Food! Something cheery...

I've been a bit doom and gloom lately, eh? How about a cinnamon bun recipe.

2 tsp yeast
2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tb sugar (I use brown sugar for the dough)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 Tb melted butter
3 1/2 cups flour

Filling

1 stick melted butter (less the above Tb)
1 cup sugar (white sugar is fine here)
2 Tb ground cinnamon

Warm the milk on low heat to about 100 degrees. Add sugar, salt, and yeast, and set aside to proof 5 min or so. Add melted butter. Mix in flour until doughy and sticky, set in warmed oven to rise, about 40 min, until tripled. Turn out on a floured surface and knead, dusting with flour, until smooth and elastic. Back in the oven to rise again.

While rising, melt the rest of your butter. Add sugar and cinnamon, and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is melted, about 5-10 min. Heat oven to 350.

Turn dough onto floured surface and roll to a rectangle, about 24" x 12", about 1/4" thick. Depending on how much room you have, sometimes its helpful to do this in two batches. Spread the filling evenly on the rolled dough, all the way to the edges. Roll into a 24" round (or two 12" rounds) and slice into 2" peices with a very sharp knife.

Lightly oil a 9x9 pan. Arrange the pieces in the pan, standing them on end. For end pieces, put cut side up. Bake at 350 for 35-40 min, until light brown on top.

Now eat them, and think about how tasty they are. If you have an infant son, as I do, these can be made at 0 crap thirty in the morning, so your loved one can awake to fresh cinnamon buns.

I don't do icing- for that, you're on your own.