Sweet Honey Buns

I used to be the kind of person who only baked with the guidance of a recipe that someone else created but would find myself slowly editing the recipe until it was no longer theirs and more mine. now with some newfound baking confidence I dive in with the fear of wasting ingredients, so you don't have to! your welcome for that by the way. now let's get to the yumminess.

here is what you will need. I have a kitchen aid that use as much as possible because it allows me to get other things done at the same time, but you can also get in there with your hands and grow those "dough" muscles as I like to call them, if you do go the kitchen aid route be sure to use your dough hook attachment, if you're looking for one I highly recommend the one I use and ill link it down at the bottom. next something you will need is a little harder to find but very easy to make and that is a sourdough starter as I use it in this recipe as well as many of my recipes, however this takes some time so I will give another option! though I have never tried It with this recipe I believe a Poolish would be just as effective. a poolish is made the night before with equal parts flour water and a pinch of yeast mixed together and left to ferment for 6 to 16 hours it then will become this bubbly goodness that will give great texture to your dough.  

Ingredients.

Sweet Honey Buns.

3/4 C Milk "warm"

2 3/4 C Flour.

1 1/2 Tbs Butter "softened"

1 1/2 Tbs Shortening or Tallow.

2 Tbs Honey.

2 Tbs Sourdough Starter "or Poolish"

1Tsp Salt.

2 Tsp Sugar. 

1 Tsp Active dry Yeast.

Sweet Honey Butter Icing

6 Tbs Butter.

1 Tbs Honey.

4 Tbs Powdered Sugar.

1 Tsp Vanilla.

1Tbs milk.

Once you have everything gathered it's time to get started! Though tiny helpers are not required they are very welcome with this recipe.

Once the milk has been warmed add in the Butter and Shortening "or tallow" and mix together.

then pour mixture into your mixing bowl, at this point you will add the Egg, Yeast, Sourdough starter "or poolish" and Honey. Whisk those ingredients together, it should look something like this.

now take your dry ingredients. Flour, Salt, Sugar and add them to your bowl.

At this point everything should be in your bowl and it's time to mix it all up. 

This a great time to add even more hands to the equation! 

once the dough is smooth but a little sticky, I scrape it out and work it with my hands a little to form a ball then place it back into a lightly greased bowl, cover the top with plastic wrap then leave in a warm place to rise for roughly 1 hour. you want to see 

it rise anywhere from half to double in size. 

once it has risen it's time to do the fun part, shape them! I personally weigh mine out, but you can eyeball them to get equal size balls. now imagine shaping doughnuts the process is very similar only instead of frying them we are baking them in muffin tins.. so also, nothing like doughnuts, but the shaping is the same I promise!  here I take small pieces of aluminum foil and roll them so I can use them to help maintain the center holes that we created. tiny bunt pans would work great, but I don't have them so, yeah. moving on

after you have all your sweet honey buns shaped it's time for a second rise, I put mine in the oven that I had previously pre heated for 2 minutes just to make it a warm environment BE SURE YOUR OVEN IS OFF WHILE RISING!!!

now while the buns are rising let's work on the sweet honey butter icing. make sure your butter is room temperature, so it is soft but not melted, then you're going to add all the ingredients together and using a hand mixer or pure muscle whisk whisk whisk it until smooth, if it's a bit clumpy you can put it into the microwave for 10 seconds then whisk again, that is what I had to do.  and that is it for the icing! now back to sweet honey buns.

we want them to look fully but not so fluffy they are touching. once we have achieved this let's remove them from the oven and pre heat it to 350 degrees. this recipe should make approximately 10 buns. once pre heated place them in the oven for 10 minutes then rotate your pans for even baking and cook an additional 10 minutes. 

once they are done and you have removed the aluminum foil you have two options, one, slather with icing and enjoy your Sweet Honey Buns while they are warm or two, you can let them cool for a thicker less melty icing. as you can see in the photo below, I like them warm so the icing melts and runs through the center. so yummy! I hope you enjoyed this recipe! don't forget to check below for my dough hook recommendation. Have a great day!