Caramel Cinnamon Buns

Mmm C'est bon! This, my friends, is what I call 'special occasion' treat. Although my husband wishes I made them every week, I only make these puppies a few times during the year, because of the sweetness to these. Step by step:


1. Make the dough. I did this entire recipe within my KitchenAid bowl, so forget about switching bowls for this or that. Creates more dishes, and honestly, nobody's got time for that! I used this recipe for the dough, except I added a bit more flour as I found the dough to be too wet, AND I cut that salt by 3/4, leaving me with 1 tsp. Ive also subbed the whole wheat flour for white flour, depending on who I make these for. Either works fine!

2. Once youve got your dough punched down, wrap it in seran wrap and stick that sucker in the fridge for 15-20 mns. Cold dough is sooo much easier to roll out, trust me. Once its been chilling, spread some flour on your workspace and on your rolling pin if you use a wooden one. Get ready to rumble.. I MEAN ROLL! Roll your dough out in a roughly rectangular shape like so:

3. Next, take out a saucepan and melt 1/4 butter. Please use the real stuff, not that turkey fattening crap. It makes a world of a difference in baking, trust me. So, when that butter is all nice and melted, and starting to bubble, add a heaping 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and 1 tsp pure vanilla essence. Whisk away, until there are no more clumps, and heat at mid temp until bubbles start forming, then take off heat immediately. Bubbles like this:

4. Take a pastry brush and generously 'paint your dough canvas'. Dont forget the edges. Youll notice as soon as you spread it, itll solidify. Its always a marvel to me how change in heat creates such change within the molecular structure of food, making it solidify, liquify, etc. Keep about a quarter of the caramel for later. Should look like this:

5. Alright I love this part. Prepare a spice/white sugar mixture. I use 1/4cup sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (and sometimes add a pinch of ginger as well) as my ratio, but feel free to play around with that, depending on if you like it sweeter or spicier. Take that mixture and SPRINKLE YOUR HEART OUT! Cover all the dough, like this:

6. This part is pretty fun too. You now get to roll the dough. You remember when I said roughly rectangular? Here is your chance to make it as straight as you can. Start at the bottom, and if you have an edge that is longer than the rest, roll it very tightly until everything comes to an even edge. Then slowly and evenly roll all the way to the top. Now all you have to do is cut the log of sweet/spicy goodness into equal parts. I get 24 rolls out of that recipe.

7. The last step is a decision you have to make. Remember the reserved caramel? You can either keep it and pour it over the baked rolls, or like me, pour it over the unbaked rolls. Doing so will create this delicious crispy crunchy bottom to the rolls of caramelized baked sugar. Bake at 350 for about 25-35 minutes, until they are lightly golden on top.

 

Ooo yes I forgot, I always add an extra sprinkle of sugar/spice before baking!

 

YUM

You could top these with sugar icing, cream cheese icing, eat it as is.. but if you want something a little different, and a little less on the sweet side, try topping it with some Spiced Apple Butter, it is just delish!