Cinnamon Buns
Cinnamon Bun
These cinnamon rolls have a soft, pillowy dough with a warm cinnamon flavor. Instead of the usual cinnamon butter, we use a creamy cinnamon pastry filling that keeps the rolls extra tender.
Finished with a sweet vanilla glaze, this version offers a lighter, sweeter alternative to the classic cream cheese frosting. If you’re craving that classic cream cheese frosting though, try the recipe here from my cinnamon rolls!
The dough is cut into strips and rolled on itself rather than into a log, giving each roll a cleaner, more consistent & professional shape.
Ingredients
Method
Into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the condensed milk, whole milk and egg.
Add the remaining dry ingredients over the top.
Attach the dough hook, and knead on medium speed for 5 minutes. Recipe note: This part of the dough is quite a low hydration (meaning there isn't a lot of liquid) so if your dough looks quite dry and crumbly as you are trying to knead, it could be that the flour you are using it absorbing more liquid than the flour I used! In this case, just add a splash more milk...(20-40g), until the dough pulls together.
After 5 minutes of kneading, the dough will still be quite shaggy. Still on a medium speed, add the butter, just a few cubes at a time, allowing the mixer to work the butter into the dough before adding the next few pieces (about 20-30s in between each addition of butter).
Scrape down the bowl as needed to make sure all the butter is incorporated.
Once all the butter is mixed in and you no longer see any lumps, turn the mixer off and let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
Turn the mixer back on and knead the dough for a further 5-10 minutes, scraping down the bowl 3-4 times as it mixes, until you have a smooth dough that is pulling away from the sides of the stand mixer.
Lift the dough out of the bowl and onto your work surface. Give it a brief knead and shape it into a tight ball. Lift it into a lightly oiled bowl and cover it with clingfilm. Refrigerate overnight (or 12 hours).
Into a medium bowl, add the cornflour/cornstarch, sugar, salt and egg yolks. Whisk them for 30 seconds, until smooth.
Meanwhile, add the milk to a medium saucepan and place it over a medium heat. You can add vanilla here if you would like, but cinnamon is really the dominant flavour.
Once the milk is steaming, slowly pour it over the egg yolk mixture and whisk to combine.
Pour the entire mixture back into the pan, and whisk constantly over a medium-low heat until it begins to bubble. Once boiling, cook it for a further minute.
Remove the mixture from the pan and pour it through a sieve, placed on top of another bowl. Press it through the sieve with a rubber spatula.
Add in the cubed butter, and the ground cinnamon, and whisk to combine. Cover the surface with clingfilm and refrigerate the mixture for 2 hours or until cold.
Take a 10" square tin, and lightly grease the inside with butter. Line the base and sides with parchment paper and set the tin to one side.
After chilling the dough, remove it from the fridge for a few minutes as it will be quite firm.
Meanwhile, remove the cinnamon pastry cream from the fridge, and whisk it by hand for about 30 seconds until it is a smooth, spreadable consistency.
Lightly flour your dough and the work surface and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 35cm tall, by 30cm wide (and roughly 5-6mm thick). Then, using a pastry wheel, trim the dough down, so that you have a final rectangle that is 33cm tall.
Spread the pastry cream evenly across the entire dough, leaving a slight bit uncovered along the bottom edge, just to help seal the dough when you roll it up.
Then, cut the dough into 9 equal strips, 3cm in width (giving you 9 strips that are 33x3cm). You will have a small amount of extra dough at the edges.
Starting from the top edge, roll the dough on itself, in a tight spiral, using that bit of uncovered dough to just seal the spiral together as you reach the end.
Place the spiral of dough into the tin, and repeat with the remaining strips, leaving equal amounts of room in between each swirl of dough. If you want to make them extra neat, ensure the 'tails' of the spiral are all facing the same direction when you place them into the pan.
Loosely cover the tin with a tea towel, and allow the buns to proof. They should take around 2 hours at room temperature. You are looking for them to double in size and almost be touching.
Just before they are proofed, heat the oven to 180C/355F Non-Fan Assisted (or 160C/320F Fan Assisted).
Place the tray of proofed cinnamon buns into the centre of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until they are an even golden colour all over.
