morning buns

I recently became obsessed with making things with homemade laminated dough - croissants, pain au chocolate, and kouign amann to name a few. They all basically start with the same dough - a yeasted dough that is wrapped around pounded or flattened butter, and rolled and turned several times to make layers in the dough. Then you can turn the dough into various things! Plain with egg wash for croissants, filled with dark chocolate for decadent pain au chocolate, and turned with lots of sugar for a caramelized sugar kouign amann. Another type of pastry you can make is morning buns!

To make the morning buns, you roll out your laminated dough into a large rectangle, and cover it with a mixture of sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon (and some recipes call for grated orange zest, but I skipped that ingredient). For reference, I used this recipe by Martha Stewart for the dough, and this recipe at Cannella Vita for the filling and baking directions.

After sprinkling an even layer of filling, carefully roll the dough into a long log.

And then carefully cut 2-inch segments with a sharp knife. (You should end up with 12 segments).

Then place the segments in a buttered cupcake or muffin pan, cover with plastic wrap, and let them rise.

I was supposed to let them rise for an hour, then cover with plastic wrap and let them rest in the fridge overnight before baking them, but I was impatient and baked them after the first hour! As a result, my morning buns were not as puffy and they should have been.

But I didn't mind because I got to eat them sooner ;) and they still tasted great! Enjoy!