Laura's Magical Savory Morning Buns

Courtesy of beloved Dames Pal Laura Koenig, proprietress of The Witch House, here is her magical recipe for everything bagel-flavored savory morning buns. They are truly a revelation.

Years ago I was having vegan friends over for brunch and tried the cinnamon roll recipe at Vegan Yum Yum (https://veganyumyum.com/2009/05/perfect-cinnamon-buns/index.html) and it made some of the best cinnamon rolls I’d ever had. And I figured there was one way to improve them, and that was to un-veganize. So this is mostly that un-veganized recipe, and then my own savory cream cheese and everything seasoning twist. And if you need it vegan, super easy to un-un-veganize! This makes a dozen rolls, and I use the same lightly sweetened dough for sweet or savory morning rolls. I usually have a New Years Day breakfast roll party and I’ve tried shoving all kinds of stuff in there, and this is probably my favorite other than good old cinnamon and sugar.

Ingredients

4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1 cup warm Water, 110º F (it should feel warmer than your hands but not uncomfortably hot!)
1 cup milk
2/3 cup plus 1 tsp Sugar
1 cup butter
2 tsp Salt
2 room temperature eggs
6 Cups All Purpose Flour, plus more for kneading

8 oz cream cheese

4 tbs everything seasoning

Combine yeast, 1 tsp sugar, and warm water and set aside to proof - within five minutes the yeast should get nice and foamy and smell all yeasty. While the yeast does its thing, combine milk, 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup butter, and salt in a saucepan. Heat over medium until the butter is just melted and whisk the mixture together. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Slowly pour a tablespoon or two of the warm milk mixture into the eggs, whisking to combine and warm up the eggs. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan. If the liquid in the saucepan is hot rather than comfortably warm, give it a few minutes. If you can put a finger in comfortably, pour your yeast mixture in and gently whisk to combine.

In the bowl of your stand mixer if you’ve got one or a large bowl if you don’t, measure 4 cups of flour. Pour the warm liquid into the flour, mixing with a wooden spoon. Once that’s well mixed, add two more cups of flour and mix just enough that the flour is starting to be incorporated. Either put the bowl onto your stand mixer with the dough hook, or scrape everything out onto a surface where you can knead. If you’re using a stand mixer, start on low and slowly turn it up, kneading until it comes together into a smooth ball. It should be a very elastic and a little tacky, but shouldn’t stick to your fingers or the bowl. Add a small amount of flour only if it’s staying sticky. If you’re kneading by hand, it should take about eight minutes to get to this point. And again, only add flour if all the flour is incorporated and you still need to. Lightly oil a large bowl and put your dough inside, covering it with a damp kitchen towel. Put it in a warm spot to rise for 90 minutes

After 90 minutes, give your dough a little poke and see if the indentation stays. If the dough bounces back, give it more rising time. If it’s ready, put it onto a floured surface and use the heel of your hands to start pressing it into a rectangle. You can continue using your hand or you can roll it out gently. You eventually want the rectangle to be about 15X20 inches. It’ll tend to pull back, especially from the corners - if you’re having trouble getting it to stay, let it rest for ten minutes or and then keep nudging it into shape.

Put your cream cheese in the microwave for thirty seconds or so, just until it’s spreadable. Spread about 2/3s of it onto your dough, going all the way to the edges. I find it’s best not to make this layer too thick - the texture isn’t as nice if you get too much baked cream cheese, it’s nicest if it almost melts into the buns. Save the rest of the cream cheese for later. Sprinkle 3 tbsp of everything seasoning all over. Standing in front of one of the long edges of the rectangle, start rolling the far side of the dough toward you. Tighten the roll up as you go. Once it’s all rolled up, pat the edges in a bit to even them out. Use floss or thread to cut the log into 12 rolls. (You can also just cut them, but you’ll lose more shape that way.)

Melt your last 1/3 cup of butter and pour it into a 9x13 baking pan. Two pie or cake plates also works. Nestle your rolls into the pan. Cover them and let them rise either at room temperature for 45 minutes, or in the fridge overnight to bake in the morning. If you’re making them right away, preheat the oven to 350º F while they rise. If you’re making them after an overnight rise, take them out of the fridge and let them sit at room temperature for an hour or so, and preheat while they’re warming up. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until they’re golden brown and you can nudge a fork in between the middle swirls of a roll in the middle of the pan without it seeming to be doughy. Let them cool for at least fifteen minutes, even if that seem impossible. You can brush some of that extra cream cheese on top and sprinkle a little more everything seasoning on, or leave it on the side for people to slather on at their whim.