Coffee Cinnamon Buns

Soft, pillowy sweet dough filled with cinnamon sugar and topped with a coffee glaze.

I felt like the biggest baking nerd creating this recipe last week. This was a completely unplanned recipe, born out of a serious cinnamon roll craving. I couldn’t get the idea of pillowy, soft sweet dough, filled with cinnamon sugar and twisted into delicate knots out of my head and so I found myself, sitting in front of my computer last week creating a sweet dough spreadsheet. I have a bunch of sweet dough recipes—you can check out my Browned Butter Spelt Cinnamon Buns, Tahini Orange Cinnamon Rolls, and Einkorn Pecan Sticky Buns if you don’t believe me—but they all vary slightly and I wanted to create the perfect sweet dough ratios. I compiled all of my sweet dough recipes into one very organized document, converted everything to baker’s percentages, and then decided what ratios I wanted to use for this recipe. Lo and behold, the perfect sweet dough was born.

The final dough has a fairly high enrichment percentage (milk, butter, and eggs) which makes it moist and soft, perfect for spinning and swirling and rolling into these coffee cinnamon buns.

the dough

This dough is a simple, enriched sweet dough with a high ratio of milk, eggs, and butter. It’s made brioche-style and we start by proofing the yeast in the warm milk. Then the eggs, flour, sugar, and salt, are added and mixed to form a thick dough. With the mixer running on a lower speed, softened butter is incorporated a little at a time, before the mixer speed increases and the dough kneads for a decent amount of time—until it’s smooth and elastic, with a strong network of gluten strands.

The dough rests at room temperature until doubled in size and then there are two options for shaping and the second proof. Option #1: Punch the dough down and transfer it to the refrigerator for an overnight cold proof. In the morning, let the dough warm up slightly, roll it, fill it, and shape it, and then let the buns proof for another 30 minutes or so before baking. Option #2: After the first proof, go ahead and roll, fill, and shape the dough and then transfer the cinnamon buns to the refrigerator for their overnight proof. Give them about an hour at room temperature before baking. You can adapt this recipe to fit your schedule.

the filling and frosting

Because I wanted the dough to be the star, we leaned into simplicity for this recipe. A very classic cinnamon, sugar, and butter filling is smeared over the dough before shaping and I topped them with a strong coffee glaze making them really perfect for lazy weekend mornings.

Yield 12

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

30 Min

Cook time

20 Min

Inactive time

13 Hour

Total time

13 H & 50 M

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Coffee Cinnamon Buns

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Soft, pillowy sweet dough filled with cinnamon sugar and topped with a coffee glaze.

IngredientsUSMetric

for the sweet dough

• 140 g (1/2 cup +3 tbsp) buttermilk, warmed
• 10 g (2 3/4 tsp) active dry yeast
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 345 g (2 3/4 cup) all purpose flour
• 3 g (1 tsp) kosher salt
• 100 g (7 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened

for the filling

• 56 g (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
• 100 g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 of a nutmeg pod, grated
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

for the glaze

• 70 g (1/3 cup) heavy cream
• 1 tbsp instant coffee
• 120 g (about 1 cup) powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Combine warmed buttermilk and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment and let sit for about 5 minutes, until foamy.
2. While the yeast is proofing, combine sugar, flour, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. When the yeast is foamy, add the egg and egg yolk and whisk to incorporate. Add the dry ingredients and begin kneading on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, until all of the flour has been incorporated and a dough begins to form.
4. With the mixer running, add the butter a tablespoon or so at a time. When all of the butter has been added, increase the mixer speed to medium high and knead for 5-6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, cover, and let proof at room temperature for an hour to an hour and a half, until the dough has doubled in size.
6. Punch the dough down and transfer to the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, just to make the dough a little easier to work with. **see notes for alternate proofing instructions**
7. While the dough is chilling, combine butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and salt and stir to form a smooth paste.
8. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and rolled into a 12x18” rectangle.
9. Smear the cinnamon butter mixture over the center and right two-thirds of the dough.
10. Fold the left third of the dough into the center and then fold the right third over the dough into the center as well (like folding a letter, but horizontally).
11. Turn the rectangle 90° and roll out a little, just to stretch it about an inch vertically.
12. Cut the dough into 12 strips. Roll each strip up like a snail and tuck the end under the center of the bun.
13. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator overnight, or about 12 hours.
14. When you’re ready to bake, preheat to the oven to 375° F and take the cinnamon buns out of the refrigerator. Remove the plastic wrap and cover loosely with a towel. Let rest for about an hour, until they come to room temperature.
15. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until deeply golden.
16. While the buns are baking, make the coffee glaze. Combine heavy cream and instant coffee in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer to dissolve the coffee. Transfer to a measuring cup and whisk in the powdered sugar until smooth.
17. Pour the glaze over the warm cinnamon buns and serve immediately.

