Cinnamon Buns

Before I say anything about these amazing delicious fantastic cinnamon buns, I feel I must apologize to my readers (which I think I have?) for being the worst blogger ever. It's been like two weeks since I posted, even though I've baked a couple things. But here's the thing, I keep forgetting to take pictures, and also I kinda have a social life, which surprises even me. So quick recap, I had two family reunions recently, and for each I made these wonderful peanut butter pies. They're so freaking good, and the recipe makes two pies! You can find the recipe here. I also had a fancy dinner party with my friends last week. My friend Huddleston made the dinner since I'm a tragic cook, but I made lemon sorbet with raspberry mint sauce for dessert. It was the perfect summer dessert! Here's the lemon sorbet and raspberry sauce.

And now, for the buns. Last Monday at work it was inventory day, which was pretty awful. I had to be at there at 6:00 AM, and these people just come in and count every single thing and kind of wreck the store. But since it was so early and miserable, I think the good people of JCP deserved some indulgent breakfast pastries. However, this was new territory for me. I've never made any kind of bread dough with yeast and proofing and stuff. I don't think I did anything wrong, but I'm also not an expert. At least they were freaking yummy. 

Cinnamon Buns- from Annies Eats

Ingredients

Dough

6½ tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
5½ tablespoons of butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon of lemon extract or lemon zest
3½ cups of bread flour
2 teaspoons of instant/rapid rise yeast
1 ¼ cups whole milk

Filling

6½ tablespoons of granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons cinnamon

Icing

4 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
½ teaspoon of lemon extract
6 tablespoon-½ cup of warm milk

Directions

Using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar and salt, then mix in the egg and and lemon until it's all smooth. You might need to scrape down the bowl before it will all come together nicely. Finally, add the flour, yeast and milk and mix it on low until it forms a ball. Then change to the dough hook attachment and mix the dough on medium for about ten minutes. I'm quoting from Annie here because I don't know what I'm talking about, " until the dough is silky and supple, tacky but not sticky. (You may have to add a little flour or water while kneading to achieve this texture.)" Much easier than kneading though! So when that's done, put about a teaspoon or so of oil in a large bowl and coat the dough with it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for two hours to proof (double in size, let the yeast do its thing).

Once that's all done, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 14x12 inches. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar all over it and roll it up like in the picture up there. Then cut those into little buns, and line them all up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil, keeping them about a half inch apart. They'll have to proof again, this time uncovered at room temperature and for about an hour and a half. When they're touching, bake them at 350 for 20ish minutes or until they're starting to brown on top. In the meantime, make the frosting by just mixing the powdered sugar and liquids until they're kind of a paste. When you put a spoon into the bowl and lift it out, the icing should just fall off. If you're serving the buns right away, frost them when they've been out of the oven about 10 minutes. If not, wait on that. I obviously made these the night before, so that morning I put them in the oven at 250 for 10-15 minutes, so they were warm but didn't cook. Then frost and enjoy!

Review

What a delicious breakfast! I didn't bring any home from work, which I always love. I also made them again for my friends after a sleepover and they loved them too. I didn't get any "reviews" so to speak, that were thoughtfully written out, but everyone ate them and that's always an unspoken compliment. Not to mention, Kevin ate three in one night!