Some days are bright, energetic and in-your-face. Those are the days for sticky cinnamon buns filled with gooey deliciousness.

Other days are quiet, a little rainy maybe, where you just want to stay home and drink cup after cup of coffee alongside tender, not-too-sweet pastries. These are the buns for those days.

Makes: 12 buns

Ingredients:

• Dough:
  • 1 cup milk (I used whole milk which leads to a rich dough)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp quick rise yeast
  • 3 cups flour (you might not need full amount)
  • 1 tsp salt
• Filling and Topping
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • Pinch salt
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp apple jelly or apricot jam

Directions:

Prepare dough

1. Melt butter (1/2 cup)
2. Warm up milk (1 cup) to just above room temperature and add melted butter to it, stir to combine
3. Add sugar to milk mixture and stir
4. Let cool to around room temperature and add yeast (1 tsp)
5. Add milk combination to the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached
6. In a medium bowl, stir together 2 cups of the flour with salt
7. Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture and use the dough hook to mix
8. Gradually add more flour, a bit at a time, until the dough comes together into a soft, un-sticky ball that just invites you to knead it
9. Knead the dough for a few minutes, until it is elastic and smooth – you can use the dough hook for this or, if you have any lingering frustration in your system, you can take over and use your hands
10. Lightly butter or oil a large bowl, place the dough in it and cover it, and leave it until it is doubled in size (around 60-90 minutes), while this is happening you can prepare the filling

Prepare filling

1. Melt butter (1/4 cup)
2. Add maple syrup (2 tbsp), salt (pinch), brown sugar (1 tbsp) and cinnamon (1/2 tsp) and stir together
3. Set aside to cool

Baking and assembly

1. Butter an 8×13 casserole dish or line it with parchment
2. Roll dough to about 1/4-1/2 inch (around 1cm, give or take) thick, try to make a rectangle with the edges as straight as possible but don’t fuss too much, I didn’t!
3. Spread dough with filling, going right to the shorter edges and about 1/2 inch (1cm) from the longer edges
4. Cut the dough width-wise into 12 equal strips
5. Roll each strip up and pinch the edge
6. Please each roll curly-side up in the casserole dish
7. Cover with a cloth and let rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size again (see note)
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees f
9. Just before putting the rolls in the oven, brush them with the jam or jelly (heat it up a bit if it is too hard to spread)
10. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the top is brown and the buns are baked through
11. Put on a coffee or tea and kick back

Notes:

• Want these for breakfast but don’t want to get up at 4am to start baking? Me too. You can start these a day in advance. Get all the way up to the stage where the rolls are formed, and instead of putting them somewhere warm to rise, cover the dish with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge overnight. In the morning, take them out and loosen the wrap, and let them come up to temperature and rise. This will take around 1-2 hours depending on how warm the room.
• Can you believe this is my 100th post? That means 100 experiments, inedible mistakes, and happy accidents. To anyone who is reading this, thank you so much for sticking with me!