Lucy's Friendly Foods

Cinnamon buns are the epitome of comfort food – warming sweet spice in a soft pillowy bun, what more could you wish for a on a cold winter’s day? I’ve always loved making cinnamon buns and they’re often been some of my most requested bakes so when I saw a photo of the beautiful cinnamon knots on sale in the bakery Fabrique i just had to make my own version.

There’s little to alter these from your usual cinnamon bun, but a simple plait and roll and you end up with the most gorgeous looking little cinnamon buns. I think they look so wonderful with the shiny folds and sugar sprinkle that these buns don’t need any icing on top.

These buns are definitely best eaten fresh, but they do refresh nicely after a few seconds in the microwave, so don’t worry about eating them all in one session – although you might be tempted as they’re so light and fluffy with only a subtle sweetness and a big punch of spice.

These buns may look complicated but it’s all pretty simple – for six buns, the dough is rolled out to approx. 30cm x 18cm and then the sugar cinnamon paste is spread over. The dough is the folded up, bringing the long side up by 1/3rd and then the top folded down over by 1/3rd. You will end up with three layers of dough about 18cm long (see photo for illustration!)

This is then cut into 3 cm strips which are then cut most of the way into three (again see photo). the three strands and plaited and then it’s all rolled into a ball and placed into a muffin tin. I’ve used muffin liners but in future I think i’ll just grease the tins instead.

I think these will make a spectacular Christmas breakfast, so i’ve frozen a batch, ready to defrost and then pop into the oven for a wonderful warm Christmas breakfast that will also make the house smell amazing!

Cinnamon Bun Knots

lucylox
dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
rising time 2 hours 30 minutes
Course Breakfast, cake, Snack
Servings 6

Equipment

  • muffin tin

Ingredients
  

  • 150 ml dairy-free milk
  • 50 g dairy-free margarine
  • 260 g strong bread flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 g or 1 tsp dried yeast
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 50 g caster sugar
  • for the filling:
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 25 g soft brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp dairy-free margarine
  • for the glaze:
  • 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 2 tbsp demerara sugar

Instructions
 

  • – Melt the margarine into the milk (don’t make it more than tepid though)
  • – Place the flour, salt, yeast, cinnamon and caster sugar in a bowl and pour in the warmed milk and margarine mixture.
  • – Bring to a dough and knead until smooth and bounces back when you press a finger onto the surface.
  • – Place in an oiled bowl, cover and leave to double in size in a warm place.
  • Meanwhile make the cinnamon sugar paste filling and set aside
  • – Knock back and roll out the dough to approx 18cm x 30cm. Spread the filling paste over all the dough and fold 1/3 over to make a rectangle with is approx 18cm x 10cm.
  • -Cut into 3 cm strips. The cut each strip so it is held together at the end but has three sections. Plait the three sections and then roll up into a ball. Place into a well greased muffin tin, cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes
  • – Preheat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade/180 degrees fan, or gas mark 4
  • – Bake for 15 minutes until golden, risen and they sound hollow when tapped.
  • – melt together the brown sugar and water and brush over the hot buns. Sprinkle with the Demerara sugar (or other granular sugar)
  • – Cool on a wire rack.

Notes

If you don’t want to bother with knots, simple roll up the dough into a long sausage shape, cut into 3 cm slices and place these well spaced on a lined baking tray.
Keyword cinnamon buns, vegan

8 Responses

  1. Just tried this recipe today; so good! If there are any other NZ people checking this out- I had to add an extra 80-90 gram of flour to make it a kneadable dough. Our kiwi flour doesn’t absorb as much liquid…

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