Morning buns

It was Mr. G's birthday the other day, so I got up extra early to make him a treat for breakfast. He was still sleeping when these buns went in the oven and the smell of the buns actually woke him up. =)

These morning buns come from Cook's Country magazine. Lately I have been edging towards Cook's country instead of Cook's illustrated magazine. I still love CI, but each recipe takes soooo long to make and the ingredients list is impossibly long. Cook's country appeals to lazy side of me.

These turn out wonderfully. It has a flaky crust, borderline croissant dough without the fuss. The filling is a yummy cinnamon sugar with a hint of orange zest. The orange zest in the filling brings out the orange juice in the dough...it's really a wonderful touch. I made the dough the night before and the buns just need a little rise time in the oven before they're ready to bake.

An important note, though, if you do decide to make this. Use the foil liners!!! I only had 6 foil liners so the other 6 buns were in paper liners....they were really difficult to get out and got kinda greasy. Here's the recipe.

Morning buns
Cook's Country January 2011
makes 12 buns

dough
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 1/4 tsp rapid rise or instant yeast (1 envelope)
3/4 tsp salt
24 tbsp unsalted butter (3 sticks, or 336g), cut into 1/4 inch thick slices and chilled
1 cup sour cream, chilled
1/4 cup orange juice, chilled
3 tbsp ice water
1 large egg yolk

filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp grated orange zest
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a large zipper lock bag. Add butter to bag, seal and shake to coat. Press air out of the bag and reseal. Roll over bag several times with rolling pin, shaking bag after each roll, until butter is pressed into large flakes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in sour cream, orange juice, water, and egg yolk until combined.

2. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead briefly to form smooth, cohesive ball. Roll dough into 20 by 12 inch rectangle. Starting at short edge, roll dough into tight cylinder. pat cylinder flat to 12 by 4 inch rectangle and transfer to parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 minutes.

3. Line 12 cup muffin tin with foil liners and grease liners with cooking spray. Combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, orange zest, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium bowl.

4. Remove dough from freezer and place on lightly floured surface. Roll dough into 20 by 12 inch rectangle and sprinkle evenly with filling, leaving 1/2 inch border around edges. Staring at the long edge, roll dough into tight cylinder and pinch lightly to seal seams. trim 1/2 inch dough from each end and discard (see note). Cut cylinder into 12 pieces and transfer, cut side up to prepared muffin cups. Cover loosely with plastic and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

5. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees. When oven reaches 200 degrees, turn it off. Remove buns from refrigerator and discard plastic. Place buns in turned-off oven until puffed and doubled in size, about 20 to 30 minutes. Remove buns from oven and heat oven to 425 degrees. Bake until buns being to rise, about 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until deep golden brown, 40 to 50 (see note) minutes. Cool buns in tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and discard liners. Serve warm.

Notes:

• *I didn't trim and discard the ends of the dough.  Why waste it?  
• *The recipe says to bake it for 40 to 50 minutes, mine were finished in about 25 to 30 minutes.  
• *To make ahead, Cooks country says to transfer filled muffin tin to freezer until buns are firm, about 30 minutes.  Transfer buns with liners to zipper lock bag and freeze for up to 1 month.  To finish, return buns to muffin tin and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.  Proceed with step 4.