Just before the buns are done baking, add all of the ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk until you have a smooth glaze. If you make this ahead of time, ensure the surface of the glaze is completely covered otherwise it will dry out.
Once the buns are cooked, let them cool for just a few minutes before spooning some of the glaze on to the top of each bun, and spreading it out.
These are best served fresh and warm!
Ingredients
Directions
Into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the condensed milk, whole milk and egg.
Add the remaining dry ingredients over the top.
Attach the dough hook, and knead on medium speed for 5 minutes. Recipe note: This part of the dough is quite a low hydration (meaning there isn't a lot of liquid) so if your dough looks quite dry and crumbly as you are trying to knead, it could be that the flour you are using it absorbing more liquid than the flour I used! In this case, just add a splash more milk...(20-40g), until the dough pulls together.
After 5 minutes of kneading, the dough will still be quite shaggy. Still on a medium speed, add the butter, just a few cubes at a time, allowing the mixer to work the butter into the dough before adding the next few pieces (about 20-30s in between each addition of butter).
Scrape down the bowl as needed to make sure all the butter is incorporated.
Once all the butter is mixed in and you no longer see any lumps, turn the mixer off and let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
Turn the mixer back on and knead the dough for a further 5-10 minutes, scraping down the bowl 3-4 times as it mixes, until you have a smooth dough that is pulling away from the sides of the stand mixer.
Lift the dough out of the bowl and onto your work surface. Give it a brief knead and shape it into a tight ball. Lift it into a lightly oiled bowl and cover it with clingfilm. Refrigerate overnight (or 12 hours).
Into a medium bowl, add the cornflour/cornstarch, sugar, salt and egg yolks. Whisk them for 30 seconds, until smooth.
Meanwhile, add the milk to a medium saucepan and place it over a medium heat. You can add vanilla here if you would like, but cinnamon is really the dominant flavour.
Once the milk is steaming, slowly pour it over the egg yolk mixture and whisk to combine.
Pour the entire mixture back into the pan, and whisk constantly over a medium-low heat until it begins to bubble. Once boiling, cook it for a further minute.
Remove the mixture from the pan and pour it through a sieve, placed on top of another bowl. Press it through the sieve with a rubber spatula.
Add in the cubed butter, and the ground cinnamon, and whisk to combine. Cover the surface with clingfilm and refrigerate the mixture for 2 hours or until cold.
Take a 10" square tin, and lightly grease the inside with butter. Line the base and sides with parchment paper and set the tin to one side.
After chilling the dough, remove it from the fridge for a few minutes as it will be quite firm.
Meanwhile, remove the cinnamon pastry cream from the fridge, and whisk it by hand for about 30 seconds until it is a smooth, spreadable consistency.
Lightly flour your dough and the work surface and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 35cm tall, by 30cm wide (and roughly 5-6mm thick). Then, using a pastry wheel, trim the dough down, so that you have a final rectangle that is 33cm tall.
Spread the pastry cream evenly across the entire dough, leaving a slight bit uncovered along the bottom edge, just to help seal the dough when you roll it up.
Then, cut the dough into 9 equal strips, 3cm in width (giving you 9 strips that are 33x3cm). You will have a small amount of extra dough at the edges.
Starting from the top edge, roll the dough on itself, in a tight spiral, using that bit of uncovered dough to just seal the spiral together as you reach the end.
Place the spiral of dough into the tin, and repeat with the remaining strips, leaving equal amounts of room in between each swirl of dough. If you want to make them extra neat, ensure the 'tails' of the spiral are all facing the same direction when you place them into the pan.
Loosely cover the tin with a tea towel, and allow the buns to proof. They should take around 2 hours at room temperature. You are looking for them to double in size and almost be touching.
Just before they are proofed, heat the oven to 180C/355F Non-Fan Assisted (or 160C/320F Fan Assisted).
Place the tray of proofed cinnamon buns into the centre of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until they are an even golden colour all over.
Just before the buns are done baking, add all of the ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk until you have a smooth glaze. If you make this ahead of time, ensure the surface of the glaze is completely covered otherwise it will dry out.
