No-rise Cinnamon Pecan Buns with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

For the most part, I'm a morning person. This means that on any given weekend day, I am usually wide-awake by 7 or 8 am (with help from my hungry cats, of course) and have to get out of bed due to an inability to return to sleep and a restless mind.

Once the cats are fed and my OCD tendencies to clean up around the kitchen are satisfied, I find myself in the mood for making brunch food. And since I can usually count on a couple hours before the hubby drags himself out of bed (can you guess he's a night owl?), I can get a good start on something delectable to surprise him for his (late) breakfast.

Usually I go for making a batch of pancakes or French toast, but one recent weekend, I had my mind fixed on cinnamon buns. A soft and fluffy yeasted bun would be ideal in texture, but with this baking powder-dough version on my radar, the compromise in having a non-traditional coffee cake-like texture was perfectly acceptable in exchange for the advantage of saving a lot of time without losing any depth of flavor.

I also endeavored to make these buns as healthy as I could. I replaced some butter with olive oil, took out quite a bit of sugar from the filling, and used some whole wheat pastry flour (balanced out with some bread flour) to increase the nutritional value. Either way, how can you go wrong with the cinnamon, pecans, and orange combo?

No-rise Cinnamon Pecan Buns and Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted from Cook's Illustrated and In Jennie's Kitchen)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

2 & 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup AP, 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry, and 1/2 cup bread), and a little more for dough rolling

1/4 cup sugar

1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup soured milk: 1 Tablespoon vinegar in a measuring cup, add milk up to a cup, let sit for 5 minutes before using)

7 tablespoons butter, melted (I used 3 tablespoons melted butter, 4 tablespoons olive oil)

2 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons milk

2/3 cup confectioner's sugar

zest of one orange

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Make the filling by combining the brown sugar, cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons of melted butter, and all but a couple tablespoons of the chopped pecans. Mix with fork or fingers until well blended and uniform in color. Put aside for now.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk or soured milk and 4 tablespoons of the melted butter. In another bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix with a wooden spoon (or you can do this in your mixer) until a rough dough forms.

Turn dough out onto work surface with a little bit of flour sprinkled to prevent sticking. Knead a few times or until the dough comes together and is smooth. Divide into two equal sized portions. For each portion, roll out into a large rectangle approximately 12 inches by 8 inches. Spread half the filling (the cinnamon-sugar mixture you made earlier) evenly over the surface of the dough, leaving a thin border of uncovered dough around the edge. Roll the dough up along the long side of the rectangle and pinch the trailing edge into the roll to secure. Cut each roll into 8 equal pieces and line into an 11x8 inch rectangle pan. You can press down on the rolls in the pan to fill the horizontal space of the pan better. Sprinkle the unused chopped pecans over the tops of the buns, pressing them into the dough.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops are nice golden brown and you can see the filling oozing out bubbles from the tops. Remove from oven and cool at least a few minutes before serving.

For the icing, mash the cream cheese, orange zest and powdered sugar together until smooth, and then whisk in a couple tablespoons of milk (or buttermilk if you have it on hand) until pourable/spreadable consistency. Spread over rolls and serve!