Cinnamon Nut Buns

So i've never made cinnamon rolls myself. weird. i guess i always felt like they were just so much effort. but, obviously, i've been in an kitchen effort mood recently and rolled these suckers out. i like everything about them except the icing. it is just too buttery, if that's possible. i'd go with a simpler powdered sugar icing next time.

bread:

1/4 c warm water
2 packets yeast
1 1/2 c warm milk
1/2 c butter, melted, plus more for bowl and pans
1/4 c sugar
2 1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
6-7 c flour, plus more for work surface (i substituted 2 cups of whole wheat flour)

1. place water in small bowl, sprinkle with yeast. let stand until foamy about 5 minutes. in large bowl shisk together milk, butter, sugar, salt and 2 eggs. (i just realized i added 3 eggs to my recipe. whoops. maybe that's why i had to add at least another cup and half of flour..hmm...)

2. using a wooden spoon, stir in 6 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time until you have a soft shaggy6 dough (if necessary add up to 1/2 cup more flour. unless you feel like using 3 eggs in which case you will add at least another 1-2 cups during your kneading process. ha. ) turn dough out onto floured work surface, knead until smooth and elastic 5-10 minutes. butter inside of a large bowl, place dough in bowl turning to coat. cover bowl with plastic wrap. let stand in a warm spot until dough has doubled in size about 2 hours.


filling:
1/2 c butter, room temp ( i used less b/c this recipe has an extravagant amt of butter in it. i used maybe 5 tablespoons of room temp butter b/c it's just for spready on the rolled dough and you can control the amt nicely)
1 c packed brown sugar
2/3 c walnuts or pecans
1 tsp cinnamon
salt

for the glaze:
1 c brown sugar
6 tbspn butter (again, i thought too much. maybe 4 but then you might need to add more water)
2 tbspn water


1. butter two 9x13 baking pans. in food processor combine brown sugar, nuts, cinamon and pinch of salt. pulse unitl coarsely ground. set aside.

2. divide dough in half. working with one half at a time, roll dough out to a 16x10 inch rectangle on a lightly floured work surface. spread some butter over dough, leaving 1/2 inch border all around. sprinkle half the nut mixture over the butter. starting at a long end roll up dough like a jelly roll. with a sharp knife but crosswise into 12 equal pices.

3. place buns, cut sided down, in prepared pans. cover pans loosely with plastic. let stand in warm spot until doubled in size about 1 1/2 hours.

4. preheat oven to 375. bake buns until golden brown about 25-30 minutes. let cool 15 minutes.




5. prepare glaze: in small saucepan heat brown sugar, butter and water over medium stirring until simmering. cook 1 minute. drizzle glaze over buns. let stand 10 minutes before serving.

makes 2 pans so you can freeze the other before the baking process. before you let the rolls rise just wrap the pan and freeze. when you pull it out of the freezer months later let stand for 2 hours to thaw and rise. then bake the same. i baked both pans and put the baked pan into the freezer.