Spelt Flour Cinnamon Buns

What is more comforting than a warm cinnamon bun freshly iced right out of the oven?

You're going to love these wholesome and delicious Spelt Flour Cinnamon Buns with a unique orange-infused cinnamon filling and cream cheese icing. They're lightly sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar and will make your kitchen smell amazing as they bake up!

The braiding technique is easier than you think! I will walk you through the process with step-by-step photos below.

The hint of orange in the filling really compliments the nutty flavor of whole grain spelt flour (just like in my Gingerbread Bundt Cake) These braided cinnamon buns are satisfying but not overly sweet and you still feel great after eating them!

If you're looking for more recipes to make with spelt flour check out these Spelt Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Spelt Flour Pancakes.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Naturally sweetened!
• Easy braiding technique that looks beautiful and impressive
• Delicious hint of orange in the filling and icing
• Great depth of flavour from the whole grain spelt flour
• Make ahead option!

Ingredients

• Yeast - I used an 8g packet of active dry yeast.
• Butter - choose unsalted butter so the buns won't be too salty.
• Sugar - either coconut sugar or brown sugar will work for the cinnamon filling.
• Maple syrup - either maple syrup or honey will work for sweetening the dough and the icing.
• Flour - for this recipe, I use a combination of spelt flour and all-purpose flour. It will also work to swap the whole grain spelt flour in this recipe for whole wheat flour.
• Orange Juice & Zest - these are optional flavourings. You could swap these for vanilla extract or lemon zest and juice if you prefer!

See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

How To Make Spelt Flour Cinnamon Buns

Here are the step-by-step instructions to make this recipe.

Step 1 & 2: Scald the milk and add the yeast to the cooled milk, butter and maple syrup.

Step One: Heat the milk in a small saucepan. Watch the milk carefully and as soon as it starts bubbling around the side of the saucepan take it off the heat. (This is referred to as scalding. This is an important step to ensure the yeast is able to rise properly later.)

Step Two: Pour the milk into an electric mixer with butter, and maple syrup. Before you add the yeast ensure that the temperature of the milk mixture has come down to room temperature. It's important to be patient at this step because if it's too warm it can kill the yeast. Stir in the yeast and wait until you see it begin to get bubbly and foamy on the surface. This takes about 15 minutes.

Step 3 & 4: Add the rest of the ingredients for the dough and begin mixing.

Step Three: Add the eggs, spelt flour and all-purpose flour and salt. Place the bread hook on the stand mixer and turn on low.

Step Four: Initially the dough will have a rough and shaggy appearance but trust the process and keep mixing.

Step 5&6: Mix for 15 minutes. Allow the dough to rise until doubled in size.

Step Five: Run the mixer for 15 minutes and you'll see the dough go from rough and sticky looking to a nice soft homogenous ball of dough.

Step Six: Turn the mixer off and cover the top of the mixing bowl with a clean kitchen towel and wait for the dough to rise until at least doubled in size. (This can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half but it's more important to go by eye than by time.)

Step 7&8: Mix up the cinnamon filling.

Step Seven and Eight: Cream together the sugar, softened unsalted butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest and orange juice until smooth. Mixture should be room temperature when you are ready to spread it out on the dough.

Step 9-12: Roll out dough, evenly spread cinnamon filling and fold up the dough.

Step Nine: Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a rectangle approximately 16 inches high by 20 inches wide.

Step Ten: Spread the sugar and cinnamon filling evenly over the rolled out dough.

Step Eleven: Fold up the bottom edge to meet the middle of the dough.

Step Twelve: Now fold down the top edge even with the new bottom edge.

Step 13-16: Cut and braid the rolls.

Step Thirteen: Trim off the rough edges with a sharp knife or bench scraper. Cut strips from top to bottom that are approximately 2 ½ inches wide. You should be able to get 10-12 strips.

Step Fourteen: Take each individual strip and leaving an inch of dough at the top, make two cuts to create three sections of dough for braiding.

Step Fifteen and Sixteen: Braid the three strands tightly.

Step 17-20: Roll the braid into a bun.

Step Seventeen-Twenty: Roll the braid from the top down into a bun shape.

Step 21-22: Place buns in a baking dish and allow the rolls to rise again.

Step Twenty-One: Place buns in a 9x13 inch baking dish or 12 inch round cast iron pan.

Step Twenty-Two: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the baking dish on the top of the oven as the oven preheats and allow the rolls to rise for at least 20 minutes.

You can see in the images below the amount the buns should rise.

Step 23: Bake the rolls.

Step Twenty-Three: Bake the rolls for 25-30 minutes until lightly brown at the top.

Step 24&25: Make the icing.

Step Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five: Beat the softened cream cheese, softened butter, honey and orange zest together until light and fluffy. When the rolls come out of the oven, spoon the icing over the buns. Enjoy!

Expert Tips

• If you're using salted butter instead of unsalted butter, decrease the amount of added salt to the dough.
• Ensure that you're using fresh dry active yeast that hasn't expired.
• Measure the flour carefully and accurately. The best way to do this is to spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off with the back of a knife.
• For recipes that use yeast, it’s more important to go by eye than by time.   If the recipe says it takes one hour for the dough to double in size and an hour has gone by and your dough hasn’t risen much,  just give it more time.  If your house is a bit colder,  you could try setting the bowl in a warmer spot.    A trick I sometimes use is to heat the oven to 200 degrees and then crack the door open slightly.  I set my bowl of dough on the top of the oven so it can catch the rising heat. 
• I recommend splurging on organic oranges when you’re using the zest for a recipe. 
• Allow the cinnamon buns to cool slightly before spreading the icing. This prevents the icing from melting and resulting in a messy presentation.
• Make Ahead Option: If you plan to serve fresh cinnamon buns for breakfast, you can do most of the preparation the evening before.  Just follow all the steps up to when the buns are shaped and placed in a baking dish.  Cover the pan and pop them in the fridge. The next morning,  preheat the oven to 350F.   Place the covered baking dish on top of the oven for half an hour to 45 minutes to allow the cinnamon buns to warm up and rise to double their size.  Bake as instructed in the recipe.

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