Esther's Cinnamon Buns

With apologies to those on wheat, gluten or flavour-free diets.

You'll need a 9x13" pan for this (see photo), a rolling pin, and people with hearty appetites.

Mix together:
3 Cups flour
1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Cut in:
1/2 cup softened butter or margarine

Add and stir just until combined:
1 and 1/2 cup milk (I use 1% - 'cause it's low fat. hee hee)

Knead with a little flour.

At this point, you actually have tea biscuit dough - you could roll it out now and cut out some nice little tea biscuits... or you could say "Forget that!" and proceed with the rest of the instructions.

Melt 1/2 cup of butter (I use less than this. Maybe 1/3 cup???)

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 12" x 16" (I think I make mine larger than this now, but I'm not sure - I don't pull out the measuring tape.)

Spread about 4 - 5 tablespoons of butter over the dough (I don't measure this - I just glop it on)

Sprinkle the dough with approximately 1/2 C of brown sugar.

Sprinkle LIBERALLY with cinnamon (cinnamon isn't as potent you might think - so go wild)

Roll the dough (you'll be starting the roll on the 16" edge) and pinch to seal.

Pour the leftover butter into the 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and some cinnamon into the pan. (This makes a nice carmelized coating on the bottom of the bun. Yeah baby!)

Cut the dough into slices (about 1") and place them in the pan.

Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes (Ok, this is wrong - I think Esther's oven ran hot - so keep an eye on them. I usually keep them in for 25 minutes.)

Remove from oven and ICE THOSE BABIES WHILE THEY'RE WARM!!

ICING:
1 tablespoon melted butter / margarine
1 C icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
milk to thin

Pour over the cinnamon buns. When no one is looking, lick the icing bowl. Wait five minutes. Experience sugar high. Serve buns. Await applause.

In my experience it is best to remove any un-devoured buns from the pan and place them in a plastic container as soon as possible. If you don't do this, that nice carmelized concoction on the bottom of the buns will STICK LIKE CEMENT to the bottom of the pan and you'll be crying over dishpan tomorrow. Also, the buns won't come out of the pan in one piece.