Cinabon style Cinnamon swirl buns with fluffy cream cheese frosting

I’ve had a ten year love affair with cinnamon buns since I first made the recipe for ‘Norweigan Cinnamon buns‘ from the How to be a domestic goddess cookbook by Nigella. So when I saw this recipe for gourmet style cinnamon buns over at Sweetapolita, I nearly wept. They look so scrumptious, so perfectly fluffy and pillowy plump, so YUM.

*and for anyone who doesn’t know, this is a cinnabon and they have three locations in the UK now!

Sadly mine didn’t turn out exactly like Sweetapolita’s. They didn’t rise or get plumped up even though I left them someplace warm. This recipe is a tweaked version of the orignal, and its how I would make when I make them again to ensure an even more successful result. Because they were scrumptious.

For the dough -this made about 18 buns, some of them huuuuge

• 2 packets dry yeast (the small sachets)
• 2 cups warm whole milk
• 1 cup granulated or caster sugar
• 2/3 cup butter
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 8 cups plain flour

For the filling -

• 2 cups light brown caster or caster sugar
• 6 tablespoons cinnamon (ideally a freshly bought jar so its super fresh and cinnamony)
• 1.5 cups very soft butter

For the frosting – the frosting is optional and I made some with and some without. Its amazing.

• 120g cream cheese
• 1/2 cup very soft butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tsps fresh lemon juice

This is the kind of yeast you need

First, warm the milk over the hob or in the microwave. You want it to be tepid (hand hot) so it will activate but not kill the yeast. Add the yeast, sugar, very soft butter, eggs, salt and flour. My mix was a disgusting looking mess at that point so I went in with the electric whisk and blended it up. It started to look (and taste!) like cake batter, yum. Gradually add your 8 cups of flour until the mix starts to resemble a bread dough. It is a wet dough so don’t worry that its difficult to knead, just add enough flour so thats its do-able and do the best you can. Once its one large (and by that I mean MASSIVE) ball of dough, place in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and let it rise in a warm place for around an hour. It should double in size in that time. I hope you have a humongous bowl!!

Yeah so mine didn’t really rise at all. I’m not sure what happened – possibly my milk wasn’t warm enough to activate the yeast? Regardless, the buns still tasted fantastic so don’t worry if that happens to you too!

At this point, preheat your oven to around 160 degrees/gas mark 5. Generously flour your work surface (you’ll need a BIG space as you need to roll the dough out to roughly 21 inches long and 16 across). Roll roll roll until the doughs about a quarter of an inch thick.

To fill the buns, just mix the sugar, butter and cinnamon together and then spread the yummyily fragrant mix onto the surface of the dough, leaving a perimiter of about an inch around the edge thats bare. I think this method would work better than the one from the original recipe, since I had some problems with the sugar cinnamon mix falling out of my buns.

Once your mix is evenly spread over the dough, start rolling it up into a giant sausage from the furthest away edge. Work slowly and roll it up tightly. It may be easier to get someone to help you if possible.

Next, prepare your largest cookie sheets/baking trays with parchment paper or tin foil. Parchment paper would be better as my tin foil stuck to the tins a little, but will do fine at a pinch. Get a sharp serrated knife and start to cut the cinnamon dough sausage into roughly 1 – 1.5 inch swirls (like swiss roll slices).

Pop your buns into the oven and bake for around twenty minutes. I rotated mine on the shelves in my oven, to prevent any one lot of them getting too browned. As they look ready, take them out of the oven and put onto a cooling rack. While your buns are cooking, make the frosting, and try to avoid eating it all before they’re cool…

Dollop and eateateateateateateateat.

x Kerry