Foodie Friday with real swanky : Cinnamon buns

 

Foodie Friday with Caitlin of Real Swanky! This week we tackle cinnamon buns with caramel, pecans, and icing.

Make these a few times, and you'll have the process down flat. Add caramelized fruit, nuts, raisins.. or make a savoury version (don't fret, that recipe's comin..) Easy peasy.

Read the steps over a few times, it's not too rough. In short, you're going to make your dough, let it rise, prep your caramel in the mean while, roll up the dough and bake. Including rising time, this takes about 70 minutes from start to end.

Ingredients I

3 cups white flour

1 tbsp white sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 packet quick rise instant yeast*

Ingredients II

1 cup almond milk

3 tbsp plant based butter

Ingredients III

1/4 cup plant based butter, at room temperature

1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

In a medium bowl, mix together all of Ingredients I*. I used this yeast:

In a sauce pan (or nuke it), melt the butter, and pour into a small bowl with the almond milk. Stir and assure the overall temperature of Ingredients II is something as warm as bath water.

At this point, turn your oven onto 250F. This will soon be turned off, for the dough to sit in for an hour.

In your mixer, pour your wet mix in. Pop that dough hook on. With your mixer on a medium speed, begin pouring in dry mix, one cup at a time.

Mix until a dough is formed. Once the dough is formed knead a few times by hand on your floured table top.

Grease up the mixer's bowl and throw the dough in it. Cover with a damp towel or cling wrap.

Turn your oven off. Place the dough + bowl + towel/cling wrap in the oven with the oven door cracked open. Set the oven timer for one hour.

Before your oven timer goes off, turn on your stove top(or nuke the butter and mix the rest in) and create your caramel sauce for the base. 

Quick caramel

2 heaping tbsp plant based butter

1/4 brown sugar, loosely packed

2 tsp ultra fine flour

1 tsp vanilla or caramel extract

Pour this melted mixture into an 8x8 or 9x9 glass baking dish, but reserve about 2 tablespoons in the bowl to brush the buns with later. Cover this sauce with nuts/fruits/raisins/coconut. I used 3/4 cup toasted pecans.

Now that your dough has risen for the first round, flour up the table top and roll the dough to about 16" long by 9" wide. This is where Ingredients III comes in handy.

With a glove, cling wrap, or your bare hand if you're full of piss + vinegar.. spread the butter across the whole top of the dough. Evenly displace the brown sugar and spice of choice.

Heat your oven to 350F. This will be the temperature you're baking your cinnamon buns at.

Roll up tightly into a log. Cut into three even pieces. Cut each of those pieces, into three pieces - you'll have 9 total pieces.

Place swirled-side-up buns into the glass dish.

Your dish should start as the caramel sauce -> then nuts/fruit/etc -> then buns -> brush the buns with the reserved caramel sauce.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned.

Let cool for about 10 minutes. Flip the whole dish onto a serving plate, or keep as is and frost (as pictured. 2 tbsp water + 1/3 cup icing sugar, mixed and mixed until thick and creamy). 

 

For more recipes and tips, visit Caitlin's food blog,

www.TheHardcoreHerbivore.com!