These Toffee Apple Cinnamon Buns are a combo of Jamie Oliver’s Toffee Apple Buns and my mother-in-law’s cinnamon buns. I first saw Jamie Oliver making his toffee apple buns, which looked absolutely delicious, and made them as directed. I have to admit the dough was absolutely beautiful to work with! I’ve been looking for a good dough recipe to go with the Hubby’s mother’s cinnamon bun recipe, and I knew I had found it. After giving version 1 of toffee apple buns to friends of ours, they were amazed at the bits of apples in the cinnamon buns. A little light bulb went off and I took the filling and gooey layer from my mother-in-law’s recipe and the apples and dough from Jamie Oliver and Toffee Apple Cinnamon Buns were born!
I cut down on the apples from Jamie’s recipe from 4 to 2, but kept the dried apples. Too many fresh apples can make them a bit too “doughy” inside and the dried apples got just tender enough and packed in way more apple flavor. The secret to the buns is actually the gooey layer (from the MIL), which makes a delectable caramel.
Toffee Apple Cinnamon Buns
Ingredients
The Dough
- 500 g strong white bread flour plus extra for dusting
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 7 g sachet of dried yeast
Apples
- 100 g dried apple slices
- 2 eating apples
- 1 level tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon bourbon
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
The Filling
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbs cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup pecans or walnuts halves that have been lightly crushed
- 100 g soft unsalted butter
Gooey Layer on bottom of pan
- 3/4 cup butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tbs cinnamon
- Sprinkling of pecan halves
Instructions
The Dough
- Mix the flour and 1 level teaspoon of sea salt into the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment.
- Mix the yeast into 300ml of lukewarm water and leave for a few minutes.
- Set a stand mixer on low and slowly drizzle the water mixture in until a dough begins to form. Stop the mixer and knead together until a rough ball starts to form.
- Set the mixer on low and let it knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes.
- Lightly oil a bowl, sit the dough in, cover with a clean damp tea towel and leave in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
The Apples and Filling (do while the dough is doing it's first rise)
- Crush or chop the dried apple to be somewhat consistent small pieces.
- Peel, core, and quarter the apples, slice each quarter into 3, then finely slice the apples (1/8" thick or so).
- In a bowl, scrunch all the apples with the cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and sugar.
- Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.
- Measure out the pecans or walnuts
The Gooey Layer
- Combine the gooey layer ingredients in a small saucepot.
- Whisk on medium heat until the sugar has melted and the mixture has come to a boil.
Making the Rolls
- Gently stretch the dough out on an oiled work surface to 12 in x 24 in.
- Evenly spread a generous amount of the softened butter over the dough surface, scatter over the filling mixture and nuts, followed by the sugared apples.
- Starting from the long side closest to you, roll the dough up into a sausage shape.
- Slice into 12 equal pieces.
- Take some of the remaining softened butter and butter a non-stick, oven-safe, 11-inch, frying pan.
- Pour the gooey layer on the bottom and sprinkle some pecan halves on the bottom of the pan.
- Sit the rolls in the pan, swirl side up, cover with a clean damp tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size again.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (355°F in my oven).
- Bake for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown on the top.
- Turn over onto a plate and serve.