Notes

**For alternative proofing instructions, see the blog post above!

Similar Recipes

Tahini Orange Cinnamon Rolls with Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Browned Butter and Spelt Cinnamon Buns

Einkorn Pecan Sticky Buns

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Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it # gatheredatmytable

Tahini Orange Cinnamon Rolls with Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

These warm, buttery cinnamon rolls are filled with cinnamon sugar, tahini, and a bit of orange zest. They are topped with an addictive browned butter and cream cheese frosting.

I am truly, truly soaking up every moment of fall this year. For the first time in a long time, I’m baking cinnamon rolls and drinking apple cider and around me, the leaves are actually changing and the temperature is dropping! In sunny, sweet Florida, fall baking was done from my 90° kitchen, no matter the month, and trees stayed green and palm-y all year long. (I’m not complaining though, because the beach was always close by….just soaking up this new climate while I have it).

In my mind, the number one fall baking project is cinnamon rolls. I have a few different sweet roll type recipes on the blog, but this is the first true and classic cinnamon roll and it is a very good one. They are fairly straightforward and traditional, but you guys know me, so they do have a little tahini mixed into the filling and some orange zest brightens things up. They are finished with a browned butter cream cheese frosting that is one of the best I’ve ever eaten and I wouldn’t judge you one bit for doubling the recipe and keeping some in the fridge for frosting emergencies. You never know.

So let’s dive in!

homemade cinnamon roll dough

This recipe, like a lot most cinnamon roll recipes is made with an enriched, brioche-like sweet dough. Enriched doughs are yeasted doughs that include some sort of combination of eggs, butter, milk, and sugar. A brioche is one that has a very high concentration of eggs and butter and often incorporates milk. It’s exceptionally soft and buttery, but can sometimes be a bit tricky to work with. A sweet dough is basically the same as a brioche dough, but has a lower amounts of butter, eggs, and sugar, and sometimes doesn’t include milk. (If all of this interests you like it does me, Erin McDowell has a great breakdown of enriched doughs that you can read here.)

This dough recipe falls somewhere in the middle of the the brioche-sweet dough spectrum. It doesn’t have quite as much butter as some of my other brioche recipes (like this Cinnamon Swirl Brioche and this Chocolate Tahini Brioche Babka), but it does incorporate buttermilk and decent amount of eggs. It’s also made in a brioche-style of mixing.

Yeast and buttermilk start us off. Then dry ingredients and eggs get added and kneaded into a shaggy dough, before softened butter is added cube by cube. Using a stand mixer is pretty important here since brioche undergoes a pretty extensive kneading process (made a bit stickier by all of the butter). Because this dough is enriched, all of those additions like sugar, eggs, milk, and butter get in the way of gluten formation. This means that it’s going to take a bit longer for sufficient gluten formation to form—a stand mixer makes this so much easier!

chilling the dough

I will forever preach cold-proofing. Cold proofing is simply allowing your dough to complete a long rise in the fridge in order for flavor to fully develop. It’s something that bakers and pastry chefs always do that is often skipped over in home-baking style recipes and I think it makes a really big difference in your final product. If are absolutely pinched for time, you can skip the overnight cold proof (see the recipe notes), but I highly recommend you don’t. The difference is a cinnamon roll where flavor comes from the dough, the filling and the frosting as opposed to one where the filling and frosting takes spotlight and the dough is just a cinnamon-sugar vessel. Try it once for yourself and taste the difference!

filling and frosting

The rest of this cinnamon roll recipe is familiar. The dough is rolled out and filled with a cinnamon, butter, tahini, spice mixture. It is rolled and shaped into a tight log and cute little swirls are sliced, proofed, and baked.

The frosting is a real show-stopper. Brown some butter, chill it, and then beat it into a classic cream cheese frosting. Swoop it all on top of warm cinnamon rolls so that oozes down into the crevices and then eat them immediately with lots of coffee and soak up all that autumnal goodness.

