November 2020 - Food

These delicious spiralled homemade cinnamon buns are soft, fluffy and will fill your home with beautiful aromatic cinnamon scents when baking

Make the dough

In a pan, bring 300ml milk and the ground seeds of 6 cardamom pods to the boil; remove from the heat and stir in 50g unsalted butter. Set aside to cool a little. Meanwhile, sift 450g plain flour, 7g fast-action yeast, 50g caster sugar and 1⁄2 tsp salt into a bowl. Crack in one egg, then pour in the milk mixture and stir, until it forms a soft, sticky dough.

Knead

Tip the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and knead for 10 minutes. It will be very sticky to begin with, but do not add any flour. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes, or until nearly doubled in size.

Roll the dough

Lightly flour a clean surface and dust your hands with flour. Tip out the ball of risen dough and turn it once to coat in the flour. Using a rolling pin, roll it out into a rectangle measuring 35cm x 25cm.

Make the filling

For the filling, beat 100g softened salted butter with 80g soft dark brown sugar sugar and 3 tsp ground cinnamon, until softened; spread it evenly over the dough. Starting with a long edge, roll up the dough into a sausage shape, finishing with the seam on top. Stretch it out to 40cm and cut into 12 even pieces, around 3cm long.

Leave to rise

Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C. Arrange the buns in a greased, deep roasting tin, approx. 35cm x 25cm. Cover the tin with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes, or until the buns have puffed up and the sides are touching.

Bake

Beat one egg and brush it over the buns. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp demerara sugar and bake for 16-18 minutes. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Serve

Mix 50g icing sugar with 2-3 tsp cold water and drizzle it over the buns. Pull them apart before serving.

For the buns
300ml whole milk
6 cardamom pods, husks removed and seeds ground
50g unsalted butter
450g plain flour
7g fast-action yeast
50g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
1-2 tsp vegetable oil, for greasing
1 tbsp demerara sugar
50g icing sugar

For the cinnamon filling
100g salted butter, softened
80g soft dark brown sugar
3 tsp ground cinnamon

Delicious spins

Apple and sultana: In a pan, melt 25g butter. Add 200g finely chopped apple and 75g sultanas and cook for 5-10 minutes, until softened. Scatter the mixture over the cinnamon flling before rolling up the dough.

Lemon and pistachio: Add the zest of 2 lemons to the filling, and leave out the cinnamon. Spread it evenly over the dough and then top with 75g chopped pistachios. Make up the icing for drizzling with lemon juice instead of water.

Chocolate and hazelnut: Add 3 tbsp cocoa powder to the filling, and leave out the cinnamon. Spread it evenly over the dough and top with 75g chopped hazelnuts. Replace 25g of the icing sugar with cocoa powder to make the icing for drizzling.