Cinnamon Bun Bites
This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Our Disclosure PolicyA Year of Yeast has been trucking along for over four months. Can you believe it? I have to tell you I’ve been enjoying every minute of it. As I enter month five I can honestly say my fear of yeast has pretty much subsided. Today I wanted to try something in the sweet category.
As you may remember from one of my Weekend Wanderlust posts, I was drooling over this recipe from Martha Stewart. Little balls of dough dipped in butter, dredged with cinnamon and sugar, and drizzled with a delicious glaze. I’d say they are similar to monkey bread but a bit drier and lighter. Plus, the glaze sends these little bits over the top.
Being a huge fan of sweets, I am tempted to sit down with this pan and gobble them all up with a big glass or milk or a hot cup of jo! Who’s with me?!
Look at the ooey, gooey goodness
Okay, I can’t take it anymore. Enough chatter, let’s get baking!
Feel free to keep your Cinnamon Bun Bites in the pie pan like I did or remove the loaf and serve them up on a beautiful wood cutting board. The choice is yours. Thanks again to Martha Stewart for this fabulous recipe, which I slightly adapted.
What do you think of these Cinnamon Bun Bites? Will you be making them?
Cinnamon Bun Bites
Ingredients
Dough Balls
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more if needed
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Vanilla Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pour water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast evenly over water, and let stand until foamy, 5 to 7 minutes. Whisk until smooth, then whisk in 1/2 cup flour to form a loose paste. Let rise in a warm place until yeast mixture has risen and fallen, about 30 minutes.
- Add eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, vanilla, and remaining flour to yeast mixture. Knead dough, using dough hook attachment on mixer, until smooth, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add 1 stick butter, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes (add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky). Turn out dough onto an unfloured work surface, and knead by hand until very smooth, about 3 minutes. Transfer dough to another bowl, and let rise in a warm place, covered with a damp cloth or plastic wrap, until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down dough; press out air bubbles.
- Lightly butter a 9-inch pie plate. Place melted butter in a bowl. In another bowl,stir together remaining 1 cup sugar and the cinnamon.
- Roll dough into 1-inch balls (I ended up with about 55). Working with 1 at a time, dip balls into melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and place in pie plate. Stack balls to form a dome. Sprinkle with any remaining cinnamon-sugar, and drizzle with any leftover butter. Cover with plastic wrap, and let balls rise by half, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unwrap balls, and place pie plate on a baking sheet. Bake until golden and firm (a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean), 50 to 55 minutes. Let bites cool in dish for 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, let’s make the glaze. First, stir together sugar and salt in a small bowl.
- Then, whisk together butter, milk, and vanilla, and stir into sugar until mixture forms a smooth paste. Keep glaze at room temperature until ready to drizzle over cinnamon-bun bites. Before using, whisk until smooth.
Beyond epic! Everyone was asking for more. Thank you for this recipe. It’s a new favorite.
Yum! Just finished making the glaze for these. I must not have mounded my balls quite right because a few escaped during baking and fled for other corners of the oven.
Oh no! Hopefully it didn’t make too much of a mess in your oven. Eek!
xo Michael
Do you have advice on how to make this the night before and cook it for breakfast? At which point would you refrigerate the dough?
I’m not sure. If I was trying it as an overnight recipe I would make the dough and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Then in the morning roll out the balls and continue from there. Let me know if you try this. I’m curious.
xo Michael
OH dear LORD Michael. You had to go there. YUM!!!
Michael! you are always making me hungry. Now I have to go get lunch! Thanks for the tasty post.
ooooh these look so yummy! My only fear of making these is of the weight gain that will for sure come after I’ve inhaled the entire batch! Since they’re only “bites” I’ll justify eating them countlessly!
Haha! Good ideas. Bites make it all the better!
xo Michael