50th Anniversary Recipes

What is better than old-fashioned cinnamon buns, made with Gay Lea pure, unsalted butter in the dough, in the gooey roll-in filling and in the pan sticky smear? Cinnamon buns have been around for centuries - and never go out of style. You can chill the unbaked buns overnight and bake them the next morning for a special breakfast or summer brunch. Butter is what makes these special (bakeries often use shortening in the dough or skimp!). A bread machine is perfect to make the dough. These are huge, puffy, moist cinnamon buns.

Prepare a very large square pan, about 12" by 12" or two 10-inch spring-form or layer cake pans) by coating with non stick cooking spray. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, hand whisk the water and yeast and let stand for a minute. Plop one cup of the flour on that and stir. Then stir in buttermilk, then eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, sugar and salt. Stir in about 3 cups of the all-purpose flour, and the butter. Using the dough hook, with mixer on lowest speed, add most of the remaining flour, as needed to form a workable dough. Knead on slowest speed of mixer, until dough is smooth and elastic, adding additional flour as required, for 8 to 10 minutes. Form the dough into a ball in the work bowl itself and place it in a large plastic bag, seal lightly, and let it rise for 40 to 60 minutes or until almost doubled in bulk. Gently deflate. Allow dough to rest for 20 minutes and then turn out onto a lightly floured board. Meanwhile, make the filling and the glaze.

For filling, mix all ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside. For glaze, make a paste with ingredients and set aside. To make buns, on a lightly floured board, roll the dough out to a rectangle of 14 by 14 inches. Sprinkle liberally with filling and press in slightly. Roll up into a log and chill ten minutes to facilitate slicing if you like. Cut log into 1-inch slices. Spread glaze equally on the pans. Arrange half of dough slices on each pan. Insert pans into a large plastic bag. Allow buns to rise until they are puffy or almost doubled in size, about 30 to 40 minutes. Spray tops lightly with non stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place the pans on the baking sheet and bake until browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool a few minutes then invert onto a large tray or parchment-lined baking sheet.

12 to 14 large buns

© This is a Marcy Goldman/BetterBaking.com original recipe