Tasty Buns

There's nothing better than a sweet, sticky bun from the bakers. It's something I'm sure everyone must feel some sort of nostalgia about... even just the smell that emanates from a bakery full of incredible treats. One evening after work I was desperate for something sweet and I saw these adorable Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies on Pinterest (my new favourite obsession). As good as these looked, I was after something a little more substantial... something a little more melt in the mouth. 

Here is the outcome.

Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients:

For the buns:

• 500ml milk
• 150g butter 
• 800g strong plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 7g fast action dried yeast
• 100g golden caster sugar
• Brown sugar for sprinkling

For the filling:

• 75g butter
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 75g golden caster sugar

For the glaze:

• Icing Sugar
• Ground Cinnamon
• Water

Here's what you need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 7 or 200 degrees.
2. Put 25g of the butter and the milk into a jug and pop it in the microwave. Heat in 30 degree intervals until the butter has melted and the milk has warmed. Set this to one side.
3. In a bowl, put your flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Give it a quick stir to combine everything. 
4. Add the milk/butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix in with a wooden spoon until a dough starts to form.
5. At this point, I found it easiest to get my hands in and form the mixture into a better dough. But prepared to get a little messy.
6. Now you need to knead (get it?) the dough for a good 10 minutes. Stretch it, punch it, squish it, do whatever you need to do to get rid of all of your stress. At the end it needs to be smooth and luscious.
7. Cover the dough and put it to one side.
8. Now you need to make the filling. Melt your butter a little bit and combine it with the other ingredients so it makes a gorgeous paste.
9. Get a big sheet of baking paper and sprinkle it with flour. Now roll your dough out to cover the baking sheet. If you've done it right, the dough should be very stretchy.
10. Now spread the filling all over the dough. Again, I found it easier (and more fun) to use my hands to ensure that the dough was covered properly (and you get to lick your hands afterwards).
11. Now if you pull the baking paper up on one end, whilst tucking the dough round a little bit, as you pull the dough should roll and form a giant swiss roll shape.
12. Prep a cupcake or muffin tin by placing little cake cases into each of your muffiny things. 
13. Use a very sharp knife to slice thin portions of dough from your swiss roll. Sometimes the whirl shape doesn't hold properly, so just use your creativity to twist it a bit until it forms a cool shape.
14. Place each whirl into a case and sprinkle over a little brown sugar.
15. Bake in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes until golden brown.
16. Leave to cool.
17. Make the glaze by combining the icing sugar and cinnamon and then add water until you've got a good, loose consistency.
18. Drizzle your glaze over the buns and enjoy!