Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Infused Cinnamon Buns

The title says it all. Chocolate chip cookie dough infused cinnamon buns. I saw this idea online and immediately thought OH YES!!! Best of both worlds,  the oowey gooey cookie dough is perfect for the light breaded cinnamon buns. Whoever came up with this idea originally, deserves an award.  

Now honestly I really don't enjoy making cinnamon buns, I love eating them...but making them is a different story. The first time I attempted them, they didn't rise at all and I burned them in the oven. Disaster. The next time I tried them, they rose perfectly and I thought they tasted great - however the boy didn't like them because how dare I put raisins in them! Disaster #2. And to top it off, cinnamon bus are  labour intensive. All this does not equal a fun baking scenario. However, thanks to the Pioneer Woman, her recipe convinced me to give it another try. And Although the past couple times didn't go exactly the way I planned, I knew this was a guarantee success. It had to be. COOKIE DOUGH!

Ingredients for Cinnamon Buns

2 Cups Whole Milk

1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup Sugar

1 package of Active Dry Yeast

4 cups (Plus 1/2 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour

1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda

1/2 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt

Plenty Of Melted Butter

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

Lots of Cinnamon

Choose your Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I used this recipe!

Ingredients for Vanilla Cream Glaze

1 heaping cup of powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 1/2 tablespoons milk

Directions

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Heat until just before the boiling point. Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm, sprinkle in the package of Active Dry Yeast. Let it sit for a minute. 

Then add 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together and cover to let it rise for at least an hour.

This is a good time to prepare your cookie dough!

After rising, add 1/2 cup more of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together.

Sprinkle your rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape.

Drizzle a generous amount of melted butter over the dough. Mix both sugars together and sprinkle it over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. Next, place teaspoons of cookie dough sporadically on your dough. Then starting with the end away from you and roll the dough towards you. Slice the rolls about 1 inch thick and lay in round cake pans that have been brushed with melted butter. Let them rise for another 30 minutes or so.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake rolls for 12-15 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don't get too brown. 

While that's baking we're going to prepare the glaze. I'm not a big fan of cream cheese glazes so I opted for a sugary-vanilla glaze(Thank you HowSweetEats!!)

In a medium sized bowl add powdered sugar and and whisk in heavy cream and vanilla until the mixture resembles a thick batter. Next, add the milk one tablespoon at a time, whisking until smooth – about 3-5  minutes. It's now ready to be drizzled over your yummy chocolate chip cookie dough infused cinnamon buns! Enjoy...you really will!