Cinnamon Buns




 If you're from the Kansas City area, you know about Stroud's.  If you're not from Kansas City, Stroud's is a restaurant here that makes some really good down home cooking food.  They're pretty well known for their fried chicken and their cinnamon buns.  The cinnamon buns are unlike anything else I've ever had.  They are light and fluffy and are covered in cinnamon and sugar -- there's no icing involved with these cinnamon buns.  Since I love their cinnamon buns so much, I decided to give making them a shot.  I googled recipes and found surprisingly few copy cat recipes.  I chose one of the few contenders and although the result was far from a Stroud's cinnamon bun, they were quite delicious.  This recipe results in a heavier bread than Stroud's cinnamon buns, which I think makes the biggest different.  These do require a bit of work and quite a bit of time, but, in the end, they're pretty worth it.

Slightly adapted from: Chow Hound

Here's what you need:
1 Cup Warm Milk
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Warm Water
1 Tbsp. Active Dry Yeast
About 5 Cups Bread Flour

2 Tbsp. Cinnamon
1 Cup Sugar
Melted butter

Here's what you do: 

1.  Mix warm water and yeast with about 1 Tbsp of sugar in small bowl.  Set aside.

2.  In a large bowl mix the milk, butter, salt, sugar, egg.

3.  Add the yeast mixture to the ingredients in the large bowl.  Mix well. 

4.  Add the flour to the mixture, one cup at a time.  Stir well between each addition of flour.  Eventually you may have to mix with your hands.  Keep adding flour until the dough is firm, dry and bounces back when poked.   

5.  Put the dough into a greased bowl and cover with towel.  Place bowl in a warm place (I put mine in the laundry room).  Let the dough rise until it doubles in size. 

6.  Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down, deflating it.  

7.  Let the dough rise until it doubles in size again. 

8.  While the dough is rising the second time, combine the cinnamon with one cup sugar.  Set aside until the dough is done rising.  (Feel free to manipulate the amounts of cinnamon and sugar to suit your taste.) 

9.  After the dough has doubled in size the second time, cut it into 12 roll shaped pieces (or however many you want, depending on the size of cinnamon buns you would like to have).

10.  Submerge each dough roll in melted butter and then immediately coat with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.   Place in greased 9 x 12 baking dish.

11.  Once all the rolls are placed in the baking dish, cover the rolls with a towel and allow them to double in size one more time.

12.  After the rolls have doubled in size, place them in the oven to bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. 

I have some ideas to make these more like Stroud's cinnamon buns, so I'm going to keep trying on that.  But, in the meantime, Enjoy!