Are You The Chosen Bun?

To help kick-off my return to the blogging world, I thought it would be a great idea to highlight a difficult recipe that tested my patience, my colorful vocabulary, and my knowledge of stovetop frying. If the title hasn’t given it away yet, this blog post is all about the buns. Honey buns that is. Honey buns are a delicate mix of yeast, honey, sugar, and cinnamon that are either baked or fried to a golden perfection. The recipe I chose to use for this bake was interesting because a typical honey bun dough usually consists of flour, yeast, sugar, salt, milk, butter, eggs, and honey. This recipe omitted the honey and almost appeared to be more of a cinnamon bun dough. I decided to go with it and added some cinnamon to my dough while it was mixing. It is important to note that the recipe states that the milk needs to be warmed up for thirty seconds in the microwave before pouring it into the mixture of ingredients. If the milk is not warmed up the yeast will not activate properly so this is a key step to follow. I was not expecting this dough to be as sticky as it was, so I liked how the recipe suggested coating my hands with vegetable oil to help remove it from my mixing bowl.

Once the dough was removed, I transferred it to a pre-oiled bowl and used a brush to coat the top of the dough with vegetable oil. This process helps the dough from not only sticking to the sides of the bowl but also keeps the dough from drying out. I then covered the bowl with plastic wrap and waited about two hours for the dough to double in size. As many of you know, patience is not always for me so naturally I kept checking the bowl every fifteen minutes to see the movement in the dough. After the two hours, my dough was ready to be rolled out. The recipe stated to roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface and to sprinkle cinnamon on top. Before I sprinkled the cinnamon, I brushed the dough with some honey to help the honey bun keep its original identity. I then rolled it up, sealed the edges shut, cut out my slices, and let the buns sit for another thirty minutes to proof a little more. According to the recipe, the dough should produce about fourteen or so buns but can be adjusted depending on the baker’s preference. I was able to cut out eleven buns with this dough.

While my slices were proofing, I had to make a difficult decision. To fry or not to fry. I usually stay away from frying because it can be a little intimidating especially when determining the right temperature. I decided to give frying a chance and heated up three cups of vegetable oil on the stovetop. I also whipped together my honey glaze icing so it would be ready for dipping after the buns were done frying. The glaze recipe consisted of 6 tablespoons of melted butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons of milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. I added some extra honey and a pinch of cinnamon. After the second proofing, I fried each bun, one at a time until they were golden brown on each side. One problem I had during the process, had to do with the oil being too hot. I had to throw away six of my honey buns because they had cooked too fast causing the center to remain raw. I was not happy about this, but decided it was best to see what would happen if I turned down the heat and took the low and slow approach. This method worked and gave the buns the chance to thoroughly cook and get nice and crispy. I patted the buns to remove the excess oil and double dipped them in my honey glaze icing.

Although these were not your traditional honey buns, the finished products were still satisfying and looked the part. They also reminded me of a dense cake donut which gave me some ideas for some future bakes. If you asked me a year ago if I would ever consider making buns for fun, I would have walked away from the challenge and bought some Little Debbie ones from the store instead. Looking back on this past year’s baking adventures, I have learned to be more confident and to think outside of the box. I have also learned to accept the difficult challenges even if they do not always produce the best bakes. These honey buns definitely tested my confidence but in the end I was bunstoppable.

https://www.cookiedoughandovenmitt.com/honey-bun-recipe/