On my way home from work (I just started back last week), I generally spend the hour in my mask listening to podcasts and scrolling through instagram looking at makeup (that I'll never be able to replicate), workouts (that I'll probably never try and recipes (that there's the hope I'll make!) Sometimes I read (I just started Pet Sematary) but there are days where my eyes and stomach can't handle words on a page so scrolling does the trick.
On Tuesday morning, during my scrolling I found a super enticing picture. Blueberry Cinnamon buns. They looked beautiful, the toasted color of the buns, blue and purple oozing from freshly backed blueberries, cinnamon and that lovely icing swirl. The recipe touted for the dough was only 2 ingredients and my interest was peaked.
Is it possible to make delicious cinnamon bun dough with only 2 ingredients? Could it really be that simple?
Actually, apparently, yes. Mostly.
When I got home on Tuesday, I asked Baros if he would enjoy having some blueberry cinnamon buns for after dinner, knowing full well that he loves cinnamon!
So around 9pm I started.
I posted some pictures on Instagram and asked if you’d be interested in the recipe and the answer was yes! Well, 88% said yes! I don’t know how many people voted but I wrote out the recipe
The recipe called for Self Rising Flour and Greek Yogurt. That easy.
Unfortunately, I only have all-purpose flour, so I needed 2 more ingredients to make it work. Baking powder and Baking soda. I also decided to add about a tablespoon of light brown sugar for a hint of sweetness. We also don't have Greek Yogurt in the house so I substituted with Turkish Yogurt which has the same consistency but is a little more sour. You could substitute with American yogurt, but would either use less yogurt or more flour to adjust for the difference in consistency.
Well, the cinnamon buns were delicious! I will definitely be making the bun dough again. It's a sticky dough so you need extra flour on hand when kneading and rolling out, but other than that, it's super simple. The dough comes together quickly and doesn't take a lot of kneading power.
We don't have a rolling pin so we had to make-shift one with a glass bottle we use for water! Whatever works, right? But make sure to flour it and your rolling surface to avoid sticking! (Lessons learned!)
I think the filling can be whatever you want it to be as well. We had blueberries in the fridge, but since some of them died :( we decided to add some strawberries to our cinnamon mix as well. It was a beautiful and simple filling that baked up deliciously.
Strawberry, Blueberry Cinnamon Buns
Ingredients for the dough:
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tbsp Light Brown Sugar (or to taste)
- 1 cup Turkish Yogurt
- Extra Flour for kneading and rolling out
- Unsalted Butter to help get golden brown
Ingredients for the filling:
- 1- 2 cups of Blueberries (if frozen, let defrost)
- 1/2 - 1 cup of Diced Strawberries (if frozen, let defrost)
- Lots of Cinnamon
- 2+ tbsp Light Brown Sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 8 in or 9 in round cake pan with parchment paper and grease with a small quantity of butter.
2. Mix the flour, baking soda and baking powder together.
3. Once evenly blended, add in the brown sugar and yogurt. You can use a fork or spoon at first, until the yogurt and flour mixture are incorporated. When the dough starts to come together, you can tip onto a floured surface and begin kneading. (I don't have a lot of kitchen space so I actually kneaded it in the bowl but it's much easier to knead on a pre-floured surface.) I also used one hand to knead and kept the other hand clean so I could add extra flour as necessary. After kneading for a few minutes and the dough is less wet, let the dough rest covered.
4. Create your filling. In a bowl, mix the diced strawberries and blueberries, cinnamon and light brown sugar. Baros created the filling and used a lot of cinnamon and around 2 tbsp of light brown sugar but you can really tweak to your tastes. Our dessert was not super sweet which works for us, but you can definitely add more sweetness into the filling!
5. Now, it's time to roll out your dough. Make sure there's plenty of flour on your surface first. At this point, I turned my dough onto a floured sheet of parchment paper (it's what I had on hand), grabbed my freshly washed and dried glass bottle and started to roll the dough into a 1/2 in thick rectangle. If you want more layers, you can roll it out thinner (but the bottle limited my ability!).
9. Spread a thin layer of your filling onto your dough. Leave about a half inch of one side free of fruit to make rolling easier.
10. Start rolling your dough as tightly and evenly as possible starting from the side of the dough with more filling. The wider your rectangle was the more rolls you will have.
11. Carefully cut your roll into 1 1/2 inch slices. If your dough, is still sticky, coat your knife with some flour before each slice.
12. Place each slice into your lined cake pan. They should not be touching as they will spread out.
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| I later switched to a smaller pan since there was too much room for them to spread |
13. Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven. About 5 minutes before done, spread a small amount of butter to the top and place back in oven. This will help develop a golden brown color and add an additional richness to the dessert.
14. You can eat fresh out of the oven or wait till it cools down. Waiting let's the flavors meld... but they're so good fresh out of the oven!
The rise on this was great and the flavor delicious. I definitely recommend trying these as a quick cinnamon bun recipe. I'm sure there are more complicated, richer recipes, but this is great as a super simple recipe! I've never made cinnamon buns before and this was a great starting point. I also really enjoyed the adaptability.
What do you think? Will you be trying? Have you ever made such simple cinnamon buns?
