The Knotty Pine Cinnamon Bun

Knotty Pine Cinnamon Bun; Back in the 80’s I was shown by Jill Jacques this treasured recipe for the restaurants most delicious Cinnamon Buns. Now years later I still remember these pillow soft secret caramelized Cinnamon Bun as being a quintessential Knotty Pine experience.
In the early 1950’s, the Kofe-Bar changed owners from the Graham’s to the Jacques and after a few years went from baking a couple dozen to a staggering amount per day as the bakery’s reputation grew in popularity and became one of a Mrs. J’s signature bake shop favourites.
Many different ladies baked the cinnamon buns for the Pine  I recorded many attempts so I could recreated the original recipe from memory.
A few things have changed since 1950’s – the original recipe used margarine, a holdover from war-time butter shortages, and was oozing so much cinnamon the filling looked shiny black, but my association with these great cinnamon buns has never diminished.
Today my recipe is basically still made from scratch, using unsalted real butter and S. J. Cherry Mill Flour Preston.  Next time you’re craving a cinnamon bun, you’ll find them in most food courts or coffee shops, but nothing beats this recipe.

 

Ingredients needed:
The Dough
3 cups whole milk
6 tbsp. unsalted butter
6 tbsp. plus 1 tsp  granulated sugar
1 tbsp.  salt
½ cup warm water
2 envelopes active dry yeast
2 large eggs
9 cups  all-purpose flour
Filling
¾ cup  melted butter
1¼ cups  granulated sugar
2 tbsp. fresh grated cinnamon

METHOD:
Scald Milk. Stir in butter, 6 tbsp sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm.
Dissolve remaining 1 tsp sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over water mixture. Let stand in a warm place for 10 minutes. Stir.
In a large mixing bowl, combine lukewarm milk mixture with eggs. Stir in dissolved yeast mixture.
Add four to five cups of the flour and beat well for 10 minutes. With a wooden spoon, gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.
Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding additional flour as needed. This is a soft dough!
Place dough in a well-greased bowl and roll around to grease all sides of the dough. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about one hour.
Punch down dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half.
To fill, roll out each piece of dough into a 9 x 18-inch rectangle. Spread 1/4 cup of melted butter evenly onto each rectangle.
Combine sugar and cinnamon for filling. Sprinkle onto the rectangles. Roll dough up like a jelly roll, starting from the long side. Cut into 2-inch slices.
Place remaining ¼ cup of melted butter into the bottom of a 16½ x 11½ x 2½-inch pan. Arrange slices in the pan and cover loosely with greased wax paper.
Let rise in pan until doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F .
Bake for 35-40 minutes.
Remove from oven and immediately invert onto a serving tray and get out the coffee!