Time to Make the Cinnabuns

Long story short...for the past week I've been craving a gooey, sticky, sweet, iced cinnamon bun. Really I wanted to head to National Airport and get a Cinnabon, with extra icing. Well, this craving got so bad, I was snacking and grazing like crazy. Probably doubled my caloric intake trying to satisfy a craving I had no hope of fixing.

On Saturday morning I woke up with a plan. I'm going to bake my own cinnamon buns. But alas, the Pastry Gods were not with me, when I found I had only about 1 TB of sugar in the house. And frankly, I'm not interested in knocking on my neighbors door to ask for some sugar. You don't know what you'd get.

So after sending J-lo out for a little shopping on Saturday, I woke up on Sunday with the plan to bake. I had a recipe on my computer, and I don't know where it came from-let me know if it's you, that I wanted to tackle.

Really, it's not that difficult. You just need some time and need to knead! I didn't use any kitchen machine to make these. Just good ol' fashioned kneading and a knife to slice! Anyone can do these... Wait. I did use an electric mixer for the icing, but if your butter is room temperature, that shouldn't be a concern, a wooden spoon will do the job nicely.

Here we go.

Cinnabuns
(about 8-12 rolls)

Rolls:
1 packet (¼ oz.) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105 to 110°F)
½ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup butter, melted
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 cup packed brown sugar
3 TB cinnamon
⅓ cup butter, room temperature

Icing:
1 stick butter, room temperature
1½ cups powdered sugar
2 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla extract
⅛ tsp. salt

For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a bowl. Mix together the sugar, butter, salt and eggs. Add flour and yeast mixture and mix until it comes together.

Pull the dough out to a lightly floured surface and knead for 4-5 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly buttered bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough flat until it is about 21" long and 16" wide. It should be about ¼" thick.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

For the filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread the softened butter evenly over the surface of the dough, and then sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar evenly over the surface. Use your rolling pin to gently press the sugar/cinnamon mix into place.

Working carefully, roll the dough down, from the top to the bottom edge. Lightly pinch the seam into place. (I didn’t and some of the buns slightly unrolled as they baked.) Cut the rolled dough into 1¾" slices and place 6 at a time evenly spaced, in a lightly greased baking pan.

Let the rolls rise again until double in size (about 30 minutes). Bake for 10-15 minutes or until light brown on top.

While the rolls bake, combine the icing ingredients. Beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy. When the rolls come out of the oven, coat each generously with icing.

Note: These can be frozen after baking—cool to room temperature and don’t ice them. Just pop one into the microwave for 20-30 seconds to reheat.

All prepared and ready to go. Got the sugar?

My dough ball before doubling.

Buttered sheets of dough.

Here's the cinnamon filling on the buttered dough and lightly rolled and pressed into the butter.

Starting the rolling process. Some of the filling started to fall out. Next time, if I can't roll the dough into square, I will cut it into one and maybe that will help me out a bit.

Starting to slices the buns.

I think I cut my buns a little bigger. It was a lot of work to finish one after they were cooked. I tried to kill my craving and have another. Sadly that nearly killed me.

They've baked and gotten all sorts of gooey. Start icing those sexy buns within a few minutes of coming out of the oven.

This naughty little bun was unrolling itself. Perhaps a little pinch at the seam will keep it from coming undone. Or placing the buns a little closer to one another on the pan.

The icing on this one got a little gritty from the filling. Some of the others came out a little 'cleaner.' But really, once it starts melting, it doesn't matter anyway.

The great sticky, sweet, sugar high (followed by crash) Cinnabun! Can't wait to make them again. But maybe more of a miniature version!