#27: Make Cinnamon Buns

I've manned my fair share of bake sale tables for various causes - support the orchestra I’m in, Relief for Haiti earthquake, Japan tsunami, etc. And I’ve picked up a few things about the bake sale business. Pearls of wisdom that I will now impart to you.

First: it is best not to price anything individually. Trust me, you make way more money when you just say everything is ‘by donation.’ If you price a cookie at 50 cents, you might get 5 people buying 5 cookies, and you'll make a whopping $2.50. Whereas with the 'by donation; option, you might get 4 cheapskates giving you 25 cents for the cookie, but one big spender will donate ten clams or something - bringing your total to $11.00. That my friends, is good profit.  

Another thing I’ve learned is what sells and what doesn’t. Cupcakes are always big, but only if decorated nicely – the ones with icing slapped on all willy nilly get no love. Tart those babies up a little and they’ll fly off the table. ...but don’t tart up actual babies. We’ve already got toddlers and tiaras

Actual cupcakes I've sold at actual bake sales

Standard cookie recipes are good too – stick to chocolate chip, sugar cookies, or peanut butter. Nobody wants your fancy pine nut and fig abomination or your Grandma’s mango-lavender shortbread. The basics. Squares, banana bread, and muffins are all fairly safe bets too – but nothing, NOTHING sells faster than a gooey, sticky cinnamon bun.

Cinnamon buns I sold for Red Cross 

When there is a bake sale, café, or cupcake store on every corner, your customers are probably getting a little tired of the typical cookies and cupcakes; the cinnamon bun is a rare treat.

Sadly I’ve had no bake sales to contribute to lately, but this past Sunday my friend K hosted a little get-together and it was the perfect time to break out my buns. my cinnamon buns...

I haven’t yet perfected the recipe, but I do know this – the more butter, sugar, and cinnamon, the better. Just throw extra of everything in on top, seriously, and don’t forget lots of icing. You know what, there is no diet cinnamon bun so you might as well just go all out. Oh, and there is no way I would have made these at all if I didn't have a bread machine to make the dough for me. 

I mostly followed this recipe from About.com's Southern Food section, which you can find here  

Way Excellent Cinnamon Buns

Dough

3/4 cup water

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 tsp vanilla 

3 cups flour 

6 tbsp sugar 

1/4 cup soft butter 

1 tsp salt 

2 tbsp skim milk powder 

1 1/2 tsp yeast 

Filling

1/4 cup (+ extra, let's get real) melted butter 

1/3 cup brown sugar (+)

1 tbsp cinnamon (+) 

Add all the stuff for the dough to the bread maker and run it on the dough cycle. It'll take an hour and a half to mix and rise. When the machine beeps at you, roll out the dough on a flat floured surface to make a rectangle roughly the size of a cookie baking sheet - the thinner the dough, the more swirly traps for the cinnamon sugar goo. 

Spread the butter on the flat dough, and sprinkle on the sugar and cinnamon. Extra generously. 

Starting at the long end of the dough, roll it up, squeezing the dough so it sticks together. By the end, you'll probably be squeezing a lot of the precious goo out the other end onto your work surface, so be prepared for a mess. 

Once you've rolled and squeezed your dough log, take a serrated knife and cut rolls about 1-1.5 inches thick. Place the rolls into a greased rectangular cake pan. I didn't want to waste any of the butter/sugar/cinnamon goo, so I also dipped the top in the drippings that came out during rolling. 

It should look like this now 

Next, place a damp towel over top of the pan, and let the dough rise for 45 minutes or so in a warm place. I just stuck the pan in the oven, without turning it on (I did turn on the oven light though to make it slightly warm in there) 

When it looks poofy, bake at 375 degrees F for about 15 minutes. 

Out of the oven

The website has a recipe for icing, but  I didn't have the ingredients to make it so I chumped out and just bought some canned Cream-Cheese icing from the store. Spread the icing on while they are still warm, or nuke 'em for 10-15 seconds before eating.  

get in mah belly!