How many of you are fans of Cinnamon Buns?! We love our homemade eggless cinnamon rolls, especially with a hot cup of coffee! You all probably know about my Sourdough experiments and ever since I learnt that my starter is bubbly active, I wanted to bake some buns and the first successful recipe has been of this Eggless Sourdough Chocolate Cinnamon Buns. The thing with Sourdough Baking is that, it is not just the recipe but the ingredients, technique, process and of course your starter – everything play an important role in getting desired results. There are 100s of recipes all over internet for every dish you want to try and often, there is no guarantee that it works, due to the many differentiating factors that I mentioned above. You know how my Sourdough Focaccia recipe was purely by chance, but even before that I was getting loaves that were delicious but weren’t raising as much as I liked. With the measuring mishap that resulted in Focaccia recipe, I chose to get a kitchen scale. The cup measurements were not accurate for Sourdough baking and I was going mad doing conversions in my head. So, I finally gave in and bought myself a kitchen scale first thing non-essential shipping opened.
With my kitchen scale, I decided to give Eggless Sourdough Chocolate Cinnamon Buns a try. Most of the recipes for Sourdough baking involve a tiny amount of commercial yeast. And that’s because it is one sure shot way to getting a fail-proof recipe. Having used yeast all these years, I don’t find anything wrong with it. Compared to the time sourdough baking takes from scratch to finish, baking with commercial yeast is quicker. But.. yes, there is a huge but. The flavor and taste of sourdough is unmatched. Once you are hooked onto it, there is no turning back. And I wanted to challenge myself to bake with nothing but my starter. Instagram has a lot of people doing Sourdough and the internet has a lot of material too. Having never worked with an enriched, sweetened sourdough bread I looked for some tips but went mostly with my instincts. Now that I am posting the recipe here, you must know that we have made these rolls thrice so far and they are fail-proof. Working with this kind of sourdough dough is my new favorite.
As with my other sourdough recipes, this recipe for Eggless Sourdough Chocolate Cinnamon Buns follows a schedule. Here is how I do it – Take out the starter from fridge and leave it on the kitchen counter between 8am on Day 1. Looks at all those bubbles (stored in fridge for a week)
I start by creating a levain out of my mother starter at 12.30pm on Day 1. In 3hrs, my levain doubles in size. I mix the dough without salt. After 20-30mins, I mix in the salt. Let the dough proof at room temperature on kitchen counter for 3 hrs. I do 4 envelop folds within the bowl every 30-45 mins totaling to 16 folds at the end of 3hrs. The dough is very smooth and soft at the end of folding. I roll and make the cinnamon rolls, set them in baking pans and leave for proofing which takes about 45mins to 1 hour. At this stage, you can set them in fridge and bake on the morning of Day2. I end up baking on the same day. Leave them on the counter at room temperature until the morning and glaze them. Perfect. Every single time.
The dough is buttery, soft and is very fluffy. There is a slight sourdough undertone, but with chocolate chips, cinnamon sugar and raisins, it just is perfect. These Eggless Sourdough Cinnamon Buns stay fresh in an airtight container in fridge for upto a week – just reheat them in microwave for few seconds before serving!
📖 Recipe
12.30pm: Begin making the Sourdough Starter from your mother starter. To make 168 grams of Ripe Sourdough Starter, I mix equal amounts – 56grams of starter, flour and water and let it double in 3 hours.
3.30pm: measure all the ingredients and keep them ready. In a mixing bowl add all purpose flour, sourdough starter, butter and sugar.
I used my kitchenaid stand mixer to knead the dough on lowest speed for 3 mins until it is crumbly. You can mix it with hands too.
Now add milk and continue kneading the dough on lowest speed for another two minutes. The dough sticks to the hook and the bottom of the bowl. If kneading by hand, knead for 4 mins gently.
Make it into a ball and add salt on top. Leave it covered for 20-30 mins. This is called autolyze.
4pm: knead the salt into the dough. It is slightly difficult doing it by hand, but it still works.
For the next one hour, keep it covered with a clean shower cap and let it raise at room temperature. It increases in size.
5pm: Now pick the dough from below and pull it over to the top, called as envelop fold. We will do exactly 4 folds.
5.45pm, 6.30pm, 7.15pm: Tuck the dough, smoothen and let it rest for 45mins. Again, we will do 4 folds. Repeat this over next 1.5 hours with two more folds. In total, we will do 16 envelop folds on the dough. The dough should look very smooth and shiny at the end of this. Leave it to rest for 30-45mins.
7.45 to 8pm: Carefully remove the dough from bowl and onto a lined/lightly floured kitchen counter.
Roll the dough into a large circle of 1cm in thickness.
Meanwhile, prepare cinnamon sugar by mixing sugar and cinnamon powder.
Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar all over the rolled dough, leaving 1 cm all over the edges.
Now sprinkle chocolate chips and raisins (each on one side)
Tightly roll the dough into a log.
Cut the log of dough into 8 even sized roundels using a sharp knife.
Place the cut cinnamon rolls into a lined greased baking tin. I used 2 6” pans. You can use a large 10” round or square pan.
Leave them to proof at room temperature for 45 mins to 1 hour until the rolls have doubled up in size. You can also directly place the pans in fridge and proof them overnight, bake next morning.
During the last 15 mins of proofing, preheat the oven at 200°C. 9pm: Bake the buns at 180°C for 25-30 mins until there are golden. Remove from oven. Let them cool down completely.
Prepare the glazing by mixing icing sugar with milk. Drizzle all over the cinnamon buns.
Serve with a hot cup of coffee/tea. To store them, place in airtight container in fridge. Reheat in microwave for 20 secs before serving.
The cup measurements are approximate, use your judgement to adjust the wet ingredients. This dough is very forgiving, so don’t worry. You can increase the sugar quantity by a tablespoon and double the glazing for a sweeter version of the buns. You can skip chocolate chips and raisins, just use cinnamon sugar.
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