Yield

12

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

30 Min

Cook time

35 Min

Inactive time

12 Hour

Total time

13 H & 4 M

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Tahini Orange Cinnamon Rolls with Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

These warm, buttery cinnamon rolls are filled with cinnamon sugar, tahini, and a bit of orange zest. They are topped with an addictive browned butter and cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

for the dough

• 70 g (1/3 cup) buttermilk
• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 345 g (2 3/4 cup) all purpose flour
• 40 g (2 tbsp + 1 tsp) granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• Zest of one orange
• 2 eggs
• 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

for the filling

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 10 g tahini
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp cardamom
• Zest of one orange
• Pinch of salt

for the frosting

• 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar*
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

to make the dough

1. Heat buttermilk until warm to the touch. Combine warmed milk and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Let proof for about 5 minutes, until foamy, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. In a medium bowl, combine all purpose flour salt, and sugar. Set aside.
3. Lightly beat eggs and then add them to the mixer with the milk and yeast. Stir with a rubber spatula to gently combine.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid and begin mixing, starting on low speed and gradually increasing speed, for 2-3 minutes, until a thick dough begins to form.
5. With the mixer running on medium-low speed, add the softened butter, one tablespoon at a time, until incorporated. Once all of the butter has been added, increase the mixer speed to medium-high and knead for 6-7 minutes, until a smooth, elastic dough has formed. Turn the dough onto a work surface and knead by hand for another minute and then shape the dough into a ball. Place the dough ball into a greased bowl, cover, and let proof at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours, until swollen and almost doubled in size.
6. After the dough has completed its first proof, punch it down and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill overnight, or approximately 12 hours*.

to make the filling

1. Stir together all filling ingredients to form a smooth paste.

filling, shaping, and the final proof

1. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and roll out into a large rectangle, approximately 1/4” thick and about 16”x20”.
3. Dollop the filling over the dough and use an offset spatula to spread it into an even layer, reaching all the way to the edges of the dough.
4. Starting from one of the long edges, tightly roll the dough into a log. Use a serrated knife to slice the log into 12 equal pieces. Places rolls cut side down in a 9x13” baking dish. Cover and let proof again for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, until rolls are puffy.
5. Bake at 350° F for 30-35 minutes, until deeply golden. Let cool slightly and then frost while warm.

to make the frosting

1. Place butter in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat for 6-7 minutes, until nutty and fragrant and little brown bits appear at the bottom of the pot.
2. Transfer browned butter to the fridge and let cool completely.
3. Place cooled browned butter and softened cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until smooth and well combined.
4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar. Continue mixing for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
5. Spread over warm cinnamon rolls and serve!

Notes:

• If you are pressed for time, you can skip the overnight rest in the fridge and substitute it with a 30 minute chill. Completing a long cold proof helps flavor develop in enriched doughs like this one, so I HIGHLY recommend that you work it in, if possible, but it can be skipped if needed.
• The sweetness of a frosting is highly subjective, so I recommend starting with a lower measurement of powdered sugar, tasting as you go, and adding more bit by bit until you reach your ideal sweetness level. If at any point, the frosting gets too thick, you can loosen it with a teaspoon or two of heavy cream or milk.

Similar Recipes

Cinnamon Swirl Brioche

Einkorn Pecan Sticky Buns

Browned Butter and Spelt Cinnamon Buns

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable

Browned Butter and Spelt Cinnamon Buns

Did you know that the first weekend in October is Cinnamon Bun Day in Sweden? They celebrate by eating cinnamon buns and often those cute little Swedish dough twists are brought into workplaces and given to friends all over the country. This sounds like the most wonderful holiday and I’m ready to move to Sweden where I can live among my kind of people.

I discovered this because one of Martin’s players is from Sweden and this kind man brought IKEA cinnamon buns to work for everyone to celebrate. It was a Sunday afternoon and I got a text from Martin that said “Did you know it’s Cinnamon Bun Day in Sweden?! We should make some tonight!” Side note: When Martin says “we” should make something, he mostly means I should make something so that he can eat something, but in all fairness, he washes dishes for me so I can’t complain. Anyway, it was already 4 pm and I am not a night baker, but I felt moved by the holiday and decided to go for it. I adapted one of my brioche recipes and made these sweet little buns. We baked off a few that night (for testing purposes, of course) and I let the rest do a little overnight proof in the fridge. Friends, they were beautiful. Their little Circus-bakery-esque twists were filled with cinnamon and tahini and cardamom. They were fluffy and pillowy and I brushed them with a honey cinnamon syrup and all was right with the world.

We may not have a National Cinnamon Bun Day (or maybe we do, there are so many food holidays, I can’t keep it straight), but December feels like unofficial Cinnamon Bun season which gives us permission to eat cinnamon-swirled dough of all shapes and sizes well into January.

