Too many morning buns for your crowd? This recipe halves easily. This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.
Recipe information
Yield
Makes 24
Ingredients
Dough
1
1
1
4
3½
1
2
2
2
1
Filling and Assembly
¾
1
¾
½
12
Preparation
Dough
Step 1
Whisk yeast, 1 cup warm milk, and 1 tsp. honey in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment to combine, then let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add egg whites, 2 cups bread flour, and remaining ¼ cup honey and beat with paddle on medium-high speed until mixture is very light and thick, about 3 minutes. Remove paddle, scrape mixture back into bottom of bowl, and sprinkle whole wheat flour and 1½ cups bread flour over top (do not stir). Place bowl in a warm spot and let sit uncovered until mixture is bubbling up around flour, 30–40 minutes.
Step 2
Add salt, orange zest (if using), vanilla extract, 5 egg yolks, and remaining ¼ cup cold milk to mixture and mix with dough hook on low speed until a shaggy dough forms. Increase speed to medium and work dough until it is smooth, soft, and elastic and climbing up the hook, 8–10 minutes (it will clear the sides of the bowl but still stick slightly to the bottom; if after 5 minutes the dough is still very sticky, add bread flour a tablespoonful at a time until dough is just tacky). Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and add butter pieces one at a time, letting dough absorb butter completely before adding the next piece. This part takes a while, so be patient. Dough should be very smooth and slightly tacky and have a soft, buoyant texture. Cover and chill at least 8 hours and up to 16 hours.
Filling and Assembly
Step 3
Cook brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, ¼ cup honey, and 8 Tbsp. butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, just until butter is melted and mixture is smooth. Let cool.
Step 4
Punch down dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half, place 1 piece back into bowl, cover, and chill while you work. Roll out remaining piece of dough on a sheet of lightly floured parchment paper to roughly a 16x12" rectangle. Spread half of brown sugar mixture over dough. Starting at side closest to you (make sure it’s a long side) and using the parchment paper to help you, roll dough into a tight log. If dough gets too warm or sticky to work with, slide (with parchment) onto a baking sheet and chill until firm, then proceed. Place log, seam side down, on a rimmed baking sheet. Chill until firm, 20–30 minutes.
Step 5
Repeat process with second half of dough and remaining brown sugar mixture. Spray cups of two 12-cup muffin pans with nonstick spray. Place a rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°.
Step 6
Trim chilled dough logs about ½" from ends and cut each on a slight diagonal into 12 equal pieces. Place, cut side up, in prepared muffin pan and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature until puffed and expanded to edges of muffin cups (dough will spring back when poked but hold a slight indentation), 25–35 minutes.
Step 7
Bake buns, rotating pans once left to right and front to back, until golden brown all over, 20–25 minutes.
Step 8
Meanwhile, heat remaining 4 Tbsp. butter and remaining ¼ cup honey in a small saucepan over low, stirring a bit, until smooth. Remove from heat.
Step 9
Pull buns out of oven and brush tops with butter mixture; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Transfer buns to a wire rack (if sugar cools in pan, it will harden and buns will stick); let cool.
Nutrition Per Serving
Leave a Review
Reviews (76)
Back to TopThe buns are delicious. I have one QUESTION , when I baked the buns the brown sugar filling bubbled out of the rolls. The filling laid on the top of the muffin pans. What can you suggest I change. Thx!
Anonymous
British Columbia, Canada
2/11/2024
These are absolutely delicious! They are so fluffy, soft, and buttery! Highly addictive! Between my mom and I we ate almost all of the buns in 2 or 3 days. Except, the 3 we shared with people who came by (begrudgingly). So so yummy and will definitely make again and again!
Anonymous
10/31/2022
Yum! These are easy and tasty. Big hit with family and coworkers
Raven
Portland
4/18/2022
These came out really nicely. Things I did differently: got the butter measurements mixed up so dough got a stick and a half and the filling got two sticks (oops, but didn't have serious consequences); added at least another tablespoon of cinnamon and about a half teaspoon of nutmeg to the filling(definitely recommend this, if you /really love/ cinnamon you could even go a little heavier); had to let it prove for closer to an hour (cold apartment); had huge eggs so had to add more flour which meant that the dough spent quite a while being kneaded by the dough hook... (again, oops but no obvious consequences); warmed the filling up enough to make it easily spreadable on the rolled out dough, and used a dough scraper; baked the cut buns from each log in a 10" cake pan... this is good for the soft buns in the center, but frankly the cooking was too uneven between outside and in... oops, maybe next time will only cook about 8 in the pan at a time. Anyway, great texture and I like the floral spice overtones that the cardamom, orange zest, and nutmeg give it. Delicious.
Anonymous
Maine
1/9/2022
For Uk 🇬🇧 measures , I used 600 grams of whole meal flour ( the same I use for chappatis), 1 packet of yeast (8 oz), 200grams sugar, 4 eggs. After the first proving a further 200g flour without any additional flavours is needed when the eggs with sugar dissolved are added to make a firm dough. After the overnight proving in the fridge, allow the dough to come to room temp. The yeast was able to work with the whole meal flour and was easy to roll and I made 12 buns and one loaf pan. I also rolled out the dough on sprinkled brown sugar and used chocolate chip chunks for filling the buns. For the activation of yeast (Sainsbury’s) half a cup volume of milk measured by carnations condensed milk tin. Warmed milk and a dollop of honey made the yeast wake up in about 5-7 minutes! Require 50 grams of butter- (1 stick from the 250g of butter sold in the U.K.). This needs to be kept warm when liberally coating the dough shapes. I kneaded by hand so I rubbed in the butter for the 300g portion of flour left after the initial 300g is used for egg whites. Flaked almonds and desiccated coconut have been added. Thank you Claire for showing that bread flour that I have used for over 20 years for chappatis is the same wheat!
Anonymous
Grimsby U.K.
12/4/2021
Lovely cinnamon rolls. Not too sweet. A little complicated to work with, but worth the time and effort. Patience definitely pays off. I’ll be making these again and again.
String Theory
Accord, NY
9/12/2021
I have made these at least 20 times now, it has become a Sunday morning tradition for the family and we always take a few to friends or neighbors because it makes so many! If you only make it once, yes it might seem like a lot of effort. But honestly, compared to the majority of the things I bake, the quantity it enough to please a crowd with doubling and it actually feels Iike a small amount of work compared to the number you get out it! Give this one two tries before you knock it, and make sure to follow the mixer speeds they suggest for each step, if you are timid and go to slow it will give you a much sticker dough in the end. Also, I don’t cook the filling, it just gets too sticky, just soften the butter and mix all the ingredients that way.
Gareth
Flintstone, GA
9/12/2021