Once the buns are cooked, let them cool for just a few minutes before spooning some of the glaze on to the top of each bun, and spreading it out.
These are best served fresh and warm!
Hi Matt! This recipe looks wonderful as usual! Just wondering if you would advise using your classic French Brioche recipe in place of the one here for the base dough, or is there a reason why that one might not work out here? Thank you!!
I tend to prefer to use that recipe as ‘bread’ and use a recipe with slightly less butter for cinnamon rolls!
I wonder what difference 25 grams of sweetened condensed milk makes in the dough. Since it comes in 14 ounce cans there would be a lot left over, and I don’t use it very often. Is there a substitute I could use? Thanks!
It is really used to add some tenderness to the dough + moisture. But no problem you can just add another 25g of milk!
Hi Matt I tried kneading the dough by hand with the butter. But the butter wouldn’t combine properly with the dough. Any idea what to do.
Was the butter too cold? It can be hard to incorporate butter by hand i’m afraid!!
Matt, I baked these last night and they came out so perfect, absolutely delicious. Cinnamon scrolls are my husbands favourite and I’ve been looking for a perfect recipe for so long. THIS IS IT. THANK YOU
ahhh so so happy!
Is it possible to prepare them beforehand and freeze them? If so, in what way? Already baked? Just the dough? The raw but rolled buns?
I had the same question. And Matt, thank you for sharing your talents with us. Fun guy.
Not Matt but I do have some insight on this matter as I worked in a bread bakery for a bit.
Making bread far in advance is a pretty tall order. For the best results in terms of make-ahead-value I’d recommend baking the recipe as called. Then you want to catch the bake perfectly because once the bread cools you can then freeze them. Already baked bread freezes beautifully (it’s actually the preferred manner to store bread/pastries/cakes for longer than 3-7 days!). You can then take them straight from freezer and put them in a 180C (350F) oven for 5-10 mins and top with icing as called for in the recipe. Making the icing fresh is preferred because I’m not too sure how sugar crystallizes in the freezer.
If you want to freeze dough that’s going to be pretty hard and you’ll likely have a subpar result to be honest. If you must reduce the yeast by half and freeze the dough once shaped but not after the final proof. This will last for about a month conservatively, 3 months if you’re a daredevil and risky. Simply take the dough out and place it in the fridge the night prior. In the morning check the proof status because you may need to let it sit at room temperature for an hour or two. The proof will be drastically weakened because the yeast slowly dies in the freezer so be prepared for that.
Best of luck because this recipe is amazing. Using a pastry cream stops the filling from leaking and the individual rolling versus the roll then cut method grants you a greater product in terms of consistency and cleanliness. This is what the bakery I worked at did! We even tucked the tail end of the spiral to the bottom of the roll before placing it into the muffin tins to further ensure filling stability!
Made these today…well, made the dough yesterday, and wow! Fluffy, buttery and delicious. Great recipe, thanks!
So glad!!
Matt, they came out great! The dough was a little tricky for me to work with. I think I should have chilled it again after rolling the rectangle and spreading the pastry cream. We love cinnamon/ sticky buns around here so I’ve probably tried five different recipes over the last few months. This is the stand out. I think the pastry cream sets it apart. Thanks!
Really glad Edwina!!
These were absolutely delicious! A great alternative to traditional cinnamon buns which can quickly get too sweet and rich – these were much better for Christmas breakfast. We added chopped hazelnuts to the filling for an extra festive feel.
So glad!!
Made this yesterday. SO Good! The brioche dough is just the texture and taste I was looking for in a dough. I’ve made our family recipe for years but knew there had to be something better out there for home bakers. I thought the amount of cinnamon might too much but honestly i’d add 50-100% more next time! 🙂 FIVE STARS!
Ahh thank you Debbie!!!
Hi Matt, rather than proving overnight in the fridge, can you just prove it for a couple of hours at room temperature?
Should be fine!
Hey Matt, can I make the pastry cream the night before? Like at the same time I make the dough?
yeh sure!
Hi Matt!
Would it be useful to use yudane in this recipe? or it is not really necessary?
I think the dough is soft so doesn’t need it but you can try it yeh!