One thing I love about making yeast bread is how versatile it can be.
This recipe is a very basic sweet bread that turns out soft and fluffy and can be filled with whatever filling you like. I've used a traditional cinnamon bun filling for half and a lemon blueberry filling for the other half.
This was my first time doing an overnight yeast bread.
Okay. That's not entirely true. I make our Butterhorns (Click HERE for that recipe) every year at Christmas and they are an overnight yeast recipe. But that is a completely different recipe and a different method as well.
The method I used to make these buns is perfect if you have company for breakfast or if you are just not wanting to have to clean up in the morning. All the prep and mess is made the night before. All you have to do is pop your tray in the oven in the morning and *voila* done.
The recipe here is for 2+dozen buns. I made half into the cinnamon buns and the other half into the blueberry buns. You can, of course, use all of the dough to make one type of bun - keep in mind then that you will have to double the filling. As written below, the fillings are for half of the dough recipe.
First up: Overnight Cinnamon & Almond Buns.
Overnight Cinnamon & Almond Buns
Ingredients
Dough
5 - 7 cups of flour (all purpose)
2/3 cup sugar
4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (2 pkgs)
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups almond milk (or use regular milk)
6 eggs, whisked
Filling (for 1/2 of dough)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon (or more, to taste)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups icing sugar
Directions
In a large mixing bowl, stir together 5 cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir together the butter and almond milk until butter is melted and temperature is about 110 - 120 degrees (check your yeast packet for proper temperature).
Stir the heated milk mixture and the beaten eggs into the dry ingredients until soft dough forms.
Add in a little more flour - about a tablespoon at a time - until firm but still sticky dough forms. (Do not add to much flour or your buns will be chewy and dense, not fluffy.)
Place dough into a lightly greased bowl.
Cover and place in warm place to rise for an hour or so, until doubled in size.
When risen, lightly flour your hands and punch the dough down.
Divide dough in half. Cover half - to be used for the lemon blueberry rolls.
Prepare a cookie sheet (with sides) or a jelly roll pan by lining with parchment paper. Set aside.
Roll out half of the dough on a lightly floured work surface to an approximately 16 X 12 rectangle.
Spread the softened butter evenly over the rectangle.
Sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon and almonds.
Starting with the long edge closest to you, roll up jelly roll up jelly roll style into a log. Pinch the seam closed. Using a serrated knife, dental floss, or a sharp knife, cut the log into approximately 1 inch pieces. Place the rolls onto the prepares cookie sheet, about 1 inch or so apart to leave room for rising. Cover rolls with plastic wrap and place in fridge over night.
Next morning, remove tray from fridge and place somewhere warm for about an hour to rise.
After the dough has risen, heat oven to 350.
Place buns in oven and bake at 350 for approx 20 - 25 minutes, until tops are golden brown.
Above is the "before & after".
Remove buns to a wire cooling rack.
Now, you could eat them like this....
Or you can take them up a notch by adding a dreamy cream cheese frosting.
Prepare cream cheese frosting - in a mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth, scraping sides as necessary. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in icing sugar until smooth.
Spread frosting on warm buns. (Use half of recipe for the Cinnamon and Almond Buns and half of the recipe for the Blueberry Lemon Buns)
Are you drooling yet?
I mean.... look at how light and fluffy they are inside....
Now.... on to the blueberry lemon version.
Overnight Blueberry Lemon Buns
Ingredients
Dough
See above for recipe
Filling (for 1/2 of dough)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 - 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Cream Cheese Frosting
See above for recipe
Directions
Prepare dough as written above to point where you divide dough in half.
Cover half (to be used for the cinnamon almond rolls).
Prepare a cookie sheet (with sides) or a jelly roll pan by lining with parchment paper. Set aside.
Roll out half of the dough on a lightly floured work surface to an approximately 16 X 12 rectangle.
Spread the softened butter evenly over the rectangle.
Mix the sugar with the lemon zest.
Sprinkle the lemon sugar evenly over the rectangle. Sprinkle with the blueberries.
Starting with the long edge closest to you, roll up jelly roll up jelly roll style into a log. Pinch the seam closed.
Using a serrated knife, dental floss, or a sharp knife, cut the log into approximately 1 inch pieces. Place the rolls onto the prepares cookie sheet, about 1 inch or so apart to leave room for rising. Cover rolls with plastic wrap and place in fridge over night.
Next morning, remove tray from fridge and place somewhere warm for about an hour to rise.
After the dough has risen, heat oven to 350.
Place buns in oven and bake at 350 for approx 20 - 25 minutes, until tops are golden brown.
(Photo below: First is after slicing, 2nd is after being in the fridge all night, 3 is just out of the oven)
Remove buns to a wire cooling rack. As you can see in the photo below the blueberries release a bit of juice and you don't want the buns to sit in the juice and get soggy.
Look how pretty they look.
Only one more step to go.
Prepare frosting as directed above.
Spread frosting on warm buns - or drizzle the frosting, whichever you prefer.
So much flavor... let's go in for a closer look, shall we?
There you have it. One dough two treats. Of course, feel free to fill these rolls with whatever you like. Nutella, perhaps? Peanut butter and jelly?
So many choices.
Making yeast dough is always a bit of a bother - what with the rise time and all. This overnight method is great if you want fresh, warm cinnamon buns in the morning but don't want to have to do the clean up in the morning.
We're sharing at these fun linky parties - New Mrs Adventures
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