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). 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 8x4 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.
Tips & Notes:
nutrition facts
I adapted this recipe to use the tangzhong method (in an attempt to make it last softer longer). Will report in a few days if it’s still soft, as long my family hasn’t eaten them all yet.
Used all bread flour and accidently swapped milk for cream and cream for milk and it still turned out great! I love how easy your recipe is. Now, if only I can get the braiding to look nice, I’ll be all set!
So glad you are enjoying the recipe :-)
Glad you enjoyed these, and I’m sure you’ll get the hang of braiding the second time around!
Reporting back. I can’t say if my “tangzhong adaptation” makes the bread last longer, because my family ate it all! I made second and third batches adding toasted walnuts, and they gobbled it up even faster than the first batch. Kudos to Lucy in a previous comment for giving me the idea.
I made these yesterday for a birthday gift and they were bakery beautiful. Soft and delicious. When I make them again I will add nuts with the raisins.
Sure, Lucy, adding nuts would be very nice.
Yo these turned out soooo good!
I’ve tried TWOL recipes before and they weren’t bad but I was always using all purpose flour instead of bread. Lemme tell you at least for me the difference from using bread flour as the recipe states is huge! They turned out so much fluffier and just softer. Also I’m using instant yeast and I don’t know if it makes a difference but I ended up mixing that with my dry ingredients first all together before adding it to the milk etc.
Also wish I kept them in the oven for like a minute longer for the perfect brown gold tops but nonetheless pretty proud of my amateur baking skills :)
So glad you enjoyed these and finally discovered the joys of baking bread with bread flour, Allison!
I have tried this recipe and my bun turned out beautifully except that they are a bit too moist inside. Maybe I took too much time shaping them.
Anyway, thanks for the recipe.
You’re welcome! It could’ve also been that they needed just a bit longer in the oven.
My oven is small so I will have to bake them in 2 batches. What do I do with the batch awaiting to be baked? Put them in the fridge?
There is no need. The time difference is only about 13 – 15 minutes. You can just slow down the making of the 2nd batch :-)
I love how the recipe is easy to follow and the breads turned out great – soft, moist and fluffy! Not as sweet as I thought they would be but just right. Thank you so much for sharing.
You’re welcome!
I just made a batch of the cinnamon raisin buns and they are really soft and taste great. Even though I only proofed dough for 1 hour, i noticed that my buns were bigger than the ones in your photos. I used 1 tablespoon of instant yeast. I also let the dough rest 10 min before making the cigars and rolling the snails then proof another hour. Because the buns were larger I had to bake for an additional 5-7 min. I will be making this recipe again but wanted to know where i can improve for the next time. Also can I prepare the buns up to making the buns but before proofing 2nd time and put them in the fridge overnight. the next morning, how would I bake them – do I need to bring the buns to room temp before putting in a preheated oven? Thanks.
Hi Darlene, if you’d like to do this recipe in advance, I would prepare the dough and then refrigerate it overnight for a long “cold proof” (just make sure to cover it tightly). The next day, you’d have to give the dough a few hours to come up to room temperature, and then proceed with assembly, proofing, and baking. I have tried this method (and it usually works well), but have not tried the method of refrigerating after the second proof. If you were to try that, I would definitely let the buns come back up to room temp before baking.
Any ideas on why my buns aren’t light and fluffy? I followed the recipe exactly and the dough felt good after proofing. Not sure why they are dense!
Hi Britt, it may be that they didn’t proof long enough? It may have also been overproof. There are so many small factors than can affect bread rise. Wish I could’ve been there to see what happened!