These cinnamon raisin buns aren’t really Asian, but they had them at many of the bakeries I’d go to in China. If you’re a fan of cinnamon raisin bread (toasted with a little butter…perfection), you will LOVE these.
And their fancy schmancy swirly look? Way easier to accomplish than you think. Scroll down to see how we did it.
Cinnamon Raisin Buns: Recipe Instructions
Start by making the bread dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt (in that order).
DON’T HAVE BREAD FLOUR OR CAKE FLOUR?
Feel free to substitute all-purpose flour for both! We have since extensively re-tested this recipe, and have not found that using 100% all-purpose flour in this recipe makes a meaningful difference to the result.
Using the dough hook attachment, turn on the mixer to “stir.” Let it go for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together.
After 15 minutes, the dough is ready for proofing. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough will grow to 1.5X its original size.
After the bread dough has proofed for an hour, put the dough back in the mixer and stir for another 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles. Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces.
Roll out each piece into a rough 8×4 inch rectangle. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dot with a few raisins.
Roll into a cigar, and cut the cigar in half lengthwise, leaving one end attached (it’ll look like a pair of pants).
Twist the two pieces together, and then roll the whole thing into a snail shape, tucking the ends underneath the bun.
Lay on a baking sheet, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to rise for another hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush the risen buns with egg wash and bake for 13-15 minutes. Right after they’re baked, transfer to a cooling rack and brush with simple syrup.
Cinnamon Raisin Buns
Ingredients
For the bread dough:
- 2/3 cup heavy cream (160 ml, at room temperature)
- 1 cup milk (plus 1 tablespoon, at room temperature; total 250 ml)
- 1 large egg (at room temperature)
- 1/3 cup sugar (75g)
- 1/2 cup cake flour (70g)
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour (500g)
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (11g)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (7g)
To finish the buns:
- 2 tablespoons sugar (25g)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2-2/3 cup raisins (75-100g)
- 1 large egg (beaten with 1 tablespoon water to form an egg wash)
- 1 tablespoon sugar (12g, dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water to make a simple syrup)
Instructions
- Start by making the bread dough. In the bowl of a mixer, add the heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt (in that order). Using the dough hook attachment, turn on the mixer to “stir.” Let it go for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together.
- After 15 minutes, the dough is ready for proofing. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough will grow to 1.5X its original size.
- After the bread dough has proofed for an hour, put the dough back in the mixer and stir for another 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles. Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces.
- Roll out each piece into a rough 8×4 inch rectangle. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dot with a few raisins. Roll into a cigar, and cut the cigar in half lengthwise, leaving one end attached (it’ll look like a pair of pants). Twist the two pieces together, and then roll the whole thing into a snail shape, tucking the ends underneath the bun. Lay on a baking sheet, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to rise for another hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush the risen buns with egg wash and bake for 13-15 minutes. Right after they’re baked, brush with simple syrup.
Love your site!
Do you think your Shanghai bread dough would work for these?
Thank you
Try it, Michelle, it should work.
I will and let you know!
This site has, by far, the easiest milk bread recipe I’ve seen, and it’s still delicious. I’m making these buns for my mother’s birthday but replacing the raisins with thinly sliced apples and pecans (hopefully, the apple won’t add too much moisture). I was wondering why the milk and cream are room temperature and not heated to 110-120 degrees F. Is that just to keep the egg from scrambling?
Hi Nikki, room temperature wet ingredients help to active the yeast :-)
Looks amazing! Can you freeze these after and defrost before serving? Any part of this make ahead?
Hi Karmen, you can make the dough ahead, and after it’s finished kneading, instead of proofing it on the counter for an hour, you can proof it in the refrigerator overnight (tightly covered). The next day, let the dough come back up to room temp for an hour or so, and continue with the recipe.
You can freeze them after baking. Then thaw them and reheat in the microwave for 20-30 seconds just before enjoying.
Very nice sweet soft raisin buns. I did soak my raisins a little bit to plump them up. Need to improve my twisting technique though. Perhaps a video showing how to twist and roll as well as storage tips would be great! Thanks for the great recipe.
You’re welcome! Perhaps we will re-photograph this recipe and add a video one day!
Ok, will try :-)
Hi Sarah, just wondering if the heavy cream is necessary?
Hi Sarah,
Can we use only bread flour instead of bread and cake flour as we have bread flour aplenty and no cake flour.
Looks amazing can’t wait to try
Yes, you can do that, Katie!
Can’t wait to make this! If I only have regular AP flour, can I use it to substitute the cake and bread flour? Also, do you use the raisins that are dry from the container or do you plump them up first with a liquid? Thanks for the recipe!
Yes, you can make that substitute! And we don’t soak the raisins—we just add them.
OH MY GOSH! I have to make these as soon as the weather cools (I live in the Arizona Desert and we don’t often use ovens from April to October!). The only Asian grocery where I was abal to find these closed a couple of years ago and I had withdrawal pangs formonths.
Hope you enjoy these, Harriet! Love Arizona! Have been on several hiking trips there in the cooler months. :)