Cinnamon Buns crusted and topped with a favorite breakfast cereal - Cinnamon Toast Crunch! Plus this recipe can be made the night before and baked in the morning!
Ingredients
For the bun dough:
2¼ teaspoons of yeast (1 packet)
1 cup ¼ cup milk
2 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3½ cups flour
¼ cup sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter
¼ teaspoon salt
For the filling:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup), softened
½ cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
For the topping:
1 (1/2 cup) stick butter
1 tablespoon cinnamon
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch
For the Icing:
2-3 tablespoons milk (use the leftover cinnamon toast crunch milk you made for the bun dough)
1 cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon melted butter
Instructions
Steps 1-9 can be made the day before. Make the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal milk: let 1 cup cinnamon toast crunch soak in 1+1/4 cups of milk for a minimum of 30 minutes in the fridge.
For the cinnamon bun dough: Add the yeast to a large bowl. Warm the milk in a small sauce pan over low heat so it is just warm, not hot. Add warm milk to yeast and stir for about a minute, until yeast is dissolved. Add the sugar, beaten egg, and melted butter (again just warm, not hot), and mix well to combine. Add the salt and flour and mix well to combine, at first with a spoon and then with your hands if necessary, until a sticky dough forms. Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel or paper towel and allow it to rise in a warm spot for a least an hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
Make cinnamon toast crunch crumbs: Add 3 cups of cinnamon toast crunch (1 cup for rolling out the dough, 2 cups for the cinnamon bun topping) to a ziplock bag, and crush pieces using a rolling pin or your hands - you can use a food processor for this part, but I like to do it this way so that I still maintain larger pieces of the crunchy cereal and it doesn’t totally become dust.
Turn risen dough out onto a well floured surface. Roll out part of the way - to about a 6in x 9in rectangle. Carefully transfer dough to a cutting board, and then spread 1 cup of cinnamon toast crunch crumbs onto your working surface to form a 12in x 18in rectangle. Transfer dough back to your working surface, laying it in the center of your cinnamon toast crumbs rectangle. Continue to roll out dough, pressing it into the cinnamon toast crumbs, until it forms a 12in x 18in rectangle.
Evenly spread 1 stick (1/2 cup) of softened butter onto the dough and sprinkle with ½ cup brown sugar and 3 tablespoons cinnamon, being sure not to miss the edges.
Roll up your cinnamon buns! Starting with a longer edge of your rectangle, tightly roll up the dough into a cylinder. There will be pieces of the cinnamon toast crunch crumbs that did not stick into the dough - that’s ok, you can add them to the topping. Cut the dough cylinder in 8 pieces by cutting in half, cutting each half in half to form quarters, and each quarter in half to form eighths.
Make your topping: In a small sauce pan, melt 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter with ¾ cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon until sugar is totally dissolved. Add mixture to the bottom of a well greased 9in x 12in or similarly sized baking dish. Sprinkle 2 cups cinnamon toast crunch crumbs (plus any that did not stick into cinnamon bun dough) on top. This mixture will become your topping when you flip the cinnamon buns upside-down out of the ban after baking. Place your 8 cinnamon buns into the baking dish on top of cinnamon toast crunch crumbs - its okay if there is space between the buns, they are going to continue to rise.
Allow cinnamon buns to rise for about 45 minutes. If you are making this recipe the day before, you can cover the cinnamon buns with plastic wrap and leave them in the fridge overnight. Be sure to take them out at least an hour before baking to allow them come to room temperature.
Bake your cinnamon buns in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, until the crust has become golden brown. Allow them to cool slightly, and then flip them upside down out of the baking dish by placing a large cutting board on top and using oven-mitted hands to turn the baking dish upside-down onto the cutting board. This way, the caramelized cinnamon toast crunch crumbs on the bottom of the baking dish will become the topping for the buns; you can skip this part if you want, its mostly just for show.
For the icing: Whisk 1 cup powdered sugar with ½ teaspoon of vanilla, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon toast crunch cereal milk. Add more milk ½ tablespoon at a time until the icing is your desired consistency, but keep in mind that it will continue to get slightly thicker as it sits, so I like to make mine a little on the thin side.
Drizzle icing over cinnamon buns and serve!
Recipe by The Two Bananas at https://thetwobananas.com/cinnamon-toast-crunch-cinnamon-buns/