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Soft and buttery inside, crunchy and gooey outside, they are our special Christmas Cinnamon Buns morning treat.
To have them fresh in the morning, I prepare the buns the night before and let them rise overnight.
Bake them at dawn, and the lovely fragrances of cinnamon and caramel will spread throughout the house, welcoming in the new day.
Can be prepared the night before and baked in the morning.
I know many of my friends and their children have been waiting for this recipe. When Liam was in lower school, all his school friends were looking forward to his birthday.
In the morning he would arrive in class with freshly baked Cinnamon Buns. Even older brothers and sisters would remember to stop by to wish him happy birthday!
I always made sure one was put aside for Mrs Tindle, the Lower school Headmaster.
There wouldn’t be any left otherwise!
Do you want to know why these cinnamon buns are so special?
They are cooked over a base of brown sugar and butter caramel sprinkled with grated walnuts.
As soon as they are out of the oven, I turn them upside down on the serving dish.
The brown sugar butter caramel, which is still melting hot, percolates inside the buns making them gooey and crunchy at the same time.
This recipe uses the Kenwood bread machine, You can find my review in the link and see what other recipes I make with it.
If you don’t have the bread machine you can find the recipe here:
How to make brioche, or bread rolls’ dough without a bread machine
Homemade Cinnamon Buns
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1/2 cup fresh water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 fresh eggs
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup caster sugar
- 4 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 yeast I prefer dry
Cinnamon Mix:
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
For the caramel:
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup butter
- 2 tbsp chopped pecans
For brushing
- 1/4 cup melted butter
Instructions
Dough:
- Load the ingredients into the machine and set the program for fresh dough (number 10 in the Kenwood). The dough will be ready in 1.5 hours.
- IMPORTANT: the ingredients should be placed in the bread machine in the exact order as listed above, liquids first.
- While the dough is getting ready in the bread machine prepare the ingredients for the filing
Prepare the ingredients for the filling
- Melt the 55 gr of butter and grate the walnuts
For the caramel:
- Prepare the caramel by melting the brown sugar and the butter.
- When the sugar and the butter form a foamy caramel take it out of the stove, pour it on the baking tin and sprinkle with the chopped pecans.
Assembling the buns
- Roll the dough over a well floured parchment paper and brush it with 55 grams of melted butter.
- Cover it with the cinnamon mix made with walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon
- Roll it and butter the outside with a pastry brush.
- Cut the dough into slices and put them around the baking tin. Space them out as they need room to raise.
- The size of the tin will depend if you want to have less but large cinnamons buns or many and smaller ones.
- If you use a large tin you will have to make a longer and thinner roll with the dough.
- Let it rest for 1 hour, or overnight
- Bake in 180 C oven for 30 minutes.
- As soon as they are ready take them out of the oven and turn them upside down on the serving dish.
- This will allow the caramel and the butter to penetrate inside the buns making them nicely soft and gooey.
That just looks mighty good. I wish I could have that for breakfast now
Ah, too bad. I have one left and I am having it right now !
I can’t believe I never made cinnamon buns, they look so easy to make! And that brown sugar and walnut base sounds delish!
Thank you. They are very easy, you should try
There is nothing better than a soft gooey cinnamon roll! These would be perfect for Christmas morning!
They are, we love them at Christmas
Love these cinnamon buns! Love the description! I can amost smell the aromas wafting around while these are baking!
Thanks, it is sublime
Agreed that these are one of the absolute best special occasion breakfasts there are! I make a similar type of overnight roll but with a caramel pecan drizzle – a must-have for the holidays in my house!
Yum, sounds good
Yummy, yummy Laura!! These buns look so delicious!! I think I’m going to make this for Christopher on Christmas morning since he loves buns and it is his birthday that day.
Yes, great idea! Surprise him !