In practical information, I have lots of notes on this recipe regarding proofing, chilling, and shaping. There are many options to help you work this recipe into your schedule, so be sure to read the notes at the bottom. There are also step-by-step shaping instructions down there, too! And as always, feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. I love talking baking with friends. :)

Browned Butter and Spelt Cinnamon Buns

makes 12 rolls

Ingredients

for the brioche

100 g (about 1/2 cup) milk

100 g (about 1/2 cup) buttermilk

14 g (3 tsp) active dry yeast

400 g all purpose flour

130 g spelt flour

60 g granulated sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

3 eggs, at room temperature

113 g (1/2 cup) butter

for the filling

4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

10 g tahini, well-stirred

135 g (2/3 cup) brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

pinch of salt

for the honey syrup

1/2 cup water

170 g (1/2 cup) honey

3 cinnamon sticks

egg wash

demerara sugar

Procedure 

to make the honey syrup: 

1. In a small saucepan, stir together water and honey. Add cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil. When the mixture is boiling, remove from heat and let cool completely. Strain out cinnamon sticks and set aside.

   You will have a decent amount of syrup leftover- we love to use this in coffee in the mornings.

to make the filling:

1. Combine butter and tahini in a medium bowl and stir together until smooth. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt and mix well until a paste forms. Set aside.

to make the brioche 

1. Place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally, for 6-7 minutes until butter is fragrant and foamy and small brown bits are beginning to appear at the bottom of the saucepan. Remove from heat and immediately transfer butter to a clean bowl to stop cooking. Set aside and let cool completely.

2. Combine milk and buttermilk in a glass measuring cup and heat in the microwave for 30-45 seconds, until just warm to the touch. Add yeast to the warm milk and stir gently. Let rest for about 5 minutes, until yeast is foamy and dissolved.

3. While the yeast is proofing, combine all purpose flour, spelt flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Mix briefly, about 20 seconds, just to combine.

4. In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs. Create a small well in the center of the dry ingredients, then pour in milk/yeast mixture, along with the beaten eggs and the cooled browned butter.. Knead, beginning on low speed and gradually increasing to medium for 2-3 minutes until everything is combined and hydrated and no flour bits remain. Once a dough begins to form, increase your mixer speed to medium-high and knead for 6–8 minutes more, until a smooth, elastic dough has formed.

5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and gently press dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let proof for 1 hour in a warm space, until dough is doubled in size.

6. When the dough has completed it’s first proof, gently punch it down, re-cover it, and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least one hour, or up to 12 (see notes below for more instruction on overnight proofing).

7. When the dough has finished chilling, turn it out onto a lightly-floured work surface. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 13x16” in size and about 1/4” thick.

8. Filling and shaping: Use a small offset spatula to smear the filling mixture in an even layer over the surface of the dough, reaching all the way to the edges. Fold the dough into thirds, as if you were folding a letter (see pictures below) and then cut the dough into 1” strips. Twist each strip into a knot and place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving at least 2” in between each bun. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and let proof again for 45 minutes, until buns are puffy.

9. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375° F. Brush each bun with egg wash and then sprinkle with a bit of Demerara sugar. Bake for 22-25 minutes until buns are deeply golden brown. Immediately brush hot buns with honey syrup and enjoy!

Notes:

Options for chilling/proofing

As with any yeasted dough, refrigeration helps to slow down fermentation and allows for more flavor development. With enriched doughs, it also helps to make the dough easier to handle because it gives the butter a chance to cool down and return to a more solid state. 

-For the quickest buns, follow the instructions exactly as they are written in the recipe above by proofing the dough for an hour at room temperature, then transferring it to the refrigerator to proof for another hour before rolling, shaping, final proofing (shaped), and baking. 

-You can also proof the dough for an hour on the countertop and then transfer the the dough to the refrigerator overnight (or 12-18 hours). After a long chill, let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes-1 hour (just to take the chill off) before rolling, filling and shaping, following steps 8 and 9 in the recipe as written above. This method gives the dough the longest bulk fermentation and will allow for the most flavor development. 

-Finally, a third option is to follow the above recipe through the shaping and filling. After creating your buns, you can cover the sheet tray well with plastic wrap and refrigerate them shaped overnight. Allow the dough to proof at room temperature for closer to 2 hours before baking (so that dough can come to room temperature and then complete that 45 minute proof), before brushing and baking. 

Shaping

turn dough out onto floured surface

roll out into a rectangle

smear surface of the dough with filling

fold bottom third of dough up towards the center

fold the top third of the dough down like you are closing a letter

cut dough into 1" strips

wrap each strip around your fingers and tie into a knot

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