Homemade DIY - Fresh Cinnamon Buns

Homemade Cinnamon Buns!  Let me say that again: Homemade Cinnamon Buns!  I made these on a whim one afternoon after drinking several porters, and ended up giving a few away to friends.  Now they keep asking about them and when I'll "bake up some more?"

The recipe is fairly simple, and all you need is the following:

• Bakers Yeast (1 packet or 1/3 tsp)
• 3 tbs butter or margarine
• water (1 cup)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• a bit more butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and confectioner's sugar

First step is to get out your mixing bowl.  Add in 1 cup of warm water and 1 packet (or a 1/3 tsp) of yeast.  Let it sit at room temp for about 5-10 minutes, but be sure to first give it a good stir to mix in the yeast.

Take a few seconds to pre-melt your butter (3tbs), and let it cool.  I usually zap it for about 20 seconds in the microwave.

Add the butter (cooled), 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tbs brown sugar into the bowl and give it a good stir to mix everything in.  Add in some cinnamon too.

Start, cup by cup, adding the flour into your mixture, until you have all 2.5 cups mixed in.  At this point you'll need to use a spoon to mix it thoroughly, since the sticky dough will just clump inside the wires of a whisk.

Cover the dough with a damp cotton cloth or cheese cloth, and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

The dough will look like this when you dump it out onto a floured flat surface.

Start kneading the dough, folding it in upon itself.

Shape the dough into a oval mound.

Cut the dough into strips, with a mild attempt to keep them even.  In the end, it won't matter much, especially if you're going to eat them one by one, rather than displaying a tray full of cinnamon buns.

Grab your rolling pin and get to work!  Roll out each strip to make an elongated wide stretch of dough.

Coat the bottom with a thin layer of melted butter, so the sugar and cinnamon will stick.

Start with the cinnamon, sprinkling liberal amounts onto the melted butter.

Add in some brown sugar and confectioner sugar, if you're feeling adventuraous.  You could also add raisins here too.

Take one end of the dough strip, and begin rolling it gently to the other end, careful not to disrupt or shift all the toppings you just added.

If you used wide strips of dough (as pictured here), you'll end up with a very tall cinnamon bun.  You'll need to fatten it up, so gently push down with your fingers to expand and shorted the cinnamon bun.

Drizzle more melted butter (or oil) on the top, and cover it with more cinnamon  and sugar (I used brown sugar).  Most of this will melt into and off the cinnamon bun while cooking, so it's okay to go overboard.

Place the buns in a greased pan and preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  You'll cook them for 20 minutes, or until they double in size.  (Yes, those are homemade pretzels next the the cinnamon buns).

Now for the topping.  The simplest is to add melted butter, which is still hot from the range/microwave, directly into a bowl of confectioner's sugar.  Here I added a few chocolate chips into the butter for good measure.  Wait to actually melt the butter, though, since you'll want the topping to be hot when you pour it in the buns.

Below is the bowl of confectioner's sugar and a little cinnamon.  It's about a cup of sugar.

Just before the buns are out of the oven, you can melt your butter.  Add the melted butter into your bowl of sugar and furiously whisk away.  Because of the chocolate chips, you'll notice my topping is brown.  Without, the sauce will look yellow.

Pull out the cinnamon buns and plate them on something that won't leak (like a plate).

Pour your topping sauce into the still hot buns.

When everything cools, you'll want to remove the buns from the sticky plate, but otherwise, you're all done!

Now's the best time to eat one!