Cinnamon Buns

Another thing we love to make with frozen bread dough is Cinnamon Buns. The dough is soft and fluffy and with enough butter and brown sugar you get an ooey, gooey filling with a bit of carmelization. These are super simple to make and a family favourite!

You will need your frozen dough, brown sugar (darker is better), ground cinnamon, 1/2 to 1C of softened butter, flour for your work surface, a baking pan either 9×9 or 9×13 and a container, plate, platter, etc the same size as the pan you choose to bake in. A rolling pin, bread knife, pastry brush and spatula will be the tools you need.

One loaf of frozen dough will make a 9×9 pan, 2 loaves will make a 9×13. Start by defrosting the amount of loaves you need overnight in the fridge. . Once the loaves are defrosted, remove them from the fridge. Get out the pan size you need and grease the pan you are using. My preferred method is to take a bit of butter to grease the pan. Put a bit of softened butter into a piece of wax paper and spread it out, getting into all the corners and up the sides. Next, prepare your work surface by lightly flouring the counter you are working on.

Toss the dough on the floured surface a couple times to lightly coat in flour so it doesn’t stick too much. Using your rolling pin, stretch and roll the dough thin into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Using a pastry brush, brush softened butter onto the dough until the surface is covered. I put the butter into a small ceramic bowl and stir a few times to really make it spreadable. Take approximately 3/4c of brown sugar and 1 tbsp of cinnamon and combine them in a bowl. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture over the buttered dough until it is covered, minus a small edge.

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Starting at one long edge, gently lift up the edge and roll until almost the whole dough has been rolled. Grab the unrolled edge, lift and pinch to close. Take a bread knife and gently cut the roll into circles. Place the circles into the greased pan, leaving space in between for the roles to rise.

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Once all the rolls have been placed into the greased pan, place a damp towel or saran wrap over top. Place the pan into a warmed oven to allow the dough to rise. Once the dough has doubled in size, remove from the oven. Turn the oven to bake at 375F. Once ready, remove the cover from the dough and place the pan into the oven to bake for approximately 20 min. The buns will be baked when they are turning golden on top and are a hollow sound when you tap them.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes. Take a platter, plate, container, baking sheet, whatever surface you decided upon and place it flat over the pan of cinnamon buns. Holding tight, flip the pan of cinnamon buns over. If you greased enough, they should flip right out. If not, it’s ok, take a big breath, and a knife and gently work the knife along the edges where the buns are stuck. You may have to flip them back into the pan to do this, you may have to awkwardly work the knife while the buns are upside down and dripping. Once you manage to get them all out, take a spatula and scrape the rest of the melted filling out of the pan and all over the cinnamon buns. Flipping the buns over lets all the filling that melted out while cooking soak back into the buns creating that gooey, caramel filling.

The cinnamon buns will hold best if sealed in an airtight container. You can reheat for 20 sec in the microwave before eating to really enjoy that fresh baked warmth again. You can also freeze the cinnamon buns if you made a bigger batch. Freeze either in an airtight container or place in a freeze ziploc bag. Defrost on the counter when ready to eat again. You can even defrost, then wrap in foil and warm in the oven if serving for breakfast or dessert.