Overnight Cinnamon Buns

When it comes to brunch, most cakers make one thing: reservations. Brunch simply involves too much coordination too early in the morning. We have to toast the Eggos and then take out the Aunt Jemima syrup and then make Tang and, well, there are only so many hours in the day.

So imagine my angst over having ten people for brunch last Sunday. Ten Italians. One of whom was my mother-in-law. And it was Mother's Day.

It took some big caker balls to make these buns for the Italians. But sometimes in life, you just have to snip the dough, boil the ice cream and trust that the good women of the Canadian Bible Society will see you through, even if what you're putting into the fridge looks like chunky brown vomit. (See below.)

I had nothing to doubt, of course. These buns were sticky, gooey and made my house smell like a food court Cinnabon. Best of all? My mother-in-law had two servings.

Score one for the cakers.

2 packages of frozen bun dough (See note)
½ cup butter
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup vanilla ice cream

Take slightly thawed bun dough and with kitchen scissors snip them into walnut sized pieces and place into a large sprayed cake pan. In saucepan, bring the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and ice cream to a boil. Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Pour mixture over dough and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover and let sit in fridge overnight. In the morning, bake for a 20-30 minutes at 350°.

Note: I couldn’t find frozen bun dough, so ended up buying a five-pack of frozen loaf dough. I used about 2 ¾ loaves, but packed the pieces in too tightly, so the centre came out uncooked. If you go with bread loaf dough, 2 loaves should do it.

Source: Celebration Cookbook, Canadian Bible Society