Today I am bringing you the most ingenious idea that I have ever thought of—it has taken me way too many years, too many loaves of bread, too much cinnamon—but alas, we have made it! Cinnamon raisin buns!

Yes, I have taken probably my all-time favorite bread, shoved as much cinnamon and sugar as I can inside of it, and made it into individual buns—and all in time for Easter. A basket full of these on your brunch, lunch or dinner table next weekend will make you forget about the couple of pounds of chocolate you have been looking forward to consuming for just a few moments!

I believe that I say it with each holiday, claiming that they are my favorite to bake for, but then I realize that I am just as obsessed with the next as I was the first! I mean, Thanksgiving and Christmas, those holidays just scream for anything sweet, and then comes Valentine’s Day—load up on the chocolate, but then St. Patrick’s Day—hello booze, and now we are at Easter—where all I want to do is 1. Eat a bag of Cadbury Chocolate Eggs, 2. Bake endlessly with all things pastel, and 3. Run around the house like my childhood self and collect Easter eggs. So far, the first two have been completed…

As you all know about my great obsession with Cinnamon Swirl Bread, I have even more of a love for this one below with raisins! Oh my, raisins in bread are just something I can’t even talk about without salivating. They become so plump and moist, give a bit of extra sweetness that sometimes bread lacks, and are all about that toasting life—I mean is there a better joy than toasted cinnamon raisin bread with peanut butter?! NO!

And here we are my sweet, sweet friends…combining the best of every single world into one lovely bun!

I have taken my life-trusted Challah recipe, given it some bff’s in raisin form, shoved it full of cinnamon and made into individual sized buns! Yeah, it’s mind-blowing isn’t it?!

I don’t know about you, but ripping and tearing from the loaf of bread is just not my thing, neither is deciding how big of a slice to cut from it…I mean can’t I just take half of the loaf and we call it a day?

Fear no more my bread lovers, you now have beautiful buns in your Easter basket—you are welcome!

ingredients

Bread Flour—7.5 oz, or 1 ¼ C

AP Flour—3 oz, or ½ C

Salt—½ tsp

Sugar—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

Yeast—1 packet

Eggs—1

Molasses—0.75 oz, or 1 TBL

Milk (110˚F)—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Water (110˚F)—2.5 oz, or ¼ C + 1 TBL

Raisins—1.75 oz, or 1/3 C

Cinnamon—1 TBL

Sugar—1.25 oz, or 2 ½ TBL

Egg—1, for eggwash

process

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flours, salt and sugar.

Add in the yeast, making sure that it is separate from the salt—you do not want them to touch until they are combined with the liquid, as salt will slow down the rising process if they are directly in contact.

Warm up your milk and water together until they are around 110˚ F. The easiest way to do this if you do not have a thermometer is to warm them up until they feel a slight bit warmer than your body temperature.

*Note: if you heat the liquids up too much, it will kill the yeast; if you don’t heat them up enough, the yeast either (1) won’t activate, or (2) will take an extremely long time and you will think that it isn’t working!*

Attach the dough hook on your mixer and turn on low speed.

Add in the egg and molasses.

Slowly stream in the warmed milk and water.

Add in the raisins.

Mix on slow for 3-5 minutes.

Turn your mixer up to medium/high speed and mix for about 3-5 minutes.

Transfer your dough to a large, greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and then a towel—allow to sit in the warmest part of your house to rise until double in size.

This should take about 2 hours.

Make you cinnamon-sugar filling by simply mixing them together in a bowl.

When your dough has risen, remove from the bowl and place on a floured work surface.

Knead the dough slightly.

Using a dough cutter, make 6 equal dough balls—this can be done just by eye, or if you want to be very precise, I prefer to use a scale.

Make into balls and then flatten.

Beat an egg for your eggwash and brush on your flattened dough.

Sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of the cinnamon-sugar mixture in the center of each.

Once you have finished filling them up, take the edges of your flattened dough and pinch them altogether in the center, making them in balls again.

Place seam side down in a muffin tin.

Allow them to all rise again for about another hour.

To speed up this process, preheat your oven and allow them to sit above it so the heat will warm them quicker.