Easy Cinnamon Bun Recipe

This easy Cinnamon Bun recipe is going to help you create the most delicious Cinnamon buns. This is a tried and tested recipe that gives the most wonderfully soft and fluffy buns with that delicious cinnamon swirl through the dough. Read our suggestions about how to enjoy fresh Cinnamon Buns for breakfast or as a mid-morning treat.

Each Cinnamon Bun will be soft, full of aromatic cinnamon spice and finished off with a honey glaze that seeps into every delicious corner.

I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love Cinnamon buns, I’m sure that there are people out who aren’t that fond, I’ve just never come across them. I’m assuming that because you’re here, you love them too.

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a Cinnamon bun and a Cinnamon Swirl? Well, apparently a Cinnamon Swirl has icing, usually involving cream cheese and Cinnamon buns often have a glaze but not the additional icing. Therefore this is definitely a Cinnamon Bun Recipe

Features of this Cinnamon Bun Recipe

• flavour – these buns are buttery, sweet and cinnamon flavoured. The recipe involves letting the dough rise twice which creates a lot of flavour and a lot of texture in the final buns.
• texture – the buns use an enriched, sweetened dough which gives delicous light, fluffy, melt in the mouth buns.
• difficulty – these delicious buns are made using a rich bread dough so it involves making and kneading a yeasted bread dough. This isn’t difficult to do but it may mean that this recipe is good for a confident beginner. These buns can be made by hand or in a mixer with a dough hook. It is also possible to make the dough in a bread machine using the dough option.

Ingredients

The precise amounts of the ingredients are specified in the recipe below.

• flour – the buns are made using strong bread flour which gives them a beautiful, light, not doughy texture. You may substitute plain flour (all-purpose flour) for the bread flour. This will change the texture slightly, using plain flour creates a more cake-like texture.
• butter – use unsalted butter. This gives a lovely flavour to the dough
• milk – this provides the liquid and also enriches the dough.
• vanilla extract – gives a delicious flavour and enhances the other flavours in the buns.
• egg – enriches the dough beautifully.
• sugar– used in the dough as a sweetener, just enough to make it gorgeous.
• salt – a flavour enhancer. If you’ve used unsalted butter then you need to add a little salt to bring all the flavours in this recipe to life. (If you used salted butter then you will not need this ingredient.)
• yeast – the all important element that gets the dough to rise. Read a little more about yeast below.
• ground cinnamon – definitely an important ingredient in a Cinnamon bun recipe, warming and delicious.
• muscovado sugar – enjoy the caramel notes of light brown muscovado sugar, mixed with cinnamon for a rich and spicy flavour.
• honey – honey is used as a sweet glaze for the buns once they’ve baked to perfection.

Yeast

Yeast is obviously a vital ingredient in any bread dough. For this recipe, I use yeast which is either called Quick yeast or Easy bake yeast. These two names refer to yeast which can be mixed into the other ingredients without needing to be activated first.

If you look on your supermarket shelves it will be the yeast that is also recommended for use with bread machines. Other yeast products such as dried active yeast will require activating, as will fresh yeast.

If you use dried active yeast, the kind that needs activating, use the warmed milk to do this. Set it aside for about ten minutes and then it will be ready to use and incorporate into the flour.

If you choose to use fresh yeast, which will also need activating, again use the warmed milk to do this. You will also need to use a larger amount of fresh yeast For this recipe you will require 14g.

Making this Cinnamon Bun Recipe from scratch

This is a quick overview of how these delicious spicy buns are made. This is explained in detail below but it is useful to know that there are only a few simple steps involved.

1. Gather together your ingredients.
2. Make the dough either by hand or by using a mixer.
3. This recipe requires 2 rises which develops the wonderful flavour and the light texture of the dough.
4. After the first rise, roll out the dough into a rectangle, add the filling and roll up the dough. Slice into individual pieces, place them into the baking pan. Allow them to rise for a second time.
5. Bake until they’re a pretty golden brown colour.
6. Allow them to cool out of the oven for approximately ten minutes before adding the honey glaze.
7. After adding the honey glaze, allow them to cool a few minutes more and then enjoy!

How to customise this Cinnamon Bun Recipe

Customise the filling

• add a 170g (1 cup) of chocolate chips by spinkling these over the cinnamon sugar mixture before rolling up the dough.
• add a 100g of raisins (3/4 cup) to the filling. Sprinkle them over the cinnamon sugar mixture. Try to distribute them evenly over the dough.

Customise the glaze

I love the honey glaze on these buns but you may prefer icing instead. It’s so simple to do. Just warm the runny honey slightly and then use a pastry brush to daub it all over the buns. Push it gently into every nook and cranny. Leave it all to cool slightly before removing the buns from the baking pan and allowing them to cool before eating. This is the work of mere minutes.

If you’d prefer a simple icing for these buns, do the following – mix 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract with 250g (1 1/2 cups) of icing sugar (confectioners sugar) with 2 tablespoons of water. Mix this to form a thickish icing which can be drizzled across the buns.

I want to get up to fresh cinnamon buns in the morning, how do I do this?

If you want fresh, aromatic Cinnamon Buns for breakfast then all you need to do is to place the buns in the fridge overnight, for the second prove. They will need to be covered by cling film (plastic wrap) whilst in the fridge to prevent the dough from forming skin. Then in the morning take them out of the fridge, preheat the oven and bake them according to the instructions and enjoy fresh buns for a breakfast treat.

Storing these sweet buns

These delicious sweet buns are at their absolute best when they’re freshly made but it can be a challenge to eat 12 cinnamon buns straight off so what are the options?

Firstly, you can store these for 2-3 days in an appropriate airtight container. Secondly, you can freeze the buns for later. These buns freeze successfully for up to 2 months in the freezer. Defrost on the countertop when you’re ready to eat them.

To completely restore these buns to their aromatic best, warm them through in the oven for around 5 minutes.

F.A.Q’s

If you liked this recipe then perhaps you’d like these;

• Homemade Bagels
• Soda bread
• Yogurt flatbreads
• Focaccia
• Easy Margherita Pizza

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