Not going to lie, I’m kind of mad at you all. You love the sweets, which means I gotta keep making sweets!!! ITS A BLESSING AND A CURSE!!! And by the way, I’m not actually mad at all and I love all of you so very much. Also, thank you for giving me an excuse to bake and eat sugar. For anyone that may be new here, I wanted to share a little part of my food journey that may shed light on why I love crazy, unique desserts I used to run a baking business called Ballsy Bites, where I sold my own original rainbow cake truffles that tasted like heaven (not just saying this because I sold them, they were f*cking unreal and the recipe is top top secret.) I read a baking and pastry textbook back to front in order to come up with this recipe, and to this day, I’ve never come across anything like it. I worked in a commercial kitchen on weekends and night shifts for two years, baking, packing, hand delivering and shipping on my own.
Work ended up getting too busy and I had to abandon that portion of my business, but until now, I forgot just how much I love creating dessert recipes. When you recently started posting my DIY Levain cookies, it reignited my little sugar spark. So, I just wanted to thank you guys. Everyday I am grateful to run this blog, and without you guys its truly not possible. I’m not being dramatic when I say you are all inspiring and fueling my dream…no words can express the amount of gratitude I feel every day.
Now let’s talk about these NO-YEAST sticky brown butter rolls that have changed my life. I basically subbed all butter in a classic cinnamon roll recipe for a browned butter, which I promise is extremely easy to make. The filling is a beautiful mixture of browned butter and brown sugar, but OF COURSE you’re welcmome to add cinnamon. You can take these from sticky butter rolls to cinnamons just by adding cinnamon. The two unique properties of this recipe are that 1) these are yeast-free. I use baking powder as the leavening agent. And 2) of course, we’re using browned butter, which gives a nutty, sweet, almost caramel vibe to these buns.
I love them without cinnamon because I love ANYTHING and everything butter-related. I choose buttery flavors over almost anything. They also taste fantastic and decadent with cinnamon. In the fall, feel free to add some pumpkin pie spice. The possibilities are endless.
Yeast-Free Sticky Brown Butter (Cinnamon) Rolls
Ingredients
Brown Butter
- 1 cup unsalted butter
Brown Butter Rolls
- 3 1/2 cups flour plus extra for flouring your workspace (1/3-1/2 cup)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine kosher salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup melted browned butter
- 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 cup lukewarm whole milk can sub for 1/2 cup half and half + 1/2 cup water
Filling
- 1 cup light brown sugar can sub for dark brown sugar, but it will have a more molasses-y taste
- 1/3 cup softened browned butter
- 1/8 tsp fine kosher salt
Frosting
- 1/4 cup softened brown butter
- 1/4 cup softened cream cheese
- 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Brown Butter
- Slice the unsalted butter into equal sized pieces. Heat a sauce pan over medium heat and add all of the butter to the sauce pan. Let it melt and stir every 15-20 seconds. After about 5 minutes, you should see golden brown deposits settling on the bottom and edges of the pan and it should begin to smell toasty/nutty (kind of like a nutty caramel smell.) If you aren't seeing this, turn the heat up slightly and let the butter bubble until you start to see this change in color and smell. Once the butter develops a deep golden brown color, remove it from the heat immediately.
- Reserve 1/3 cup of the melted brown butter. Pour the rest into a cake pan (or any aluminum pan) and put it in the freezer to set for 8-10 minutes. Remove it from the freezer after 10 minutes and let it sit at room temperature. If its too cold, scoop it out of the cold pan and massage it in washed hands to help it warm up to become room temperature.
Rolls
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted brown butter, white granulated sugar and milk.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and combine with a large spoon. If using a standing mixer, mix on low with the hook attachment.
- When most of the flour is incorporated, use clean hands to massage the flour into the wet mixture and form a dough. If your dough is too dry, add lukewarm water 1 tsp at a time and continue to mix with your hands. If the dough is too wet, add a little more flour, 1 tsp at a time and do the same thing.
- Flour a workspace and knead your dough for 5-10 minutes until its smooth-ish. It's not going to feel perfectly smooth but it will be smoother and less sticky than when you started.
- Lightly butter the sides of a bowl and place the dough into the bowl. Cover with cling wrap and place it near the oven (where its slightly warm.) Let it sit while you prep the filling, about 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, make the filling. Combine the light brown sugar, salt and softened browned butter. Massage with clean hands until fully combined. Set aside.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and flatten with a rolling pin. You shouldn't need to flour your workspace at this point, but if your dough happens to stick, only use a little bit of flour to prevent sticking.
- Once the dough is rolled as thin as possible and cut the uneven edges. The dough should now be flat and in a large, long rectangular shape.
- Spread the filling onto the dough, leaving about 1/2 inch uncovered at the ends. We want to roll these so they are long. So, take the long side of the dough and begin to tightly roll it towards the other end. Make sure it's as tight as possible. Roll until you've reached the end and press to seal the edge a bit.
- Now take a knife and lightly mark even sizes for where you want to cut the rolls. Take a long piece of dental floss (you can also use a knife, but dental floss works like a charm.) Slide the middle of the dental floss underneath the log of dough. Bring the ends together and cross around the dough until the floss slides through and cuts the dough into a perfect brown butter roll. Repeat with all of the rolls! You can watch this in my video tutorial if you're wondering WTF?
- Place the rolls into a buttered oven-safe skillet or pan. Bake 20-30 minutes, until lightly golden brown on top.
- While they bake, make the frosting by mixing the softened brown butter, cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk in a bowl. If you don't have sweetened condensed milk, just add browned butter to any cream cheese frosting recipe that you love. If you don't have cream cheese, just mix together sweetened condensed milk, brown butter and 1/8 tsp salt for a beautiful glaze.
- Drizzle the icing on top and serve immediately!
Rate & Review
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THIS RECIPE?
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