Paula Deen Cinnamon Buns start with a homemade potato bread starter the night before. Brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans, and raisins fill the rolls. A thick powdered sugar glaze goes on top. They fill two 9×12 pans and feed a whole brunch table, the kind of from-scratch baking the South never stopped doing.
The starter is what separates these from every other cinnamon bun recipe. Potato flakes, sugar, and yeast sit overnight until the mixture bubbles. That fermented base gives the dough a soft, almost brioche-like pull that store-bought yeast alone cannot match.
Mix the starter the night before so it has a full 12 hours to bubble. When rolling the dough, keep it a true quarter inch thick or the buns will be too dense. Pack them tight in the pan so they rise into each other, not outward.
Paula Deen Cinnamon Buns
Course: BreakfastCuisine: American, SouthernDifficulty: Hard12
servings30
minutes25
minutes800
kcalSoft yeasted cinnamon buns made from a potato flake bread starter, rolled with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans, and raisins, then glazed while hot with a powdered sugar and half-and-half icing.
Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 1/2 cup for starter granulated sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups hot water
1 tablespoon (1 package) plus 1 teaspoon for starter dry active yeast
6 cups all purpose flour
2 sticks Butter
1 1/2 cups plus more if needed brown sugar
1/2 cup ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup raisins
4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup half and half
1 package bread starter
1/2 cup idaho potato flakes
1 1/2 cups warm-hot tap water
Directions
- Starter: One day before you plan on baking the cinnamon buns combine bread starter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon yeast, potato flakes and 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir this mixture occasionally with a rubber spatula and your starter should soon start bubbling within 12 hours.
- Buns: When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 170 °F. Prepare 2 (9 by 12-inch) rectangular baking dishes by spraying with nonstick oil spray.
- Mix: In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together starter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, vegetable oil, salt, water, 1 tablespoon yeast and flour.
- Knead: After mixing the dough for about 2 minutes, remove the dough to a bowl sprayed with nonstick oil.
- Rise: Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size. The rising process will take 1 to 4 hours, depending on the altitude and weather at the time and place you are making the buns.
- Roll: When doubled, dump the whole pile of dough onto a well-floured surface and with a rolling pin manipulate the dough to make a rectangle about 1/4-inch thick.
- Filling: Melt 2 sticks of butter to where it is creamy and spreadable. Spread the butter onto the dough triangle making sure you spread thoroughly to all corners. Sprinkle brown sugar and then cinnamon over the butter making sure that the whole triangle is covered, corner to corner. Top with chopped pecans and raisins.
- Shape: Roll the dough into a tight roll. Cut with a serrated knife into 2-inch long rolls and place into the baking dishes.
- Proof and Bake: You do not have to cover the rolls, but you need to let them rise in an oven set at 170 °F to proof until you see that they are almost but not quite doubled in size, about 40 to 50 minutes. When you see that they are at that point, turn the oven up to 350 °F. Bake for 25 minutes until you see that they are truly golden on the top.
- Glaze/Icing: In a mixer beat powdered sugar and half-and-half until smooth and without lumps. Take the buns out of the oven and put them on a wire rack. Immediately glaze them with a pastry brush. After glazing all of the buns, go back over and glaze once again.
FAQs
Can I skip the bread starter and use regular yeast dough?
You can, but the texture will be noticeably different. The overnight potato starter ferments the dough slowly, which builds flavor and gives the buns that soft, stretchy pull. A straight yeast dough will taste fine but will be chewier and less tender.
How do I know when the starter is ready?
Look for small bubbles along the sides of your glass container. The mixture should also smell yeasty and slightly sour. If there are no bubbles after 12 hours, your yeast may be dead. Start over with fresh yeast and make sure the water is warm, not hot.
How long do these keep, and can I freeze them?
Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, they stay soft for about two days. After that, they dry out fast. You can freeze baked, unglazed buns for up to a month. Thaw overnight in the fridge and glaze them after a quick 20-second microwave warm-up.
Why do the buns need to be packed so tightly in the pan?
When the buns are snug against each other, they push upward as they rise instead of spreading sideways. That gives you taller, softer rolls with less crust on the sides. Leave gaps and they bake flat with dry edges.
Can I use walnuts instead of pecans?
Walnuts work fine as a swap. They have a slightly more bitter flavor than pecans, so the buns will taste a little less sweet overall. Chop them the same size Paula calls for. You can also leave the nuts out entirely if you prefer.
