Cinnamon buns ala Christina Tosi

It's no wonder that Christina Tosi worked at WD-50 in New York, because in my book she is the Wylie Dufresne of the pastry world.  But without the smoke !  Every time I see one of her creations I am amazed.  She is the pastry chef at Momofuku Milk Bar and is known for her Crack Pie and Compost Cookies(both on my recipe to do list).  But she also does a mean cinnamon bun.  She does some type of cinnamon bun pie creation-I have only seen pictures and can't seem to find the recipe browsing the Internet.  But what I did find was her recipe for her cinnamon buns.

This is probably one of the easiest cinnamon bun recipes I have come across. I'm always looking for that "best recipe ever" and this comes pretty close.  The amount of brown sugar and butter creates an incredible caramel filling .  It's like eating a cinnamon bun with a side of caramels.  And like most cinnamon buns these are heaven when reheated.  The caramel that leaks out during baking, hardens just like a candy caramel and when reheated it gets all gooey delicious again.  Try this recipe and tell me how fabulous it is.  If you make this for brunch for your house guests you will never get them to leave - seriously addictive breakfast food.

Tosi's Famous Cinnamon Bun Recipe
Yields twelve 

Ingredients

Buns

1 cup whole milk, warm

1 tablespoon warm water

1 packet (2 ¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast

4 ½ cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for dusting

½ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Filling

1 cup packed light brown sugar

5 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

⅛ teaspoon kosher salt

1. Whisk the warm milk, water, and yeast together in a small bowl. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes or so.
2. Combine the flour, granulated sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and mix together on low speed. Add the egg, egg yolk, butter, and yeast concoction and mix until the dough comes together as a thick, sticky mass. This should take about 6 minutes.
3. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the dough out onto a work surface and form it into a smooth ball. Put the dough ball into a greased bowl, seam side down, cover it with a kitchen towel, and set in a draft-free spot to rise for an hour, or until it’s doubled in size.
4. While the dough is rising, make the filling by mixing together the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.
5. Punch down the proofed dough and put it onto a well-floured counter. Use a rolling pin to roll into a 16 inch square. Spread the cinnamon filling evenly over the surface, then roll the dough tightly into a big tube, making sure to keep all the filling inside.
6. Using a sharp knife, slice the tube into 12 rounds, each about 1 ⅓ inches thick. Arrange the rounds cut side down in a 9×13 inch baking dish, leaving 1 inch between them. Let them rise for another 1-2 hours, until they’ve doubled in size. *See notes for overnight instructions.
7. Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until they are just starting to brown on the edges.
9. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting: Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on high for 1 minute. Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt and paddle on low to combine, then whip on high for 2 minutes, or until the frosting is pale white and fluffy.
10. Remove buns from the oven and, while they are still warm, spread the frosting generously over them. Serve immediately 

*Overnight Instructions – Prep through step #6 but let them rise, loosely covered, in the fridge overnight. Then all you have to do is take them out in the morning and let them come to room temp for about half an hour before baking in the oven.Pop them in the oven in the morning and enjoy the cinnamon smell in your kitchen and hot cinnamon buns fresh from the oven.  The frosting keeps beautifully overnight in the refrigerator too-just place it out on the counter to come to room temperature while the buns bake.  Enjoy !

Sunday Morning, Coffee and a Cinnamon Roll

I miss my Sunday mornings.  Sleeping in late, letting my natural body rhythms determine when I was going to get out of bed-instead of the annoying alarm on my cell phone.  Being in the travel industry, normal week-ends don't exist.  My Sunday is my sweetie's Friday.  No more laying in bed and smelling the coffee he has brewing for me.  No gentle wake ups with a cinnamon roll fresh from Alki Bakery or a buttery croissant from Bakery Nouveau.  Those Sundays are gone but not forgotten.  My "Sunday" is spent alone but so is his...so tonight I'm turning the tables.  Tonight I'm pretending it's Sunday morning for the two of us.  Instead of dinner we will have freshly brewed coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls.  I have to work with what I have and while I miss those precious Sunday mornings of the normal world-our life is what we make it and tonight I'm making it Sunday morning.

The kitchen smells crazy incredible with fresh baked cinnamon rolls in the oven.  I bought a new bread book while in Portland ( yes I'm addicted to cookbooks).  It's "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day"-Fabulous with a capital F.  Co-authored by Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Francois, it's filled with one enticing recipe after another.  I've always loved bread baking but never seem to fit it into my schedule so I thought this would be perfect if it works and it does !  I used the Buttermilk Bread recipe for the base of the rolls and instead of making loaves like they suggested for what's called "Judy's Board of Directors' Cinnamon-Raisin Bread", I rolled the finished product like  a jelly roll and gently sliced them into rolls. I omitted the raisins and for the final touch I added a favorite cream cheese icing recipe.

I don't like to blog recipes from cookbooks unless they are already on the Internet and I found these two at a site called Simple Daily Recipes by Jill McKeever-nice website too!

This recipe makes three 1 1/2 pound loaves. It can be doubled or halved.
Buttermilk Bread
2 cups lukewarm water
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
butter or neutral-tasting oil for greasing the loaf pan-I lined a 1/2 sheet pan with parchment and spaced my rolls about 1-2 inches apart.

1.Mixing and storing the dough: Mix the yeast, salt, and sugar with water and buttermilk in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.
2.Mix in the flour without kneading, using a strong handled spoon, a 14-cup capacity food processor (with dough attachment), or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with dough hook). If you're not using a machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour..
3.Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top); approximately 2 hours.
4.The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is MUCH easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 7 days. Stop here if you are making the cinnamon bread or rolls ..follow the recipe for the Cinnamon bread listed below.
5.On baking day, lightly grease a 9 x 4 x 3-inch nonstick loaf pan. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 1/2 pound (cantaloupe-size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Elongate the ball into an oval.
6.Drop the loaf into the prepared pan. You want to fill the pan slightly more than half-full.
7.Allow the dough to rest for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Flour the top of the loaf and slash, using the tip of a serrated bread knife. Brush the top with melted butter.
8.Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
9.Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown.
10.Remove from the pan. Allow to cool completely before slicing or it will be nearly impossible to achieve reasonable sandwich slices.

Here is the Cinnamon Bread Recipe that I adapted to Cinnamon Rolls
Judy's Board of Directors' Cinnamon-Raisin Bread
1 1/2 pounds (cantaloupe-size portion) Buttermilk Bread dough
butter or neutral-tasting oil for greasing the pan
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup raisins
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water)

Lightly grease a 9 x 4 x 3-inch nonstick loaf pan. Set aside. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 1/2 pound (cantaloupe-size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.
With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to an 8 x 16-inch rectangle about 1/4-inch thick, dusting the board and rolling pin with flour as needed. You may need to use a metal dough scraper to loosen rolled dough from the board as you are working with it.
Use a pastry brush to cover the surface of the dough lightly with egg wash. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the dough. Evenly distribute the raisins. It helps to gently press the raisins into the dough before rolling into loaf shape.
And my favorite cream cheese icing:
4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter-softened
3 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 Tablespoon Milk (add more if you like to drizzle your icing-I like mine more like frosting !
Mix all the ingredients until well blended-medium speed on your mixer.  Place dollops of icing on the rolls while still hot in the pan.  Allow to cool and then .....

Pour yourself another cup of coffee ,pull out the Sunday paper and enjoy!

And here is another book to put on your wish list !