Mini Cinnamon Buns
Ingredients
1 packet, Dry Yeast
1/2 cup, Warm Water
1/2 Cup, warmed milk
4 Cups, All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon, Salt
1/4 Cup, Sugar
1/3 Cup, Butter, unsalted, melted
1 Egg
1/2 Cup, Melted Butter (to spread on dough)
3-4 tablespoons, Cinnamon (enough to cover the dough)
3-4 tablespoons, Brown Sugar (enough to cover dough)
3-4 Tablespoons, White Sugar (enough to cover dough)
1 Tablespoon, Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 Teaspoon, Nutmeg
3/4 Cup, Pecans, Toasted and finely chopped (I chop them in my mini processor)
Icing:
1 Cup, Powdered Sugar
1 Teaspoon, Vanilla Extract
3 Tablespoons, Milk
1 Teaspoon, pure maple syrup
Instructions
Mini Cinnabons-getting ready for oven
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl (standing mixer using bread attachment) mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add the yeast mixture to the milk mixture and mix well.
Mix in remaining flour until dough starts to form into a ball. Remove from bowl and place onto a floured surface. Start to knead the dough for a few minutes. Then place the dough into a bowl (spray bowl with cooking spray), cover and set aside on the counter. Let the dough rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
When doubled in size, remove from the bowl and place back onto a floured surface. You’ll want to punch down the dough to get any air bubbles out of it. Roll dough out onto a floured surface and try to form it into a rectangle. Spread melted butter all over dough. Mix sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice and then sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with the pecans. Starting at the long end of your dough, start to role up dough and pinch edge together to seal. Cut into thick slices.
Coat the bottom of baking pan with cooking spray, place cinnamon roll slices close together in the pan and let rise again until dough is doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.
While the cinnamon buns are cooking, make your icing. Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, maple syrup and add milk (add milk 1 tablespoon at a little at a time), just until the glaze reaches desired consistency.
Remove buns from oven. I like to remove the buns from the dish, place on a cake stand and then ice them. If you want to serve them in the dish you baked them in then just ice them after they come out of the oven. Depending on how many buns you are serving, you may need more icing.
Tips
You can add anything you like to this such as raisins or another type of nut. You can play around with flavors, with the icing. You could add orange juice as your liquid to the icing or eggnog for the Holidays. You could also use almond extract instead of vanilla to change up the flavor.
I have tried making cinnamon buns by making dough from scratch and I have tried a shortcut using store bought pizza dough. I have to say my favorite is making the dough from scratch. It tastes so much better and has a very different texture to it. I used the store bought pizza dough because I was serving a brunch with multiple dishes. I thought I would say some time as it takes a little longer to make from scratch. But, making this from scratch is so worth it. You can make them the day ahead too; keep them in a long rolled up log and wrap with plastic wrap. You can even make further ahead and wrap and place in freezer bags. Just pull out the day ahead to thaw out and they cook up perfectly!