Very, very delicious. And they look awesome.
In a large bowl, mix:
1 cup of very hot water
1 cup of milk
100 grams of butter, roughly diced
⅓ cup of sugar
1 egg
1 heaped tablespoon of yeast
Leave for 10 minutes or so, until the yeast froths up, and then add:
5–6 cups of white flour
2 teaspoons of salt
Knead well to make a soft dough. (If you don’t have a breadmaker or a mixing machine with a dough hook to do the kneading for you, mix the ingredients until they stick together, tip the dough out of the bowl onto a flat surface dusted with flour and knead it by hand for a few minutes.) Leave the dough in a warm spot for about half an hour to rise a little.
While the dough does its thing, line a large round cake tin with non-stick baking paper.
In a small saucepan or microwave-proof bowl, melt together:
50 grams of butter
½ cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
Dust the bench top lightly with flour, and roll or press out the dough into a rough rectangle, about 40 centimetres long, 30 centimetres wide and 1 centimetre thick. Spread the melted cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the top (not quite to the edges; it will make a break for freedom) and roll up the dough rectangle from the longer side, as if you were rolling up a magazine.
Cut your Swiss roll–shaped tube of dough into 3-centimetre sections and pack them, cut side up and about 1 centimetre apart, in the paper-lined cake tin. Scrape up any little puddles of escaped cinnamon-sugar mixture and dribble over the top of the buns.
Leave the cake tin somewhere warm for half an hour or so to allow the buns to rise a little, and then fan bake at 170°C for 30–40 minutes, until golden brown. (If you’re in a hurry, you can skip this rising step – instead put the buns into a cold oven and then turn it on. They’ll rise pretty well as the oven heats up.) The buns will double in size and join at the edges as they cook.
While they’re baking, make a glaze by mixing:
1 tablespoon of icing sugar
juice of 1 lemon
As soon as the buns come out of the oven, brush them with the glaze.
Best pulled apart and eaten warm, but still very good the next day.
