Cinnamon Buns

August in Georgia can be summed up into one word -- brutal.  I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who doesn't like to sweat from their eyeballs. 👀The humidity is oppressive and the temperatures are so high it forces even the most devoted outdoor enthusiast to find refuge in the air conditioning.  😅☀️

August is also the month when my daughter heads back to school, which is pretty much torture on this mommas heart and only adds to the agony of August.  😥 Don't even get me started on the torture of moving a child to college while it feels like the temperatures in Georgia rival the heat on the surface of the sun.  

When it gets so hot that I don't even have the energy or desire to go jump into our chilled neighborhood pool, I know it's August.   When I start taking flashlight walks in the dark of night because the heat is slightly more tolerable at the 9 o'clock hour, I know it's August.  When it's so steamy that I start watering my poor dehydrated plants and flowers twice a day just to keep them alive, I know it's August.  There are a lot of things that I love about warm weather but some days, this heat is too much for this girl raised in Northeast Ohio. 

I'm doing my best to embrace this sweltering month but definitely rethinking my decision to buy a black car. 🤦🏻‍♀️  I'm trying to make lemons out of lemonade - as they say.  In my case, I guess you could say that I'm activating yeast out of humidity?  Or baking bread out of fieriness?  Or rising dough out of the dog days?  Did any of those make sense?  Let's just say, I'm using the heat and humidity to my advantage to make the biggest, most tender and soft cinnamon buns EVER!  

Cinnamon Buns
Dough
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons warm milk
1 egg
2 cups + 2 Tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons butter, softened

Coating
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 Tablespoons butter, melted

Whisk milk and egg together in bowl of stand mixer.  

Add flour and yeast and knead with dough hook for 2 minutes.  Let rest 15 minutes.  

Add sugar and salt and knead 5 more minutes.  

Add butter 1 T. at a time - while mixer is running.  

Transfer to a greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour. 

Combine sugar, cinnamon and salt for coating.  Reserve 3/4 cup.  

Turn out dough onto counter.  Divide into 15 pieces.  

Roll each portion into a tight, smooth ball.

Place 4 T. melted butter.

Roll dough balls in butter.

Roll in cinnamon sugar. 

Place in a greased 9x13" pan.  

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour.  ​Bake 25 minutes at 350.  (200 degrees)

Whisk together reserved cinnamon sugar and remaining. butter.  

Brush over tops of warm rolls. Cool in dish 10 minutes.  

So what's the difference between a cinnamon roll and a cinnamon bun, you ask?   My very unscientific and unconfirmed answer is that a cinnamon roll has the cinnamon filling "rolled" up into the dough.  A cinnamon bun has the cinnamon filling on the outside of the bun.  They essentially have the same ingredients and are just two versions of the same recipe.  Either way you prefer to eat them, I hope you enjoy.

​Ciao!

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