Chai-Spiced "Cinnamon" Buns

I've been having trouble sleeping lately. And by lately, I mean that insomnia comes and goes on its own clock and has done so more or less for the last year. I'll be fine for months at a time and then hit a patch where for a few weeks I won't know if I am nocturnal, narcoleptic, or something else. I find that yoga helps regulate it, as does all the usual tools: no computer before bed, take the melatonin if you need it, stick to a routine. But some nights no matter what I do, I am just not going to fall asleep. Or if I do, I might not stay there. My goal for the last few rounds of this is to try and use the time for something even if that something isn't sleeping. I will read for my thesis. Sometimes I sketch a bit. This time, I decided that I wanted to bake. And perhaps my ambition over-reached my wakefulness, as I decided I wanted to bake myself some "proper" yeast-dough, roll-type buns and now it's past 1 am and I am typing this up as I wait for them to finish baking. ^_^

My favourite dough for making breakfast treats is the Rich Breakfast Dough from Sur la Table's The Art and Soul of Baking. This is one of my two favourite baking books... I can lose hours just reading the recipes. This particular dough is very forgiving, owing to the butter and egg in it, although it isn't quite as over the top in terms of richness as a full brioche dough (disclosure: I have a small obsession with brioche. There, Christine, I've admitted it out loud. ^_^). What I love about this dough the most is its versatility - I can make it, and then use it in a multitude of different ways, from loaves, to buns, to coffee cakes, to thinly layered snack cakes that remind me of pastries. Tonight, I decided on cinnamon buns. And then, because my box of spices from Silk Road had arrived and contained a sample packet of their Chai Spice blend, I decided I wanted Chai Spice buns.

Because this is a yeast based recipe, the dough takes some time to do up properly. Luckily, the most time consuming parts of it are hands off, letting you do something else for a while. If you are going to duplicate this, make sure you have the time for the two rises this will take, or room in the fridge to hold the dough until you can get back to it. As usual, the recipe is verbatim from the text and the instructions incorporate my own additions and observations.

Rich Breakfast Dough
(makes about 1 1/2 lbs of dough)

1/2 cup (4 oz) warm whole milk (110F-115F) - I used almond milk
1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz) sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast or 1 1/8 tsp instant yeast
1 large egg plus one egg yolk, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 oz) bread flour or all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, very soft (not melted)

Combine the warm milk and sugar in a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over top. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes, until the yeast has activated and is foamy or bubbling. If you have a stand mixer, setting up in the bowl of the stand mixer will save you some effort later. If you are mixing by hand, have no fear, it can be done with a bit more patience and elbow-grease.

Add the egg and yolk to the yeast mixture and whisk by hand until well blended.

The grapes were my dinner.

If you have a kitchen scale, weighing your flour will give you far more consistent results than the scoop-and-level method of measuring dry ingredients. If you don't, the scoop-and-level method of measuring will still work.

Stir in the flour and salt with a silicone or rubber spatula. Attach the dough hook and knead on low speed for 2 minutes. Don't worry if the dough looks ragged at this point - adding the butter will smooth it out. If you are mixing by hand, this will take roughly twice as long as having a machine to do the work for you, but it's not too bad. Increase the speed to medium and knead for 1 minute. With the mixer running, add the soft butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing each addition to blend in fully before adding the next. Once all the butter has been added, decrease the speed to medium-low and continue to knead for 5-6 minutes longer, until the dough looks soft and silky.

Quick laugh at myself here - adding the butter was probably the most fun I've had with a dough made by hand in a long time. It was sticky and slippery and hilarious. There would be pictures, except that I was not going to touch my camera until I'd properly washed my hands. It did take a while to work butter into the dough without the assistance of my stand mixer, but it was fun. Once the butter was fully incorporated, I worked the dough on the counter for a while. Eventually I got a ball of lovely smoothness that smelled wonderful. There's something about a butter-enriched yeast dough... it's like nostril nirvana.

Lightly butter or oil a tub or bowl, scrape your dough into the container, and brush the surface of it with a little butter or oil (an oil atomizer works like a charm for this step). I re-use the bowl I'd been mixing in because I dislike doing additional dishes when they aren't strictly required. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp, lint free towel and let the dough rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Because my flat was running on the cold side last night, I put the bowl in the oven with just the oven light turned on. Once the dough has risen, it is ready to be punched down and used in the recipe of your choice. At this point you can also freeze the dough for up to one month - just punch it down, wrap it in plastic wrap and then put it into a resealable freezer bag. To thaw, put it in the refrigerator overnight, or place on the counter for ~2 hours or until it comes to room temperature, then proceed with the recipe of your choice.

To shape the buns themselves:

1 recipe Rich Breakfast dough
1/2 stick (1/4 cup or 2 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup (2 2/1 oz) firmly packed light brown sugar
whatever other additions you want (i.e. cinnamon, other spices, chopped nuts, raisins, chopped chocolate, frozen berries, etc., etc.)

Once the dough has had its first rise, pull it out of the bowl it had been rising in and put it on to a lightly floured work surface. Press down firmly on the risen dough with your hands to expel as much of the gas as possible, but don't knead the dough or the gluten will be too developed for the dough to roll easily (that said, if you find you have overworked the dough and it's getting dense, let it sit for 30 minutes. That will help it to relax and you can try again). Dust the top of the pressed dough with a little bit of flour, and then roll it out into a rectangle roughly 10 inches tall by 16 inches wide. You will want the wide edge parallel to the edge of your work surface to help with rolling the dough up in a bit.

Something like this.

In a bowl, place 1/4 cup (1/3-1/2 cup if you are feeling really luxe) of soft butter and 1/3 cup (or more if you are using more butter) of firmly packed brown sugar. Add any spices or flavourings you would like to have to this step - I included 2 1/2 tsp of the Chai Spice baking blend. Cream everything together, and then spread it evenly onto the dough, leaving a small, (~1 inch?) border around the edges. I didn't make a lot of "filling" because I really like the dough on its own as well; in this batch of buns, I wanted the filling to compliment the dough, not overwhelm it. But there is a lot of room for play.

If you are adding any fruit or chopped nuts, etc., to the dough, sprinkle them on top of the flavoured butter and gently pat them down.

Beginning with the long edge closest to you, roll the dough into a cylinder, gently tightening and tucking as you go. You can dampen the border with a little bit of water if you want to help it stick, but I found that wasn't required when I was working on it. Roll the dough so the final seam is facing upward and pinch it all along to seal it.

Turn the seam down, and use a chef's knife to cut the roll into 12 equal pieces. I find it easiest to get evenly sized buns when I cut the log in half, then cut each half in half, then each of those portions in thirds. But that might be just me. Place the buns into a lightly greased cake pan, spacing them evenly.

Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or with a damp, lint-free towel again and let rise until the rolls have almost doubled in size, 45 to 60 minutes, longer if the room is cold. I threw them back into the oven with the light on and let them do their thing.

After the second rise.

Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the centre. Bake the buns for 30-35 minutes until they are a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Then enjoy.