This is such an old recipe and I am so glad to finally share it here. Over the past few years it has had many “faces” in my kitchen with me playing around with different flours, fillings, toppings, etc. but I still come back to this original version with just a couple of little changes.
I like to use spelt flour for the buns as it is more digestible than wheat and results in a softer bun texture. If preferred you can use bakers flour instead … the texture will be a little firmer but you will still get a lovely baked bun.
This is a very sticky dough, but don’t be put off, it will bake up beautifully. Just remember to oil your bread mat, and to flour your hands first before handling. What I have learned over time is that quite often the stickier the dough (think of brioche) the more beautiful the final baked item. It is just a little bit of a challenge to handle, but it can be done very easily especially if you have a silicon mat.
This recipe makes 8 buns with the smallest one placed in the middle … this allows the middle bun to cook right through as there is a lot of dough once it is risen. Originally I used to make 7 buns, but more recently I have been making 8 and I actually prefer the even number. It is also important to use a round baking tin that is 25cm wide … if using a 24cm round cake tin, just make sure the middle bun is the smallest, and that you bake it until it is well risen in the middle and when pressed with your finger there is very little give so that you know the middle bun is completely cooked. If necessary cook it for an extra few minutes if you feel it needs it.
For much of my home baking I use seeds instead of nuts due to nut allergy, so if this is your situation too then I recommend you use “toasted” seeds as that will give you more flavour (see here for my process).
Some years ago I watched a wonderful baker use dental floss to cut through her sticky dough when making cinnamon buns, and have been using that method ever since … it is a fantastic way to manage the sticky dough instead of trying to cut through the dough with a knife.
To help clean my bowl after making a sticky dough, I fill the bowl with water up to the top of the blades, add a dash of detergent, then heat 3 minutes / 60 degrees / speed 6, remove the bowl from the carousel and allow the water to sit in it for about 30 minutes, empty the bowl and most of the dough will have melted into the water and there should be very little left to clean. A quick rinse through with a Thermomix brush will do the rest – if there is any dough left.
This is actually quite a quick recipe to make as most of the time is taken with waiting for the dough to rise on two occasions (roughly 45 minutes the first time, and 45 minutes to an hour the second time). So I have noted in the recipe link that total time from start to finish is approximately 3 hours including baking time (2 hours 30 minutes prep time, and 30 minutes baking time), but this will largely depend on room temperature on the day.
If you wish to make this in advance, and I have done that often, then once the bun is cool, double wrap in Glad Wrap and place into the freezer. The day before you plan to serve it, remove bun from the freezer the night before and leave on your kitchen bench overnight to defrost. Thirty minutes before serving, place cinnamon bun onto a baking tray, spray with a little water, cover top with Alfoil tucking a couple of the Alfoil edges under the bun to keep it in place, and refresh in a preheated 180 degree fan forced oven for 15 to 20 minutes (I usually do it for 20 minutes but this will depend on your oven). Serve whole and allow guests to pull off their own pieces.
- 75g butter, room temperature
- 50g dark muscovado sugar, or dark brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes, or ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 50g dried currants
- 50g dried craisins
- 50g walnuts, chopped / or pepitas and sunflower seeds for nut free
- Olive oil for sprinkling over silicon mat
- 300g full cream milk
- 60g butter
- 1 sachet dried yeast
- 400g white spelt flour
- 100g wholemeal spelt flour
- 70g raw caster sugar
- 1 ½ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes, or ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 x 60g egg
- 1 x 60g egg, lightly beaten
- Sprinkle of raw caster sugar
- Place filling ingredients into TM bowl and mix 5 seconds / speed 5
- Place into a small bowl and put aside, do not clean TM bowl
- Place a small bowl on top of the TM bowl and weigh in the fruit and nuts/seeds, put aside
- Lightly sprinkle olive oil over your silicon mat and spread to the edges with your fingers, put aside
- Place milk and butter into TM bowl and heat 3 minutes / 50 degrees / speed 1
- Add yeast to ™ bowl first, then other dough ingredients, and lastly place egg on top and knead 2 minutes and 30 seconds, scraping around bowl half way through to catch any dough around the sides
- Upturn your ™ bowl over silicon mat and let it stand upside down for 20 seconds to help the dough release from the blades, then "twiddle" the base of the blades to help the rest of the dough to fall out ... dip your spatula into a bowl of water and use the wet spatula to scrape around the bowl to collect as much dough as possible (the dough will not stick to a wet spatula), then Turbo x 1 second to release the last of the dough and collect it with your wet spatula
- Lightly fold the dough over itself a couple of times to make it neater (I can't help myself ... I like it looking neat!)
