Low Fat Cinnamon Buns

While almost everyone would love to be the recipient of these tender treats, with their buttery cinnamon filling, many of us would steer clear because of our desire to keep fat grams to a minimum. You don't have to worry any more, our recipe is low in fat and still delicious. Show this holiday season to family and friends that you care by sharing a batch of warm-from-the-owen low fat cinnamon buns.

Ingredients:

2 pkg active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 warm skim milk

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

1 large egg

4 tbsp butter, softened

1 cup raisins or currants

1 egg white mixed with 1 tsp water

Cinnamon sugar
1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon


Preparation:

  • Sprinkle yeast ower water in large bowl of electric mixer and add 1 tbsp sugar. Let stand on warm place until yeast is foamy (about 5-7 min.).
  • Stir in remaining sugar, milk and salt. Add 3 cups of the sifted flour and mix to blend until smooth (for about 5 minutes).
  • Beat whole egg with the fork and add to the dough. Mix to combine.
  • Stir in remaining flour and knead with dough hook for about 12 minutes, until smooth.
  • Turn dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise in a warm place about 1-1/2, until it doubles in bulk. Punch dough down, cover with inverted bowl and let rest another 10 minutes.
  • Roll dough out on lightly floured surface into a 14x18 inch rectangle. Spread evenly with butter and sprinlke with cinnamon sugar. Sprinkle evenly with raisins or currants and roll in jelly-roll fashion starting from an 18-inch side. Moisten along edge and pinch to seal.
  • Spray a 19x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Cut roll into 16 equal pieces and arrange slices, cut side down, in a well sprayed baking pan.
  • Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 50-55 minutes.
  • Preheat owen to 375 degrees F (190º C)
  • Brush egg white lightly over rolls and bake until lightly browned, for about 25 to 30 minutes.
  • Serve warm.

Makes 16 servings.

TIP: Cinnamon buns can be prepared completely ahead of time. To make ahead of time, prepare buns and arrange in baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The buns will slowly rise over the next 10 hours. Before you're ready to bake, bring them to room temperature, remove wrap, preheat owen and brush buns with egg white lightly and bake.


Real Cooking
Did You Know?
Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum, synonym C. zeylanicum) is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka, or the spice obtained from the tree's bark. It is often confused with other similar species and the similar spices derived from them, such as Cassia and Cinnamomum burmannii, which are often called cinnamon too.

The name cinnamon comes from Greek kinnámo-mon, itself ultimately from Phoenician. The botanical name for the spice—Cinnamomum zeylanicum—is derived from Sri Lanka's former name, Ceylon.

In many other, particularly European, languages it has a name akin to French cannelle, diminutive of canne (reed, cane) from its tube-like shape.

Cinnamon has been known from remote antiquity; the first mention of a particular spice in the Old Testament is of cinnamon where Moses is commanded to use both sweet cinnamon and cassia in the holy anointing oil; in Proverbs, where the lover's bed is perfumed with myrrh, aloe and cinnamon; and in Song of Solomon, a song describing the beauty of his beloved, cinnamon scents her garments like the smell of Lebanon.

Cinnamon was so highly prized among ancient nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and even for a god: a fine inscription records the gift of cinnamon and cassia to the temple of Apollo at Miletus. Though its source was kept mysterious in the Mediterranean world for centuries by the middlemen who handled the spice trade, to protect their monopoly as suppliers, cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka. It was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BC, but those who report that it had come from China confuse it with cassia. It is also alluded to by Herodotus and other classical writers. It was too expensive to be commonly used on funeral pyres in Rome, but the Emperor Nero is said to have burned a year's worth of the city's supply at the funeral for his wife Poppaea Sabina in 65 AD.

Before the foundation of Cairo, Alexandria was the Mediterranean shipping port of cinnamon.