I’d always enjoyed a good Cinnamon Bun but one of the girls at work seems to have brought out an obsession within me. It started with Starbucks – delicious but bloody expensive! Then a Greggs opened up across the road from work and their Cinnamon Buns are just as good and only 90p! What more could you ask for? I’ll tell you what more – an entire tray of Cinnamon Buns, home baked and fresh from the oven. Can you blame me for being obsessed?
I have searched for the perfect Cinnamon Bun recipe for quite a while now, usually being disappointed to find that they are either incredibly tedious or in American units (ie. cups). So I decided to take it upon myself to try some out and come up with a fool-proof UK recipe for Cinnamon Buns that although does require a couple of dough rises, is not impossible for your average home baker to achieve without the aid of professional bakery setting.
The dough on these Cinnamon Buns (or Cinnamon Rolls, as some know them) is delicious, so much so that I reckon they would be just lovely on their own. But with the simple, yet well established buttery, cinnamon-sugar filling the dough transforms into a the beautiful buns that I find myself obsessed with. In terms of the icing, I like to keep it simple but I found a lot of recipes that opt for a cream cheese icing if you fancy something a little richer.
You might notice my recipe is also lacking in raisins, which is a personal choice. Not that I don’t enjoy a raisin filled Cinnamon Bun but these are optional and when it comes to making your own, you can mix things up however you please – more raisins, no raisins, even changing up the filling…not a cinnamon fan? Try smothering with Nutella instead!
Whatever you do with these classic Cinnamon Buns, you’re sure to be onto a winner!
Granny’s Top Tips
♥ For perfectly neat buns, instead of cutting your dough with a knife, use a piece of thread. Simply place under your sausage of dough and pull around in a circle for nice neat, even buns.
- 240ml Milk
- 140g Granulated Sugar
- 2 Packs of Easy Yeast (14g)
- 115g Butter (at room temperature)
- 2 Eggs
- 300g Plain Flour
- 250g Strong White Flour
- 90g Butter (at room temperature)
- 100g Granulated Sugar
- 1½ tbsp Ground Cinnamon
- 100g Icing Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2-3 tbsp Milk
- In a small pan warm the milk until it's lukewarm. Pour the milk into a large bowl.
- Add the sugar and yeast to the milk and gently stir with a spoon until the sugar has dissolved. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let the mixture sit until the yeast is foamy - this should only take 5-10 minutes.
- Using a dough hook (or a spoon if not using an electric mixer) beat in the butter on a low speed until it has broken into little pieces.
- Still on a low speed, add the eggs one at a time. Then gradually add the flour.
- Once all ingredients are added, beat on a medium speed until you have a soft dough - about 6 minutes. (If you are not using a mixer you can knead the dough by hand for this step).
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it by hand for 1 minute. Form the dough into a ball and transfer into a lightly greased bowl and cover loosely with a piece of lightly greased cling film. Leave to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size (around 1 to 2 hours).
- Lightly grease a baking tray with butter and line with grease-proof paper - a 9x13 inch tray is perfect.
- Once your dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and using a rolling pin, roll it into a rectangle around 13x18 inches in size. It's important to make sure your dough is of even thickness all over to ensure you have nice neat buns.
- Spread the butter over the dough (I find using my fingers to be the easiest way to do this!) right up to the edges.
- In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon together and then sprinkle evenly all over the buttered dough.
- Roll the dough tightly and evenly to create a 18 inch sausage. Cut the sausage into 12 individual rolls - I tend to cut in half, quarters and then thirds to make sure I get even rolls. Arrange the rolls in your pre-prepared tray and cover loosely with lightly greased cling film.
- Leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours until they look light and puffy.
- After your buns have gone through their second rise, remove the cling film and place the tray in a pre-heated oven at 180°c and bake for around 20 minutes until golden brown.
- Mix together the icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk to create the icing. You can add more or less milk depending on your personal preference.
- Spread evenly across the buns shortly after the come out the oven. Leave your cinnamon buns to cool a little until they are just warm and enjoy.
I adore cinnamon buns and have tried many recipes, including a ‘dangerous’ 30 minute recipe which I have on my blog. These look absolutely lush. Perfect for lazy Sunday mornings.
Thank you for sharing this recipe – I have a cinnamon bun obsession and this has made my day! And great tip on Greggs, I’ve been a Starbucks devotee but could be turned for that price! Can’t wait to try these :) #foodiefridays x
These look amazing! I love cinnamon buns. Cinnabon do fantastic ones, albeit a tad enormous. I’m very much a novice baker so not sure if I’ll be brave enough to try this myself just yet though!
Love love cinnamon buns! I always struggle with making yeast doughs in the past, but these look so good that I may have to give it another go. Great share and one I’ll definitely book mark #foodiefriday
These look amazing. I’m not sure I would have the patience though! Maybe for a rainy day :D #foodiefriday
Omg these look amazing I will definitely be giving these a try !!!
Thank you for linking up with #foodiefriday
OK, so it;s a bank holiday weekend so an extra lazy (ish) day so i am definitely going to take some time out to try this recipe, I can almost smell them. mmmmmmm
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Hi Amy,
I really like the Cinnamon Buns recipe and wanted to say thanks. If I had one comment to make though, I doubled the amount of Icing Sugar for the topping and thought this gave a better amount of Icing on top of the Buns:-)
Has anyone made the dough the day before and baked them at a later stage?
Hello Pam. I’ve had great success in prepping these the evening before and baking for breakfast in the morning. Follow until “For the Filling: step 3” and as opposed to leaving the buns to rise in a warm place for a couple of hours, pop them in the fridge (ensuring they are well covered). In the morning, bring them out, allow them to warm to room temperature and until they look light & puffy. Then bake as normal! I often find you get a better tasting bun with this method too as it gives the dough an extending proving period.
I’ve got 6 kids of my own and they had friends to stay last night so made these and popped uncooked in fridge overnight, I was up before the kids this morning took out of fridge and put on open over door whilst oven was on, 1/2 hour later popped in oven (and closed door) and they baked beautifully. Happy kids waking to fresh cinnamon buns!! Thank you
These look awesome – going to give them a try!
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Just made these and was amazed at how easy the recipe was. I replaced the milk in the icing for the juice of a clementine with a little of the rind – delicious xx
Hi these are fab but to much for us to eat in a couple of days, can the dough be frozen or maybe the buns before icing?
Thanks.
Thank you!!! As a fellow cinnamon bun obsessive I was very grateful to find a UK recipe I could have a go at. These are brilliant. They turned out so well and were much lighter and fluffier than the shop bought versions I’ve tried. I will definitely be making these again. I think I might add a little warmed apricot jam as glaze before the icing next time to make them extra sticky!