This month the Daring Bakers kept our creativity rolling with cinnamon bun inspired treats. Shelley from C Mom Cook dared us to create our own dough and fill it with any filling we wanted to craft tasty rolled treats, cinnamon not required!
I had made Cinnamon Rolls with Walnut Praline already, so wanted something a little different. Eventually I went with one of the recipes Shelley provided – Roasted Banana Cinnamon Buns.
Roasted banana as a filling sounded intriguing and was certainly different from the standard cinnamon roll recipes I’d seen. And, oh boy, it was a great choice – finger licking good in fact. The dough recipe comes from All Recipes. com; the filling comes from Picky Palate.com and the maple glaze comes from Joy the Baker.com.
It is a bit of a lengthy process, so it can help to partially prepare the buns the night before and finish them the next morning. There are a couple of points at which you can do this – as per this recipe, you can either prepare the rolls right up to the point where the buns are filled, cut and in the baking tray and then put in the fridge overnight for their second proving. Or, as I did, you can make the dough, do a first prove until doubled in size, then gently knock it down, cover in plastic wrap then put in the fridge. The next morning take it out for 30 minutes to an hour to come to room temperature, then roll it out, fill it, and do the second prove. Either way works fine.
ROASTED BANANA CINNAMON BUNS WITH MAPLE GLAZE
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 cup milk
- 2½ oz white sugar
- 2¾ oz butter
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 4 cups all-purpose (plain flour)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
For the roasted bananas
- 3 bananas cut into 1/2- 1 inch (15-30 mm) chunks
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
For the filling
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1-1/2 tbsp cinnamon
- All of the mashed roasted bananas
For assembly
- Risen dough
- Prepared filling
- 4 tbsp butter, room temperature (almost melted is great)
For the glaze (NB: I only needed half of this amount)
- 1 cup confectioner’s (icing) sugar
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2-4 tbsp milk
Instructions
- For the dough: In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, sugar and butter. Heat gently till the sugar dissolves. If it’s become quite hot, cool to warm and stir in the yeast. Let is stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Mix in the eggs, oil and the yeast mixture. Mix until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and continue to knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes. Grease a large bowl with 1 tablespoon of oil. Place the dough into the bowl and turn once to coat. Cover and let stand in a warm place until double in size, about 1 hour. In the meantime, prepare the roasted bananas and filling.
- For the roasted bananas: Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Spread the banana chunks into a 1 1/2-2 quart (1½ -2 litre) baking dish. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and dot the top with the butter pieces. Roast the bananas for 40 minutes, stirring after about 20 minutes. When the bananas have cooled a bit, mash them with a fork.
- For the filling: Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon and mashed roasted bananas until well combined.
- For assembly: Once the dough has risen, gently deflate it. Roll the dough into a big rectangle (I rolled it out to 30 x 50cm (12 x 20 inch). Spread the butter over the dough. Spread the banana/brown sugar mixture over the butter. It will most likely mix right in with the butter, and that is totally okay.
- Starting with one long end, roll the dough into a log (this can be a bit of a messy process and some of the filling might spill out, but I gathered it up and pushed it back into the cut pieces once they were in the pan). Cut the log into 12 pieces, and place each piece, cut side up, into a 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 inch) pan, ensuring there is some room between each for them to expand while proving a second time. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place it into the refrigerator overnight. (Or, let it rest for about 30 minutes to an hour or so, and proceed to the baking directions.)
- In the morning, take the tray out of the refrigerator and allow it to come up to temperature for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F). Bake the cinnamon buns for 25-30 minutes or until or until when lightly tapped the bread sounds hollow, and a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the bread comes out clean. If the rolls are browning too quickly, cover them lightly with foil during the last 5-10 minutes of baking. When ready, take out and place the pan on a wire rack.
- For the glaze: Measure the confectioner’s sugar into a medium bowl. Whisk in the maple syrup and enough milk (adding it a little at a time) to make a good, easily pourable consistency.
- Drizzle glaze over cinnamon buns in the pan while still hot. When cool enough to handle, pull or cut apart the buns and place on a cooling rack. Serve while still warm.
Your pictures make these look utterly divine!
Thanks so much! Appreciate it.
i love cinnamon buns and banana sounds like a delicious variation!
Yeah, especially roasted bananas – all that caramel yummyness!