Welcome to Two Hot Buns. My BBF (best baking friend) Mindy and I are starting this blog to share our baking adventures and blunders with anyone who cares to listen/read/look. We'll be using this blog to share recipes and pictures with each other and you. Since we live about 350 miles away from each other, we figured this was the best way to share. Eventually, we'd like to open our own bakery. But before we do that, we need to keep practicing...so without further ado, let's get baking!
Cinnamon Buns
If you're just meeting me, you probably don't know that cinnamon rolls are pretty much my most favorite food ever! Even when thefatlete proposed, he brought along some cinnamon rolls. How could I say no?? So, it's only appropriate that they should be our inaugural recipe. After scouting out some recipes from my favorite sites and ladies (http://www.thesmittenkitchen.com/ and http://thepioneerwoman.com/ and http://www.allrecipes.com/ ) I finally merged and adapted a few of them to make these tasty buns of bliss.
Recipe adapted from the pioneer woman and allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
Okay, first I have to say that I kind of cheated and used my bread machine to make the dough. I don't know if that is actually cheating, but I kinda feel like it is. So, if you don't have one, you can kneed everything by hand and let it rise, or use a bread hook in a stand mixer. I'll try to give you some cues during the recipe to help with that.
1. Place the first 7 ingredients in the bread machine according your machine directions. Select the dough cycle and press start. If you don't have a machine, add the yeast to the warm milk and let set for a few minutes. Next, sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a dough forms. Kneed dough until everything is combined. Place in an oiled bowl and cover. Let rise until it doubles in size in a warm, dry place.
2. After the dough has doubled in size, let it rest on a lightly floured surface for about 10 min. Make sure that you'll have enough room to roll it out into a huge rectangle a little later. While it's resting, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Yum! It makes a crazy strong filling. You'll feel like you are putting in loads of cinnamon. Don't worry, you are. But, when combined with the dough...soooo good!
3. Next, roll out the dough into a huge rectangle that is as even as you can get it. I went ahead and melted the butter (it was easier than spreading it) and poured it onto the dough. Next, sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough.
4. Start at the end that is farthest away from you and roll into one long nice cinnamon rope. It's almost like in those old cartoons when they eat corn on the cob. They chomp all the way down the row of corn like a typewriter. That's how you should roll it. Roll pretty tightly and don't worry if stuff oozes out of the sides. Pinch the end together when you're done. You're getting closer to bun bliss!
5. Cut the dough into even rounds. The ends obviously will be smaller. (I put those in a ramekins and made little cinnamon roll blossoms...awesome! See picture above) To cut, I think I used a straight-edge knife, but sawed it gently back and forth so as not to damage the rolls. It worked perfectly!
6. Place the rolls in a lightly greased pan. I actually used a jelly roll pan and it worked like a charm. A glass or metal 9x13 would work too. Cover and let rise one more time. (You can do it!) They may not rise that much, but that's okay. Let them rise for about 30 min. Set the oven to 350 while they're rising.
7. Place the rolls in the oven and bake anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. I'm giving a ranger here, because I baked mine on 400 and it was too high. Just make sure they are lightly brown before you take them out. As much as you love gooey cinnamon rolls, let them get a little brown. If they are undercooked, they just aren't good.
8. While they're baking, and the aroma of perfection is filling your house, beat together the last seven ingredients. Make sure the cream cheese and the butter are at room temperature. Mine were cold and the icing had little flecks of cream cheese in it. I put it in the microwave for a minute or so to cure it.
9. Finally, when the buns are done...take them out and immediately flip them onto a cooling rack. I skipped this at first and then realized that the filling was kinda running out of the buns...This will help keep it all in. My picture looks a little off because I had already frosted them when I realized the possible dilemma. So, then I had to flip them, hence the cooling rack lines on my finished product. After a few minutes pour that frosting all over them. I'm not a huge frosting fan...but just pour it. You'll thank me later.
Now, enjoy the wonderful buns...rolls...who the hell cares what you call them...they're awesome!
Notes: I think this made about 16 big rolls for me, but it depends on how big you cut them. Also, I'd like to note that I used organic ingredients where I could. (organic raw sugar, organic milk, ogranic flour, organic butter, etc.). Makes me feel like, "Hey, at least I'm eating REAL food..." right? right?
Alright, there it is folks. Our first recipe on Two Hot Buns. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you try it. Hope you come back real soon.
Meg
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