Brown Sugar Mini Buns for the Winter Comfort Food Event at Dazzling Kitchen

When Tamanna from Dazzling Kitchen wrote me an email asking if I was interested in participating into the Comfort Food Event she was hosting, I immediately thought “heck yeah! Comfort Food? That’s so me!”.

Those of you that know me a bit, know that I usually bake according to my mood. I know, I should be more strategic if I wanted to be a successful food blogger. I should post about what is fashionable, about what SEO and google analytics tell are the most searched words blah blah blah. But the truth is: I truly bake according to what I have available at home in that moment, to what I found at a store or farmers’ market that inspires me that week, and to what I’m craving.

I knew January was going to be a hard month for me. So I knew I needed A LOT of comfort food. That’s why I said yes to her. I was sure I was going to find many occasions to bake my comfort food.

In the winter, comfort food for me is mostly something baked with yeast. I believe there is nothing more soothing than making (by hand!) and eating bread and sweet buns. Last weekend, while sick, I suddenly felt the urge to make these brown sugar buns when I realized I have made them many times without ever blogging about them. These mini buns have truly been my comfort food lately. I had found the perfect recipe to share with you. Don’t be tricked by the name…they really are far from the extreme sweetness of sticky buns or others of the kind. The sweetness level of these mini buns is very modest. Which makes them great for any breakfast or afternoon snack without getting sugar high (or an upset stomach!)

Make sure you head over to Dazzling Kitchen to check out her blog and her event. I’m sure you will find plenty of recipes to satisfy your needs for comfort food.

Brown Sugar Buns

Ingredients

240 ml (8 fl oz or 1 cup) milk

10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract

113 gr (1 stick or 1/2 cup) butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

450-510 gr (15.75-18 oz or 3 ½ to 4 cups) all-purpose flour

2 eggs (beaten)

10 gr (2 tsp) instant yeast

5 gr (1 tsp) salt

57 gr (1/2 stick or 1/4 cup) butter, melted

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

30 ml (2 tbsp) milk

Method

Pour the milk and the vanilla extract into a saucepan and bring the milk to a scald without letting it boil.

Pour the warm milk into a large bowl and let it cool a bit. Then add the melted butter and the sugar.

Add about almost all the flour and the beaten eggs and mix until smooth. Finally add the salt and the instant yeast.

Sprinkle some flour on a flat surface and pour out the sticky dough.

Knead for about 10 minutes adding flour if the dough results too sticky (I practically used all the 4 cups of flour).

When the dough has become smooth and elastic put it in a greased bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let is rise for at least 1 hour or until double in bulk.

After dough has risen, pour out onto a flat surface and cut it into 16 pieces. You might want them to be all more or less of the same weight.

Roll out one piece of dough to a rectangle. Brush the top with a little butter and generously sprinkle with brown sugar. Roll out another piece of dough into a rectangle of more or less the same size and place it on top of the first rectangle.

Starting on the longest end roll up the dough tightly. Pinch the ends and seam closed. Place the dough seam side down and set aside.

Now go ahead and do the same with the other 14 pieces of dough. You will end up with 8 rolls of dough.

Cut each roll of dough into about 3 triangles. You will end up with 24 pieces of dough. (wow, after all this numbers…I really hope I did the math right!)

Place into a 11” round tart pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 1 hour or till double in bulk.

Brush with the egg wash and bake in a preheated 375F oven for about 30 minutes or till top is golden brown. Allow to cool before removing from pan.

Have a sweet day!

Souce: adapted from Cooking Bread, where you can find wonderful step by step pictures of the process!