute, I believe. The link to Susan's recipe is:

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/10/13/cinnamon-sticky-buns/

I modified the filling by using a "only add water" cinnamon bread/roll shmear from KAF and added some plumped up raisins and lightly toasted, coarsely chopped pecans.

The rolls were a pleasure to make. Susan's instructions are always so good. I'm sure these rolls would be a delight to any cinnamon roll lovers. Sad to say, I've decided I just don't like pastries this sweet. 

I must return to my quest for the Cheese Pockets of my Dreams.

David

Addendum (1/12/09): This recipe makes 16 rolls, which is a lot. In "Baking with Julia," the recipe for sticky buns says you can freeze the dough right after rolling it up, i.e., before cutting the rolls and proofing them. So, I divided my dough into two parts, filled and rolled up both, baked one and froze the other. Good to know. I'll probably not bake the frozen roll for at least a week. I'll let you all know how those turn out.

DMS

I didn't get a picture of the sticky buns I made from Mark's recipe that I have had since April. Been trying to make them and these cinnamon rolls forever but haven't had time. So the past two days I have been doing nothing but baking and these rolls are great! Thank you Zolablue for sharing the recipe and Thank you Mark for sharing your recipe. They are both hits! (I omitted the salt in Zolablue's recipe due to the fact that I had salty mashed potatoes with sour cream left over to make the dough with.)

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls II

Edit**- I also made 24 rolls out of this batch of dough which when weighed was around 1622 grams. Anyone else have this happen?

Hello,

 I have a great recipe for cinnamon rolls.  I roll out the pastry to 24x14.  after rolling I have a 24 inch log, that I cut into 2 inch rolls.

This makes 12 rolls.  However after baking each roll grows to 2 inches high by a radius of 4 inches on average.  I would like to make smaller rolls that could be classifed as bite sized or two-bite sized roll for an event we are hosting.

 Anyone have any ideas how to accomplish this?

 Thanks,

Tanya

Even though these are 100% whole wheat, I'm not even going to try convincing anyone (though I've tried to convince myself) that these are remotely healthy. But since whole wheat flour is what I've usually got on hand and since using whole wheat flour does make them somewhat less unhealthy (maybe), when I make sticky buns, I make them this way. The dough is an amalgamation of many recipes, but the filling and topping are from King Arthur Flour Whole Grains Baking.



In any case, however detrimental they may be to the body, these warm sticky buns are awfully good for the soul on a chilly weekend morning.