- Wrap the dough in the silicon mat allowing room for expansion, fold in the ends and turn the mat over to fully enclose the dough and allow to prove for 40 minutes, or until at least double in size (timing will depend on room temperature)
- PS: If you don't have a silicon mat, place dough into an oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise, and then use a lightly oiled sheet of baking paper to spread the dough out on in the following steps
- Whilst dough is proving, butter the sides of a 25cm (base measurement) round cake tin, and line base with baking paper
- Once dough is proved, unwrap it, dust your hands with flour first, then press your fingers onto dough to gently stretch it out to 40cm x 30cm, with the widest edge facing you
- Dollop the filling down the middle of the dough, then use the back of a spoon to spread it evenly over the dough (doesn't need to be perfect)
- Scatter over the fruit and nut/seed topping
- Using the silicon mat, or baking paper, roll the dough into a cylinder by lifting the widest edge of the mat away from you, and gently rolling the dough over itself until it is ¾'s the way down the mat
- Then sprinkle the mat closet to you with flour, lift the far end of the mat and allow the dough to roll back onto itself so its seam ends up on the flour, and the dough is looking like a large thin Swiss Roll
- Dust your hands again with flour, and pat the ends of the dough towards each other to shorten the "cylinder" into a fatter version of its former self (hope that makes sense!)
- Before cutting dough into 8 pieces (one smaller than the other 7), roughly determine where you wish to cut the log and lightly mark the spots with your spatula
- Using a piece of dental floss, slide the floss under each section where you need to cut, and holding one end of dental floss in each hand, cross your hands over the top of the log pulling the dental floss through the dough as you go
- As you cut each piece, place it into the cake tin starting with the middle first and then work your way around (you want the smallest piece in the middle which is usually the first piece you section)
- Cover the cake tin with the silicon mat or tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (this will take 45 minutes to an hour depending on room temperature)
- When you are nearly ready to bake, preheat oven to 180 fan forced and place a shelf in the middle
- Place cake tin onto a baking tray, glaze top of bun with egg, and lightly dust with caster sugar
- Bake for 20 minutes, turn tray around and continue for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until a rich golden colour (it takes 33 minutes in my oven), and is firm in the middle when pressed with your finger
- Allow bun to cool for at least 15 minutes before releasing from cake tin to serve, or allow to cool completely on a cooling rack if planning to serve later
This is actually quite a quick recipe to make as most of the time is taken with waiting for the dough to rise on two occasions (roughly 45 minutes the first time, and 45 minutes to an hour the second time). So I have noted in the recipe link that total time from start to finish is approximately 3 hours including baking time (2 hours 30 minutes prep time, and 30 minutes baking time), but this will largely depend on room temperature on the day.
If you wish to make this in advance, and I have done that often, then once the bun is cool, double wrap in Glad Wrap and place into the freezer. The day before you plan to serve it, remove bun from the freezer the night before and leave on your kitchen bench overnight to defrost. Thirty minutes before serving, place cinnamon bun onto a baking tray, spray with a little water, cover top with Alfoil tucking a couple of the Alfoil edges under the bun to keep it in place, and refresh in a preheated 180 degree fan forced oven for 15 to 20 minutes (I usually do it for 20 minutes but this will depend on your oven). Serve whole and allow guests to pull off their own pieces.
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