Cinnamon (Biscuit) Buns

The limit of biscuits as possibilities approach infinity is infinity. (calculus version)

You can make a lot of things with biscuits. (normal human version)

No, I will never be done doing calculus. I have at least 3 more semesters of it.

That's three more semesters of needing breakfasts on the go in the morning. And biscuits, in addition to being infinitely variable, are also highly portable.

This recipe, like most biscuit recipes, will also impress your brunch or overnight guests. They take about 10 minutes to prepare and 20 to bake, so it's very easy to have them made and on the table before anyone even realizes you're up.

So, we start with the basic biscuit recipe, just like we did when we were impressing Southern Boys, but we make a couple modifications. Instead of milk, or buttermilk, I used half orange juice and half milk. The OJ is a lovely background aroma that could totally be emphasized if you added a bit of orange zest to the cinnamon-butter mixture... but that's a few steps away still.

Cinnamon (Biscuit) Buns

What you need:

Biscuits:

• ½ c orange juice
• ½ c milk
• ½ c butter
• 1 c flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla (optional)

Cinnamon Filling:

• 1/4 c butter
• 1/4 c cinnamon sugar
• 1/2 tsp orange zest (optional)

What you gotta do:

So, just like last time, we start with cold butter, chopped into chunks, and flour, baking powder and salt (forgot to put the salt in the ingredients pic) in a bowl.

With a pastry cutter, or two knives, or, even two forks, chop the butter into smaller and smaller pieces until it looks more like crumbs than butter and flour.

In a measuring cup, combine the OJ and milk (and vanilla... I realized as I was eating the first one that a bit of vanilla would totally be awesome)

If you don't have oranges on hand to freshly squeeze, make sure you're using the "not from concentrate" kind of OJ. The concentrated stuff is often stripped of vitamins during the concentration process and reconstituted with a higher sugar content.

You could also use plain milk, buttermilk, or all OJ if you wanted. Just make sure you've got a cup of liquid and it's got some kind of acid content to react with the baking powder to fluff up your biscuits.

Mix the liquid into the flour-butter crumbs to get a soft, sticky dough.

My dough was very soft and sticky when I turned it out onto a very floured counter. Soft, sticky doughs make for sticky, doughy hands that are not good for taking pictures.

So, I floured and folded the dough (remember to only pat and fold biscuits, never knead them) until it was rollable.

Roll the folded rectangle into a flat rectangle. This was a seriously sticky dough and I needed a lot of flour. I also need a rolling pin, because a tumbler is not the best tool for rolling biscuit dough.

You want the dough only about a half inch thick.

See where it looks like it's kinda stuck to the counter? It was. Not enough flour. But, a butter knife works well to lift the stuck bits as you're rolling. And I happened to have a butter knife handy...

You want the butter for the filling to be nice and soft. Of course, my pound of butter was all cold (cold butter for biscuits, always) so I microwaved it for a few seconds... too long. Oops. Oh well, butter will harden again in the fridge.

So, I just poured in the cinnamon sugar,

and put it in the fridge for a few minutes until its consistency was more spreadable and less pourable.

Spread this sweet, cinnamony goo all over the biscuit dough.

And start rolling. Lift the stuck bits gently with the knife, and use floured hands so you don't stick to the dough.

Don't worry if it's not pretty and smooth. Baking does wonderful things to the appearance of dough.

Once it's all rolled up and floured, slice it into pieces that are 1 or 1.5 inches thick.

Use a sharp knife, but don't worry that the roll flattens. And it will flatten. Not a problem. Seriously.

Line a pan (or two) with parchment and reshape your biscuits as you put them in the pan(s). Leave a bit of space between them. They totally puff outwards because of all the folding and layering you did before you rolled them out.

See, they're round again. And in a 400 degree oven, holy crap do they get puffy fast.

That was after only 4 minutes!

After about 18, they look like this

Just barely golden brown on the edges, and the OJ has given them a nice yellowy, buttery look.

Once they've cooled, you can wrap them in pairs and freeze them for early morning grabbing.

If you wanted to go totally crazy with these, you could glaze them. OJ and icing sugar, or cream cheese and icing sugar would work just fine. Or you could put one on a plate and grab a cup of coffee and a good book and get back into bed.

What do you take in your coffee?

Comments

[the recipe guy]

Okay, baking lesson time. When Seeley says you should merely fold the biscuit dough, she means she wants to AVOID the formation of denatured wheat gluten that creates a tough, bready dough. Traditionally, kneading was the chief method of encouraging the formation of stretchy gluten in your dough. That's good for pizza crust, but not for biscuits. There are different kinds of flour with varying proportions of gluten. In this recipe, Seeley assumes you'll be using all-purpose (AP) flour, which you can see in the second photo. These other kinds of flour include bread flour (high gluten/protein) and cake flour (low gluten/protein). For more information, consult Google.

[Seeley deBorn]

smartypants.

[the recipe guy]

Maybe I am a smarty pants, but that's the sort of information rarely included in these sorts of posts, and I figure some of the readers will find it informative. Plus, you get more comments this way. Nyah!