These Morning Buns are part cinnamon roll, part croissant and all flaky, buttery delicious-ness… For those who don’t know what Morning Buns are (just like I didn’t before I came across a photo on Instagram and just HAD TO HAVE ONE!), they are a breakfast pastry, made out of croissant dough, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, rolled up into delicious rolls of goodness and baked in a muffin tin so that the top rises and puffs out of each muffin tin. These Morning Buns are even better because the croissant dough is based off this simple recipe by Supergolden Bakes so you can have warm buttery pastries in a matter of hours. Or, you could start these on a Friday night after work and have an amazing breakfast! If you really didn’t have time or energy to make the croissant dough from scratch though, third alternative would be to buy flaky puff pastry and just start rolling it out to create the rolls.
I actually made these a little while ago when mum and dad were away back in February, sorry it’s taken me so long to share with you guys! I’ve just had so many other great recipes that I’ve made lately and these fell a little by the wayside, but trust me that shouldn’t take away from their yummy-ness because they are really great! So, sorry for hiding them for so long. 🙂
I have some exciting news to share too… You know how I’ve said like a million times already that I’m going to the Everything Food Conference (EFC) in May? Well, I’ve recently found out that I’ve been chosen to be one of the teams in the Cupcake Battles competition that will be taking place during the conference! ? I’m soooo excited to compete and I’ve been madly practising all weekend! I won’t post the recipe that I’m using until after the competition just in case, but it is a good one. But I will tell you that my teammate for the competition is going to be Anna-Marie who blogs over at Beauty and the Beets and even though we haven’t met in person yet, I think we’re going to be a great team, wish us luck!
In just over 3 weeks’ time I will be sharing with you all the fun time and great experiences that I’ll be having at EFC, whoop! I don’t know how often I’ll be able to get to a computer as I’m not going to take my laptop with me, so make sure you follow me on Instagram and especially Snapchat (username chloekincaid, you can also look at the sidebar) where I’ll be posting all of the live action.
Also don’t forget to make these beauties, which is why you came here anyway right? Don’t be scared as there are a few steps in the recipe below, but I promise that it’s easy and you’ll have your own buns in no time. This is coming from someone who gave up the first time trying to make chocolate croissants because the dough went really weird and I had to throw it out. These are definitely much easier than that! I hope you all enjoyed your weekends and aren’t too sad about going back to work tomorrow… At least if you’re in New Zealand or Australia it’s only a 4 day week yay! Have a great week and happy baking.
- [b]Dough[/b]
- 250g (8.8oz) high grade/bread flour
- 150g (5oz) cold butter
- 1/2 cup warm milk
- 4 Tbspn sugar (any kind)
- 1 1/2 tspn (1 sachet) dry active yeast
- 1/2 tspn salt
- [b]Filling[/b]
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- Zest of 1 orange
- 2 tspn cinnamon
- 1 tspn nutmeg
- 1/2 tspn mixed spice
- 1/4 tspn salt
- 4 Tbspn butter
- Granulated sugar, to sprinkle
- Warm your milk until it is lukewarm. Add the sugar and yeast and whisk to combine. Let it stand until the yeast is frothy and milk has cooled completely. If it’s too warm, the butter will melt
- Put your flour and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the cubed butter and briefly pulse a few times until mixture resembles chunky breadcrumbs.
- Put the flour/butter mixture in a large bowl and add the milk/yeast mixture.
- Gently combine using a spoon or pastry cutter until the dough just comes together. The butter should still be in small pieces throughout the dough, so don’t overmix.
- Turn the dough out of a lightly floured work top and press together to form a square. Wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 30 minutes or in the fridge for a couple of hours.
- Dust your worktop and rolling pin with flour. Roll your dough out to a rectangle roughly two to three times as long as it is wide. Initially the dough may be quite brittle but it will come together as you roll and fold.
- Fold the short sides of the dough into the middle.
- Rotate the dough by a quarter turn. Roll out slightly to lengthen. Fold the short ends towards the middle.
- Flip the dough over so the seams are underneath. Roll it out again repeating the above steps three more times.
- The dough should be formed into a smallish rectangle. Wrap it twice with cling film and put in the fridge for a couple of hours or, ideally, overnight.
- To make the filling, mix brown sugar, orange zest, spices and salt then set aside.
- Melt the butter in the microwave then brush a little bit of the melted butter inside 8 cups of a muffin tin.
- Sprinkle the buttered muffin tin with the extra granulated sugar to coat and tap to remove any excess sugar. Set aside.
- Remove the dough from your refrigerator, dust the counter with flour again and roll the dough into a large 30cm square (12in). Brush the melted butter over the dough in a thin, even layer then sprinkle spice-sugar mixture evenly across the entire surface.
- Carefully begin to roll the long side of the dough the same way you would cinnamon rolls until you have one long cylinder.
- Once rolled, slice into 5cm (2in) long pieces. You should have 8 or 9 pieces.
- Place each piece of dough into the muffin tin. Cover the muffin tin with a tea towel and set in a warm place for 45 minutes to rise one final time.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) degrees. When the buns have doubled in size, place them in the oven to bake for 18−20 minutes, or until they are dark brown, crispy and have a nice crust on them.
- Remove the buns from the oven and immediately invert the muffin tin onto a wire rack to cool.
- The Morning Buns are best eaten the day they are made, but if you do have any leftovers, they will store for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
