I can not describe how delicious these cinnamon buns are. Just the perfect fix on a Sunday afternoon with a cup of herbal tea. After about 3 trials during lockdown 1, I think i’ve nailed the recipe; thankfully, it’s worked well every time since.

The first time I created the cinnamon buns resulted from our obsession with our outdoor pizza oven and interest in making pizza dough. Proving dough and baking was quite a fascination, we really enjoyed it and having become expert novices (if there is such a thing), both the hubby and I, branched out in experimenting with other recipes. Inspired by Ooni, cinnamon buns were the first on my list!

I’ve made these buns in a conventional electric oven, but also in our outdoor gas oven, and despite the difference in cooking method, they taste amazing nonetheless.

With upcoming food preparations for Diwali, I decided to get the electric mixer out and give these a go again. My bun recipe remains the same, however I’ve added a pinch of saffron in the cream cheese frosting for an alternative flavour. Surprisingly, it goes really well together.

Although I piped the cream cheese frosting, you could whack on a whole dollop on the bun as it was just so tasty and not overly sweet. If you prefer a vanilla cream cheese frosting, simply disregard the saffron when preparing it.

These are dangerously addictive and as such, I tried to keep them smaller in size this time around, so that I had an excuse to eat a couple, but they ended up a cooking into generous size and I still ended up eating two anyway!!

Eat these warm if you want that melt in your mouth decadence…

Cinnamon Buns

Spicella Recipes

These Cinnamon Buns are simply delicious. Rolled in a buttered cinnamon filling and topped with a saffron cream cheese frosting - they're just divine!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 2 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 2 35

Course Dessert

Cuisine European

Servings 14 Buns

Equipment

Electric mixer or knead dough by hand
Baking tray
Spatula or use straight end of a knife to spread cinnamon butter

Ingredients

For the Dough:

180 ml Semi-skimmed milk
50 g Caster Sugar
55 g Butter (unsalted)
400 g Strong bread flour
¼ oz Fast action dried yeast
2 Eggs (large)
1 tsp Olive oil (for greasing dough ball)

For the Cinnamon filling:

135 g Dark brown sugar
60 g Butter (unsalted and softened)
1½ tbs Ground Cinnamon

For the Cream Cheese frosting:

120 g Cream cheese
2 tbs Butter (unsalted and softened)
50 g Icing sugar
½ tsp Vanilla extract
1 pinch Saffron (optional)

Instructions

To make the dough:

In an electric mixer/mixing bowl, add strong bread flour.
Heat milk in the microwave for approx. 30 seconds. Milk should be warm, not too hot or too cold. Add yeast to the milk and stir until the yeast has dissolved.
Now add the softened unsalted butter, milk, eggs and caster sugar into the flour. Whisk until the ingredients are combined and form a smooth dough. If using a mixer, you will need to use a dough hook and mix for approximately 5 minutes.
Once the dough has combined into a smooth texture, form it into a ball. With 1 tsp of olive oil, coat the dough with the oil and grease the mixing bowl. Place the dough into the bowl and cover with cling film. Leave this in a warm area to prove for 2 hours.

Whilst dough is proving, make the cinnamon filling and cream cheese frosting:

In a new bowl mix together the brown sugar, unsalted butter and ground cinnamon until it becomes a smooth paste.
In another bowl mix the cream cheese, icing sugar, butter, vanilla extract and saffron (optional) together until combined.
If you're going to pipe the cream cheese frosting, make a small cut at the tip of the piping bag or add a nozzle of your choice. Scoop the cream cheese frosting into the piping bag and leave to refrigerate until the cinnamon buns are cooked.

After 2 hours of proving the dough:

Flour the work surface and roll out your dough into a rectangle, roughly 16" x 12" or 1 cm thick.
Spread on the cinnamon filling using a spatula or palette knife across the rolled out dough so that it's evenly coated.
From the longer side of the rectangle, start to role the dough into a roly poly log. Stretch out the log if there are any thicker areas, so that the log has an even width throughout.
Using a sharp knife, cut off about 1cm off from each end, so that both sides are nice and straight. Now cut up the log into 14 chunks, roughly 1" in width.
Line your baking tray with a baking sheet and line up the cinnamon rolls so that they are flat and 1-1.5" apart from each other, to allow space to expand. Let these prove for a further 10 minutes.
Place the baking tray in a preheated oven at 170C degrees (fan assisted), on the middle shelf for around 15-20 minutes, checking and turning the tray if needed after 10 minutes. Try to ensure an even cook amongst the buns.
Once the cinnamon buns are cooked, let them rest for 5 minutes, pipe or spread on the cream cheese frosting and tuck in quickly! They'll go before you know it 😉

Keyword Cinnamon Buns, Cinnamon Rolls

Tips on making Cinnamon Buns

When activating the yeast, it’s really important that the milk is warm, not too hot or too cold. The yeast will only activate at the right temperature and it’s this reaction that will give you the fluffiness of the buns.
Be gentle when portioning the dough, as it’s extremely soft and you want to avoid squashing the lovely swirls you’ve created when rolling it.
Separate the cinnamon buns by atleast 1-1.5″ when placing on a baking tray, so they have space to expand when cooking.