Flaky Morning Buns

These buttery, flaky Morning Buns are a mashup between a croissant and a sticky bun. If you love flaky layered pastries and fun weekend baking projects, then this one is for you! Start them Friday evening and they'll be ready to devour first thing Sunday morning.

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These croissant morning buns are one of the more ambitious recipes on my site. It was inspired by the light and flaky morning buns at Tartine bakery in San Francisco. They are incredible!

They're made with a buttery laminated croissant dough so they're super light and crisp with a cinnamon sugar filling that caramelizes in the oven.

It's a fun baking project to do over a winter weekend because it takes a bit of time, but the process is relaxing and meditative, and the payoff is more than worth it.

What is a Morning Bun?

Morning buns fall into the same category as cinnamon buns, but they tend to be a little lighter, not as sweet and not iced. 

This version is made with a laminated dough, like puff pastry, danish dough or croissant dough. 

Lamination refers to the process of rolling and folding thin sheets of butter into dough to create puffed layers and crispy flakes once baked.

This is one of the most intimidating baking processes and, while I'm certainly no stranger to the struggle, it's a fun and rewarding technique to learn.

Don't get frustrated if your buns don't turn out perfect the first time, it's normal. Baking, like anything else, is a practice.

Yet unlike most other things, even when the results are less than perfect, they're usually still pretty delicious and that always counts as a win in my book!

This morning buns recipe is a slight adaptation of Tartine's famous morning buns. It does take a substantial amount of time, but most of it is inactive. Your best bet is to start these laminated morning buns on a Friday evening, work on them throughout Saturday, and then they'll be ready to bake on Sunday morning. As long as you don't have to leave the house for longer than an hour on Saturday, the process can actually be pretty leisurely.

The best way to describe them is a glorious mashup between a croissant and a sticky bun!

The first step to making these is to make a preferment for the yeasted dough, which adds structure and flavor. From there, the dough is made and then the lamination happens. This step is the trickiest, but don't let it scare you. The key, as I've learned, is getting the butter to the right consistency.

You want the butter to be somewhere between firm and soft, cool but not cold, and definitely not warm. It sounds tricky, but you'll know when you're there. It needs to be malleable enough to spread into an even layer, but not so soft that it's like icing a cake. 

The best way to achieve this is by beating cold butter in a stand mixer for a few minutes. Focus on getting this right and you shouldn't have any problems.

The butter gets spread onto the dough and then folded again and again. This is what creates all those gorgeous flaky layers in the finished buns. After each fold or "turn", the dough needs to chill a bit before doing it again.

The laminated dough then gets rolled up with a filling of more butter, cinnamon, sugar and orange zest, then gets plopped into a buttered and sugared muffin tin. Once baked, the dough puffs up to become light and crisp while the butter and sugar caramelize together to create the most incredible flavor and texture. 

The shattering crunch of the outer layers, the tender inner crumb, the sticky sweet caramel on the bottom and the little bits of butter that gush out when you bite down. Come onnnnnn!

How to Make Morning Buns

Make the Preferment

1. Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium low heat until warm (80-90°F is ideal). Transfer to a medium bowl, then stir in the yeast. Let sit for a minute, then mix in the flour until smooth. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume, about 2-3 hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.

Make the Dough

1. Place the preferment in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast and mix on medium speed for about 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides and hook as needed.
2. Add half the milk, then continue mixing on medium speed until fully incorporated. Add the remaining milk along with the flour, sugar, salt, and melted butter, then mix on low speed until it forms a shaggy dough, about 3 minutes. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
3. Turn the mixer back on low speed and mix until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, about 3-4 minutes, but not any longer. 

4. Cover and let dough rise until the volume increases by half, about 1-2 hours.
5. Dust a large work surface with flour, then place the dough on top. Press into a rectangle about 2 inches thick. Wrap in plastic wrap, then refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

Laminate the Dough

1. About an hour before you're ready to laminate the dough, place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with a paddle attachment until smooth and slightly softened. The goal is for the butter to be pliable enough to spread, but still cool and relatively firm. If the butter is too soft, it will ooze out of the dough. Once the butter is at the proper consistency, transfer to a piece of plastic wrap and form into a rectangle. Cover and refrigerate if the house is warm, otherwise leave it at room temperature until ready.
2. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a 20 x 10 inch rectangle with the long side facing you.
3. Use your fingers and/or an offset spatula to spread the butter over the left two thirds of the dough, leaving the right third bare. Spread the butter as evenly as possible and leave a ½ inch border around the edges.
4. Fold the bare third (on the right) over the buttered center, then fold the remaining buttered side (on the left) over that, like a letter. Gently pinch the seams together to encase the butter.

5. Turn the dough ¼ of the way so that the long end is facing you again, then roll into another 20 x 10 inch rectangle, being careful not to release any of the butter. Fold the rectangle into thirds the same way you did before, then wrap loosely in plastic wrap, transfer to a sheet pan and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
6. Return the dough to the work surface, dusting with more flour if needed. Carefully roll out into another 20 x 10 inch rectangle and fold into thirds one more time. Rewrap in plastic, then transfer to the refrigerator for an additional 1-2 hours or overnight. 

Assemble and Bake the Morning Buns

1. Mix together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.
2. Brush the insides of a 12-cup muffin tin lightly with butter, then sprinkle with granulated sugar. Swirl the pan around to coat all sides, then tap out the excess sugar (reserve for finishing the buns). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
3. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, transfer to a lightly floured work surface, and roll out to a 16 x 12 inch rectangle with the long side facing you. Brush the rectangle all over with the remaining melted or softened butter, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over the top.
4. Starting with the long side facing you, carefully roll the dough into a tight log, then pinch the seams together to seal. Transfer to the parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 30 minutes to firm up.
5. Remove the log from the refrigerator, then use a sharp knife to cut into 12 even pieces. Start by cutting directly down the center, then cut each half in half, then each half into thirds.
6. Place each piece into a muffin cup, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and let proof somewhere warm until puffed up, about 1 hour.
7. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375°F. Place the muffin tin on a parchment-lined baking sheet to catch any drippings, then transfer to the oven. Bake buns until deep golden brown, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
8. Generously dust the tops with granulated sugar as soon as they come out of the oven. Let the buns sit in the pan for about 2-3 minutes, then gently remove them from the pan and let cool upside down on a wire rack.
9. Serve warm. Buns are best enjoyed the day of, but any leftovers can be frozen for later.

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