- Hey, guys.
Today, I'm going to show you how to make
my overnight cinnamon buns.
I love this idea because cinnamon buns,
let's face it,
can be a lot of work.
You typically have to let them rise for an hour
then you're going to punch down the dough,
fill them, cut them,
and let that rise for another half hour.
Then they have to bake for about 45 minutes
and by the time you're done,
three hours have gone by.
Who wants to go through all that on a Sunday morning?
Not me.
So I'm going to show you a technique
that allows for your dough to rise
while you are sleeping,
and then all you have to do
is wake up the next morning,
fill, cut, and bake.
Let me show you how to put it together.
So, the first thing we're going to do is create our dough.
So in a large bowl, you're going to add:
three and a half cups of just plain, all purpose flour;
one packet of dry active yeast;
two teaspoons of sugar;
a teaspoon of salt;
one teaspoon of ground cinnamon;
one teaspoon of grated orange zest,
which I think is also a really nice flavor
to add with the cinnamon,
especially this time of year.
And a half a cup of raisins.
Now, I know, for my raisin haters, you're all cringing,
wondering why we're putting raisins in the dough,
so you can definitely leave it out
if you want to.
I like to add the raisins to the dough
and then reserve the nuts for the filling,
but really it's up to you.
So you're just going to whisk up these dry ingredients
until everything's combined.
Then you're also going to add
one and a quarter cup of warm water
and the important thing here
is to make sure that that water
is anywhere between 110 degrees Fahrenheit
up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
You don't want it to be any lower
because, if it is, it's not going to activate the yeast
and, it it's any higher, it can actually kill the yeast.
So you want to make sure you're within that range.
And then you're also going to add
two tablespoons of melted butter.
Then, with a spatula, you can go ahead
and just combine all these ingredients
until you start to get a nice dough forming
and it will be a bit sticky
and some of the flour will still stick to the bowl
and that's okay.
Just keep kind of pushing down that flour
and stirring the dough
until everything's incorporated.
Then you can turn it out onto a floured surface
and knead it about 20 turns or so.
You just kind of want to work in that flour.
Just form it into a ball.
Put it in a cleaned out bowl
that's been greased with some butter.
And then you want to cover this with some plastic wrap.
Excuse the polka dots.
I bought this plastic wrap;
I didn't know it was decorated,
but, hey, it adds a nice party flair
to the occasion.
Okay, then there's two other things
that you want to prepare the night before.
You want to prepare the filling,
so in a small bowl you're going to add:
three tablespoons of brown sugar;
three tablespoons of white sugar;
a teaspoon of ground cinnamon;
and a teaspoon of ground orange zest.
You can whisk that all up with a fork
until everything is combined
and you're also going to add
a half cup of chopped pecans
and give that a toss.
Then another thing you want to do
is take out of your fridge
four tablespoons of butter
because you want to make sure,
when you wake up in the morning,
that butter is nice and soft
and at room temperature.
And then you have all your components ready to go,
and your morning will be stress-free.
And then, when you wake up, you will see
your beautiful dough has been slowly rising
all night long,
and is ready to be rolled out.
So you can turn it out onto a floured surface
and then you're going to roll it out
into a large rectangle.
So, I think the size that works best
is 18 inches by 14 inches.
And if you're on the metric system,
I'll put the conversions in the description.
I can't really do that off the top of my head.
But it's in there.
And you're going to take your softened butter
and you're going to smear it all over
the inside of the dough.
And you want to make sure you really go out to those edges
because, remember, this represents
somebody's inside of a cinnamon bun,
so if you skimp on the edges,
it's not going to get that sugary, syrupy inside
which makes these so good.
So no skimping.
And then you can go ahead and sprinkle the filling
all on top of the butter.
And then, working on the long side,
just gently rolling it all the way to the end
and then position your log so that
the seam side is down.
And then, if you took out a measuring tape,
you would see you have
about an 18 inch log,
which is perfect.
And what we want to do is cut every two inches.
And, once you do that,
hold onto those little pieces at the end.
Don't worry.
I have a spot for those.
And then I'm just going to lightly grease
a cast iron skillet.
And if you don't have a cast iron skillet,
that's okay.
You could use a pie dish or
just any kind of baking casserole would do the trick.
Then, working with your largest cinnamon buns first,
you're going to place them in the skillet
just all around the perimeter
and then, taking the little ones that you have left,
you're going to tuck those into the center.
Then, the final step,
as if we haven't put enough butter in these already,
but this does help create a really nice, syrupy finish
once they're baked,
is just to brush the tops
with a little bit of melted butter.
You don't have to go overboard,
but just a little.
And then we're going to place
in a 350 degree oven for about 40 to 45 minutes,
just until they're nice and golden brown
and puffed up and bubbly.
And, meanwhile, we'll create
our cream cheese glaze.
So, in a small bowl you're going to add:
a quarter cup of cream cheese;
one tablespoon of powdered sugar.
And then go ahead and mix those together
so that it's nice and combined and smooth.
And then you're also going to add
half a teaspoon of vanilla extract
and one tablespoon of milk.
Now, I like to add the milk
because I like more of a runny glaze,
but if you're more of a thick frosting person,
which I totally get,
lots of cinnamon buns are made that way, too,
just don't add the milk
and you'll have thicker frosting.
Then you want to spoon the glaze
over the cinnamon buns while they're still warm
because this will allow it to kind of melt a little bit,
seep into all the nooks and crannies
and it looks really beautiful, too.
And then you can take any of the glaze
that you have leftover
and place it in a little serving bowl.
I do like to serve this on the side
so that if somebody wants more glaze,
it's right there and they can help themselves.
And you'll see when you take these cinnamon buns
out of the skillet
how delicious they are.
You've got that warm cinnamon filling
mixed with a little hint of orange zest
and, of course, that decadent cream cheese glaze.
Could there be anything better on a Sunday morning?
I hope you guys give these a try
and let me know what you think.
Be sure to subscribe for more quick and easy recipes
and I'll see you back here next week with a new one.
Until then, bye.
(upbeat music)