How do you make an early morning trip to IKEA better? You leave cinnamon buns proving overnight in the fridge and wake up early to bake them, then pour some frosting over them and stuff them into your face. We even managed to get to IKEA for it opening and were the first customers through the check out. The story of assembling the items is a whole other problem though, but at least I’ve not got somewhere to hang my clothes. Back to nutella cinnamon buns though, as they’re far better than furniture.

This recipe is super quick, which for cinnamon buns makes it a must bake. The overnight step and the way I baked them is completely optional and just a fun and easy way to get fresh cinnamon buns in the morning. You can prove these as normal and bake them straight after if you don’t want to do that. The great thing about doing them in the slow cooker as I did meant that in the morning they haven’t got to be taken out of the fridge an hour before baking to get back to room temperature as the low heat of the slow cooker gets them back up before cooking them so they stay soft and fluffy. I was worried the nutella would melt out but instead it caramelises inside the bun and mixes with the cinnamon.

This recipe was taken from here and adapted. The original recipe is for super quick and easy buns with cream cheese frosting. I wanted to do mine overnight for breakfast and keep the frosting cheaper/simpler. I’ve since made these without doing them overnight and they worked well and were nice and quick.

Nutella Cinnamon Buns

 

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Prep time

8 hours

Cook time

90 mins

Total time

9 hours 30 mins

 

Author: The Bearded Baker

Serves: 12 buns

Ingredients

• **For the Dough**
• 235ml milk
• 60g unsalted butter
• 450g all-purpose flour
• 50g granulated sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 envelope instant yeast
• 1 egg
• **For the Filling**
• 9 Tbsps Nutella
• 2 Tbsps ground cinnamon
• **For the Frosting**
• 200g Icing Sugar
• 1-2 Tbsps Milk

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in the milk over a medium low heat, stirring constantly. Heat until the butter has *just* melted. The milk should be warm to the touch but not hot.
2. In a separate bowl mix together about 380g of the flour with the sugar and salt. Keep the rest of the flour to hand.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or by hand) combine the warm milk and the yeast. With a dough hook attachment (or with a wooden spoon) add the flour mixture and egg. Mix on a medium low speed until it combines. If doing by hand at this point, remove and knead on a floured surface, if using an electric mixer then keep the dough hook attached and knead for 5 minutes on a medium-low speed. If the dough is sticking to the sides add extra flour about 30g at a time.
4. Cover with a damp towel in the bowl and leave to rise for 10 minutes
5. When it's ready, prepare a surface by dusting it with flour and turn out the dough onto it.
6. Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 23cm x 35cm. If you want to neaten up the edges then box them off with a knife.
7. Spread the nutella over the top (if it needs to be runnier then microwave it for a few seconds) leaving a 2 cm gap on one of the long edges.
8. Dust the cinnamon evenly over the nutella.
9. From the long edge without the gap, roll the dough into a tight spiral, sealing the edge.
10. Chop off the ends if they need neatening up and slice the log with a very sharp knife or floss into 12-13 even buns.
11. Transfer these to a buttered pie dish (or in this case a greased slow cooker pot) and cover again leaving to rise in a warm place for 25 minutes (or in the fridge overnight covered tightly with cling film).
12. Here's where things deviate. If you are doing the fridge and slow cooker method then remove from the fridge, place them in the slow cooker and cook on high for 90 minutes. They should be spongy but browned nicely on the edges.
13. If doing it by oven and from the normal proving then heat the oven to 180°C(160°C fan assisted) and bake for 15-20 minutes.
14. Remove from the heat and leave to cool on a wire rack.
15. While cooling, make the frosting by sieving the icing sugar and whisking the milk in. You want it to be thick but just pourable.
16. Pour this over the buns however you wish. Either drizzle it in lines or just pour it, so however you like your cinnamon buns best, basically.

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