Cinnamon Buns

I love to bake, and part of that is finding recipes that I would really like to try. I found a recipe for Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buns from one of my favorite baking websites. I looked the recipe over and decided to try to make this a bit WLS friendly by taking out all of the sugar. The results were yummy and something that all of my family enjoyed eating.

Karmie's Sugar Free Cinnamon Buns

Dough:

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup Splenda brown sugar
2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2/3 cup milk
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups all purpose flour

Place the butter and the Splenda brown sugar in a bowl and beat with a mixer until fluffy.
In a sauce pan add the milk and water and heat until lukewarm, then add to the batter. Add in the cinnamon, salt and instant yeast and mix until all of the ingredients are well blended.

Add 3 cups of flour to the mixture, one cup at a time. Stir until well blended. At this point you can knead in the rest of the flour by hand or you can use a Kitchen Aid mixer. If kneading by hand put a half a cup of flour on a flat surface and pour the batter on top, knead in the rest of the flour until the dough no longer sticks to the surface or your hands. Knead the dough for 10 minutes.

Place the kneaded dough in a bowl greased with oil. Turn the dough in the bowl so that the dough is completely covered with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, set in a warp moist place and allow it to rise for an hour.

Filling:

1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup Splenda brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup raisins (I used currants because I did not have raisins)

In a bowl mix together the Splenda brown sugar and cinnamon. Use your hands to mix it together well. Melt the butter in a bowl.

Once the dough has risen for an hour, pour the dough onto a flat surface. Flatten the dough and shape it into a 14x12 rectangle shape. Use a brush to spread the melted butter onto the dough. Next sprinkle the Splenda brown sugar/cinnamon mixture on top. Smooth it out with your hands so that it is spread evenly over the dough. Next sprinkle the raisins (or currants) on top.

Now roll the dough along the 14" side. Pinch the edge that overlaps the roll to the dough so that it is a solid roll. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Cut the cinnamon roll log into 1-1.5" pieces and place them on the parchment paper. I ended up with about 18 pieces though depending on how long the roll is and how thick or thin you cut them you may have more or less.

Once all of the pieces are on the parchment paper, cover the cookie sheets with plastic wrap and allow them to rest for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 and bake for 30 minutes.

Topping:

1/2 cup cream cheese
1/3 cup soft butter
2 cups sugar free powdered sugar
1 cap vanilla extract
3-4 table spoons fat free skim milk

Place the cream cheese and butter into a mixing bowl and mix together on a low speed until fluffy. Then mix in the sugar free powdered sugar until the batter is smooth.

To make sugar free powdered sugar, you mix equal parts Splenda and Corn Starch and sift them together. I mixed 1 cup Splenda and 1 cup Corn Starch in a bowl, mixed them with a fork and then sifted the mixture into the mixing bowl.

At this point the topping was a crumbly mess, so I added in about 3-4 table spoons of fat free skim milk. This made the topping a nice smooth consistancy. I tasted the topping and decided it needed "something" so I added in a cap of vanilla extract.


Once the buns come out of the oven, transfer them to a wire wrack but keep them on the parchment paper. Immediately smear the topping on top of the buns.

Enjoy! :)