If my girls want a glaze, my girls are getting a glaze

Brown butter miso cinnamon rolls!

Good morning, before diving in I’d like to start with a recommendation: this season of Top Chef is very good.

Now HELLO and I missed you!! Last week’s newsletter felt like a fever dream, so I’m excited to be back with this week’s episode of Cooking for Fun: Brown Butter Miso Cinnamon Rolls!

You can watch the full episode here!

And I know, I know, for me this is a very normal recipe. But as I build out my long-form content, I want a home for my tried-and-true recipes. And believe me, this one is tried and true.

I modeled the dough after the cinnamon roll dough from Braud & Co., a well-loved bakery in Iceland with excellent enriched dough pastries. It eats like a tender brioche, but is easy to work with, fun to manipulate (do you see those layers??) and holds up to a sticky filling.

This dough is best made a day ahead, but it’s all so people will ask you: “how did you get these rolls so perfect??” The satisfaction comes from the layers and layers of cinnamon filling you roll up, and the second satisfaction comes from the salty-nutty-sweet filling. Pastry chef who???

A magic dough - Okay I am not a pastry chef, but this dough never lets me down. A dump-it-in-your-mixer-and-mix kind of situation. It is an enriched dough, meaning butter, sugar and an egg all get involved in the party, and while fat is a natural gluten inhibitor, the butter makes it so that the dough gets just the right amount of gluten that it needs. Enough to be a play-dough texture, but not so much that it ever eats tough.

Also, it’s just so much fun to work with. I could roll it out for days.

A very fluffy filling - Both the filling and the dough are made a day ahead. This is so that our brown butter and miso can hydrate with the brown sugar and almond paste. The next day you are able to whip the mixture into a fluffy, spreadable, salty-sweet-umami blend.

If you haven’t worked with almond paste before, it’s readily available in most grocery baking sections, and what it does is stabilize your filling so that butter and sugar aren’t melting out of every crevice of your cinnamon rolls.

(And of course this recipe uses a whole box of almond paste, I would NEVER leave you with half a box lying around…it’s a matter of principle!!)

Size matters - NOT A BAD JOKE, BECAUSE IT DOES. You can dock these rolls into either 12 2-inch tall rolls, or 24 1-inch tall rolls.

The 2-inch tall buns are entrepreneurs. They bake on their own with no contact to the other rolls. This is for when you want to show up to the party acting like you just stopped by a bakery to pick these up.

The 1-inch tall buns bake so that they are touching each other, leaving you with those soft centers, that tender pull-apart-bite, and an easy way to get them all on a small sheet pan. I see these as your Pillsbury-nostalgia buns.

The heavy cream of it all - Ever made a gratin and watch the heavy cream cook, darken and caramelize around your potatoes? A similar thing happens with baking. A finisher of heavy cream helps darken the rolls to a golden brown, while the sugars in the cream also caramelize, seeping into the rolls for a tender, soft bite. Better than an egg wash any day, but that’s just my opinion.

I put flaky salt and powdered sugar on top - Because you’ve worked hard and sometimes a dusting of powdered sugar that melts into a hot roll is all you need.

BUT, some of you need a glaze. And if my girls need a glaze they need a glaze!!

How to make a brown butter miso glaze for these rolls

This is not in the video because it came to me in a fever dream and needed to happen.

INGREDIENTS:

113 grams salted butter, 1/2 cup

44 grams white miso paste, 2 tablespoons

180 grams powdered sugar, 1 1/2 cup

60 grams heavy cream, 1/4 cup

METHOD:

In a medium size pot, melt 113 grams of butter and 44 grams of white miso paste together over medium heat. Stir and continue to break up the miso into the butter. Let this brown to a deep golden brown.

Remove this from the heat and whisk in the 180 grams of powdered sugar. It will immediately sieze into a paste, but don’t panic. Put the pot back over low heat and stir gently, the mixture will start to be easier to stir. Gradually drizzle in 60 grams of heavy cream while whisking and watch magic happen. A golden icing should easily form. Remove it from the heat and use it for your rolls!

The Recipe!

***If you missed the announcement, a few weeks ago I shared that all “Cooking for Fun” recipes will be behind my Substack paywall and viewable on YouTube. All of my short-form video recipes and additional newsletter content remains paywall-free on JustineSnacks.com. Thank you for your support <3

Makes: 12 large cinnamon rolls, or 24 half-size cinnamon rolls

INGREDIENTS

For the dough