Doug's Sounding Board

This recipe is the result of me wanting to have a cinnamon roll about a year after I met Nicole. I was prepared to drive to Cinnabon but Nicole suggested we make our own. I didn’t really know what to make of that so I went and looked up recipes and over the course of a couple of months tested and tweaked and recombined until I came up with the recipe below. I thank Nicole for helping me with all the research. I hope by putting this recipe here I won’t lose it again, and others may enjoy it without having to wait for me to get around to making more. Credit for coining “Doug’s Buns” goes to Troy fom Comicopolis.

Total time required: About 3 hours
Number of buns: 16
Calories per serving: I’m not going to tell you what constitutes a serving, but there are about 500 calories per bun.

Overall ingredients (just to make sure you have everything before you begin):

The Rolls

I recommend the use of a bread machine, not that you can’t do it by hand, but the bread machine will give it a nice constant temperature for the first rise.
Add the following to your bread machine in the order recommended by the bread machine maker: warm water, melted butter, vanilla pudding mix, warm milk, egg, white sugar, salt, bread flour, and yeast. Put the bread machine on the dough cycle and start it up. Now you can clean up any mess and get anything ready for the next part in about an hour and a half.

To prepare for the completion of the first rise, grease a 9″x13″ baking pan with butter. Also complete the caramel sauce and the filling shortly before the first rise of dough is done.

The Caramel Sauce

Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add the brown sugar and vanilla ice cream. Bring it all to a boil and keep it there for two minutes stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. When it is done pour it all into the greased 9″x13″ baking pan.

The Filling

Soften 1/4 cup of butter and mix the cinnamon into it. You’ll have a rich dark brown creamy butter when you’re done. Also have your cup of brown sugar and chopped pecans ready.

Putting It All Together

Have a space big enough to roll out the dough into a 10″ by 17″ rectangle; lightly coat it in flour. Have your pan with caramel sauce nearby, as well as your cinnamon butter, brown sugar, and pecans. Have a warm space ready for the second rise. If your oven goes low enough, pre-heat it to 80 degrees and then turn it off, if not you need some other warm space. Finally, get yourself a nice long piece of floss cut and ready.

Turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Work it until you have a rectangle measuring about 10″ by 17″. You can use a roller, but I don’t get along too well with rollers so I just use my hands. If you use your hands be careful not to tear it. When you get it to the right size, spread the cinnamon butter across the surface. A spatula works well here, though a knife works well too. When the butter supply is exhausted sprinkle the cup of brown sugar over the dough slab and then make it even by running your hands over it. Finally, sprinkle the chopped pecans over the whole thing. When you get a distribution you’re happy with press lightly on it to help the pecans to stick.

Now comes the tricky part; you might want to have an assistant for this. You need to roll up the dough slab into a dough log, rolling the long side. When it’s all rolled up try to pinch the edge to the body but it likely won’t stick that well, so just position it so it doesn’t unroll. Now that it’s good and stable you need to cut it into 16 1″ slices. I personally haven’t used a sharp enough knife that it didn’t mess everything up, but if you have one go right ahead. For everyone else. grab your dental floss. Slide the floss under the log until it is centered and then bring up the ends, cross them, and pull them tight until the log has become two logs. Continue this way cutting the log parts in half intil you get 1″ segments. When you get to that point place the rolls into the caramel sauce in the pan. When the 16 rolls are in the pan, put the pan in the warm place you have set aside for the rolls to rise for another 45 minutes.

When the second rising is done, bake the buns for 15-20 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees.

The Frosting

When the buns are done start working on the frosting. Sift the sugar to remove any lumps and then mix all the ingredients together using a whisk to make sure other lumps are elminated. When the buns are warm spread the frosting over the buns.