The Better Version of Cinnamon Buns
When you take a bite of a spiced honey bun, one of the first things your senses notice is the presence of a silky coat of butter, which is then followed by a subtle kick of cinnamon and nutmeg, all brought together by the sweet and nutty flavor of caramelized brown sugar and honey. What more can you ask for to start your day? By now, you might already know that I am a strong advocate for letting flavors shine and interact together in a recipe, instead of suffocating the whole thing with sugar or one single spice (like cinnamon). I was initially going for a cinnamon bun here, but in my search for a more harmonious combination of spices and flavors, and not just a hostile kick of cinnamon, I ended up creating these buns, which I called spiced honey buns.
Milan, Italy. Spring 2020.
As I finished shaping my weekend brioche loaf, I was considering what to do with the other half of the dough since my brioche recipe yields two loaves. I usually go for chocolate and pistachio babka, but I wanted to make something new this time. I asked 👨🏼 for opinions, and he started making incomprehensible hand gestures which I thought actually meant something in Italian, because, you know, they talk with their hands and all that. After a couple of seconds of what seemed like an exhausting round of charades, I realized he was trying to tell me that I should make cinnamon rolls, or something that was rolled, hence the quick rotation of his hands. Instinctively, I pulled out my stand mixer bowl and threw in some sugar and butter and started to creaming them together. In the meantime, 👨🏼 and I were bouncing off thoughts for the rest of the filling components, and I have to admit it was 👨🏼's idea to add honey into the mix, which would later turn out to be the value proposition for these bun's elevator pitch.
When the buns were finished baking, I could not believe my nostrils. I stripped my hands of the oven mitts and dove right into the baking dish, burning my fingers as I tore out a piece of fluffy spiced honey bun. I put it in my mouth, and my tastebuds were instantly rejoicing in buttery heaven. 👨🏼 was on a work call in the living room, but I could not deprive him of tasting our masterpiece creation straight out of the oven, so I burned off some more of my fingers, tore him a piece, rushed to where he was sitting and delivered the spiced honey bun straight into his mouth. His eyes expanded and started sparkling as he chewed, and his hands unraveled once again into incoherent gestures, which I guess meant "Mamma mia!!!!!"
To learn how to speak in Italian hand gestures will take a while, but you can start by making these spiced honey buns with the recipe below - maybe they will take over your body once you eat them and you will start speaking like 👨🏼.
Ingredients
For the dough
1/2 basic brioche dough recipe
For the filling
200 g butter at room temperature
100 g light brown sugar
50 g honey
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
This recipe yields 10-12 buns
Method
To Make the Filling
STEP 1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar. Mixture should be light and fluffy and pale in color.
STEP 2. Add honey and beat at medium speed until incorporated. About 1 minute. Then add cinnamon and and nutmeg and continue beating for about 30 seconds.
To Assemble the Buns
STEP 1. Take brioche dough out of the fridge and roll into a rectangle about 0.7 cm thick. If you feel like your dough is resisting you and shrinking back after you roll it, wrap it back up in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. This will allow the gluten to relax and make the dough easier to roll out.
STEP 2. Using an offset spatula, gently spread the filling on top of the dough being careful not to tear it. Make sure you spread it evenly throughout leaving about 0.5 cm of clean dough around the edges.
STEP 3. Choose the side you want to roll your dough from and gently, but tightly, start rolling the dough into itself towards the opposite direction. Make sure you are tightly rolling the dough– you don't want to have a loosely rolled bun that might lose its shape. Cover with plastic wrap and transfer into the fridge for 30 minutes. This will allow the dough to firm up making it easier to cut, and stop any proofing it might have done while spreading the filling and rolling the dough.
STEP 4. Transfer the dough back to your work surface and with a generous piece of unscented dental floss, cut buns 4-5 cm thick. Carefully slide the dental floss beneath the roll, bring the two ends together at the top, cross them over and pull firmly.
STEP 5. Preheat the oven to 190° C / 375° F. Let the buns proof for about 30-45 minutes or until they have increased in size and look puffy and jiggly. Perform the poke test to make sure they are properly proofed. The time it takes to proof depends greatly on the temperature of your kitchen, so try to guide yourself with the visual queues instead of timings.
(note: these will proof way quicker than a loaf of brioche, so do not guide yourself with the proofing directions of the basic brioche dough)
STEP 6. Bake the buns for about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately drizzle about 15 g of honey on top of the buns, carefully spreading if necessary. It is important that you do this while the buns are still hot.
These buns are great for breakfast or for an afternoon snack. 👨🏼 and I brewed up Colombian coffee we had in our pantry from our last trip to Colombia's coffee region. For maximal sensorial enjoyance, unroll and tear the buns as you eat them and you will be rewarded with a butter-soaked center.
Notes on the Recipe:
Make sure you are using honey and not any type of syrup. I use an organic raw honey that has a very thick consistency, rather than a more runny, squeeze-bottle honey. If you can find a good quality organic honey that is not runny, it will work better for the filling because it will not alter the consistency– or just use the thickest honey you can find at the supermarket.
Working fast and refrigerating the dough after adding the filling and rolling it are key steps for the success of your buns. I did not refrigerate mine and I did not work as fast as I should have, and as a result, I overproofed my dough slightly. They still turned out inexplicably luscious, but if I had not overrproofed them they would have been spongier and softer.
Using dental floss to cut your buns is a trick I learned a couple of years ago. It is perfect to maintain the swirled interior of the buns without them getting smushed should you cut it with a knife or a bench scrapper. Make sure your floss is scentless and flavorless! You certainly don't want hints of spearmint throughout your buns.