Dairy Cinnamon Buns with Cream Cheese Frosting
Serves: 14 cinnamon buns
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup warm milk
  • 2 ¼ teaspoons dry yeast
  • 4 cups flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 6 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon salt
Filling:
  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted and chilled
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 ½-3 tablespoons cinnamon
Cream Cheese Frosting:
  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
  • 1 (8-ounce) container cream cheese (any type)
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
  • 4 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
  • ¼ cup milk
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and salt. Knead until dough is smooth, about 5 minutes. If the dough is too sticky, add a tiny bit of flour but not more. It should be a little sticky. Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 ½ hours.
  2. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a bowl, combine ¼ cup butter (half the total butter), brown sugar, and cinnamon.
  3. Place dough on a work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to a 16 x 21-inch rectangle. Spread remaining butter over the surface of the dough. Spread evenly with brown sugar mixture.
  4. Roll up tightly, jelly-roll style. For regular sized buns (not shown here, we made minis and giant ones, instructions below): Slice into about 14 buns, 1 ½ inches wide. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, evenly spaced apart. Let rise an additional 30 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350ºF.
  6. Prepare the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time. Add additional milk if needed to achieve a runny consistency (you want the frosting to be able to drip and melt into the crevices of the bun and not be overly stiff).
  7. Bake buns for 20-22 minutes, until golden. Immediately pour frosting all over the buns, letting it melt into the buns. Serve extra frosting on the side for dipping.
Recipe by Between Carpools at https://betweencarpools.com/cinnamon-buns/