Recipe By Chef Tom Francz
The bakery chain Cinnabon was founded in 1985 in Seattle, Washington. Its flagship product is a cinnamon bun with a sweet cream cheese frosting. Here is my personal version of these buns. Because they’re so rich, I reserve them for special occasions. A Chanukah party is a great excuse to fire up your oven for them! Try them and you’ll be sold…
Yields 20-24 buns
In a small bowl, mix together yeast with one teaspoon of the sugar and half a cup of warm milk. Set aside for about 10 minutes, until mixture is bubbly.
Sprinkle the salt into a mixer bowl and add flour, butter, eggs, remaining sugar, and remaining milk. Add the yeast mixture and knead with a dough hook until you have a soft, pliable, and slightly sticky dough. Transfer to a work surface and knead a few minutes more.
Transfer to a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until the dough doubles in volume. (You can cover with plastic wrap and allow it to rise slowly in the refrigerator, overnight.)
In a bowl, mix together the filling ingredients.
Line a baking sheet with Gefen Easy Baking Parchment Paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
Divide the dough in half. Roll out each piece into a quarter-inch- (half-centimeter)- thick rectangle. Spread both rectangles with the cinnamon mixture.
Roll up into a jelly-roll shape and cut into one- and- a- quarter-inch (three-centimeter) slices, working carefully so they retain their round shape. Press down the ends of the dough of each bun and place on the prepared baking sheet, leaving three quarters of an inch (two centimeters) between the buns. Let them rise for about half an hour, or until doubled in volume.
Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly golden.
For uniform-looking buns, put them in greased muffin pans before letting them rise a second time. You can also put the buns in a round pan for a family-size cake. Leave space between them because they spread a lot during rising.
Place all frosting ingredients into a bowl and beat with a hand mixer. When the buns come out of the oven, spread with a generous amount of frosting. Serve hot.
You can bake the buns and freeze without the frosting. Before serving, warm them and spread with frosting.
If you want to skip the cream cheese frosting, I recommend making a glaze out of equal amounts of sugar and water and pouring over the buns while they’re still warm.
Photography: Daniel Lailah
Food and Prop Styling: Noa Kanarek
