Aunt Rose's Maple Cinnamon Raisin Buns

 A little while ago we found some recipes that had been in the family for years. This one comes from Polly's sister, Rose. You can see the original recipe below:

However, we recommend you follow our recipe since that one is a little cryptic/hard to read. These are a cross between cinnamon buns, sticky buns and biscuits. Their tender dough and warm cinnamon flavor makes them great for a holiday brunch, or just any old brunch! They are sure to warm you up on a cold New England morning.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

For the dough: 

3 cups of sifted all purpose flour

2 tbsp of baking powder

2 tbsp of sugar

4 tbsp of softened butter

1 cup of milk

Combine the flour, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl, stir to mix. Then add your softened butter and milk. Mix together until a soft and cohesive dough forms. Set aside and make filling. 

Filling: 

3 Tbsp of butter, softened 

1 cup of Polly's Maple Sugar

2 tsp of cinnamon

3/4 cup of raisins or currants 

Combine all the above ingredients until the raisins are thoroughly coated and mixed. Make sure your butter is well dispersed. 

Set aside your filling. Roll out the dough into a long narrow rectangle. Mine was a bit more than a foot long. It should be about a 1/4" thick.. Once the dough is rolled out, add the filling on top of it, as below: 

Then roll the dough into a log, from the long side. You should have a nice log and this will create the filling "swirl". 

Set this log aside and we are going to create the topping.

Topping: 

1/2 cup of Polly's Maple Sugar 

4 tbsp of butter, melted. 

Combine the above ingredients in a bowl until they are a thick syrupy mix. 

Line a square 9"x9" cake pan with parchment paper, pour the above mixture into the pan so it coats the parchment paper. 

Now, cut the log into 9 pieces. You can use either a knife, or unflavored floss to get the cuts. You may have to trim the edges of the log a little to get the swirl. 

Set the 9 pieces into your cake pan, on their ends, with the swirls facing up.

There might seem like there is a lot of space, but they will expand, so fear not!

Place in the oven for 25 minutes, rotating half way through. The buns will brown slightly, and expand a lot.

Remove them from the oven, and turn them out, upside down- onto a parchment lined, heat resistant tray or cutting board. Be careful, use oven mitts! Do this quickly and as soon as you pull them out of the oven. Remove the parchment paper from the top. You should have all that buttery topping on top of your buns. 

The original title of the recipe was "maple frosted coffee rolls" so we suggest serving these hot with coffee or tea on a cold New England morning. Enjoy!