Delicious homemade honey buns, with a yeasted sweet dough and a lovely honey glaze. A wonderful treat for breakfast or brunch or with an afternoon tea.
I felt the need for something sweet and this is what emerged from my kitchen. Buns – buns with honey – perfectly sweet and delightful for a late weekend breakfast. They are even better with nuts and raisins. I didn’t have any nuts this morning to add to the pan (didn’t discover until I was too far into it, so just imagine a bunch of nuts on top, ok?) While still lovely without the nuts, they are a nice addition to balance the sweetness a bit. Taking the time to toast the nuts is even better, for an extra bit of flavour.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Yeast – you can use Active Dry Yeast or Instant Yeast for these honey buns.
Milk – 2 or 3% milk is recommended.
Honey – Pick a honey you love for these buns, as it’s flavour is front and centre. You can use liquid or creamed.
Recipe Tips
The amount of dough for these buns is fairly small, so you may find it easier to hand knead this, rather than use a stand mixer. I start the mixing in the stand mixer and then pop it out onto a floured counter to finish kneading.
Storing and Freezing
Store baked honey buns in an airtight container for 2-3 days or freeze up to 3 months.
Get the Recipe: Honey Buns
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 cup lukewarm water
- 3 Tablespoons white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup scalded milk, *microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
Filling:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup honey, liquid or creamed, is fine
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped, or walnuts
Instructions
- Proof the yeast in the lukewarm water with the 1/2 tsp. sugar. Scald the milk by microwaving for about 45 seconds to 1 minute or heating in a small saucepan until small bubble appear around the edges of the milk. Remove from microwave and add the remaining 3 Tbsp. sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 2 Tbsp. butter. Stir to melt the butter and let stand until it has cooled to lukewarm (105F)
- Meanwhile, if you like toast your nuts in a 350° oven until they are fragrant, 5-7 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl of the bowl of a stand mixer, add the proofed yeast. Check temperature of the milk to be sure it's lukewarm and add to the yeast mixture. Add egg to the bowl. Stir in one cup of the flour and mix well. Add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough comes together and cleans the bowl. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
- When dough is smooth and satiny, place in greased bowl cover and leave to rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, make honey butter by creaming the 1/2 cup butter with the 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup honey. Chill until mixture is no longer runny, but will still spread.
- When dough is risen, deflate and roll out into a rectangle 14 x 7 inches. Spread with about 1/2 cup of the honey butter, leaving an inch around the outsides so it has some room to spread as you roll it. sprinkle with some of the raisins and nuts (about 1/3). Starting at the long side, roll it up like a jelly roll.
- Put the remaining honey butter in a saucepan and heat it until it bubbles. Pour half of it into an 8-inch round baking pan. Sprinkle the rest of the raisins and nuts over the honey butter. Cut the dough roll into eight slices and place them, cut side down, into the pan. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled. Preheat oven to 375F.
- Place pan with buns onto a baking sheet (to catch any boil-overs). Pour the rest of the honey butter over the top and bake in preheated 375° F. oven 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a plate.
More Buns to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
OMG I made these using fresh honey from my uncles bees and it was absolutely amazing!
I was wondering though, how would I go about making a gluten free version? My friend and their family cant have gluten but they would LOVE these. I know making a gf version is quite difficult so I was wondering if you had any tips!
Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed them, Ashley! As for gluten free, you are right in that it can be quite difficult. I have no experience with gluten free bread, so my best advice is to seek out a highly rated gluten free yeast dough, then use that recipe for the dough part here. Hope that helps :)
Really yummy! It was really messy to roll as the honey butter gets everywhere, but it’s so tasty it’s not really an issue for me. I used a darker honey, which is fine if you like a deeper honey flavour, but it did end up quite strong tasting so if you want a more subtle honey flavour I’d go for a lighter honey. Just personal preference! My family loved it.
So glad you enjoyed it, Allie :) Thanks so much!
I started making my own cinnamon roll recipe this morning and realized I was out of vanilla for my cream cheese icing. Rather than have bland cream cheese icing, I decided to switch to making honey buns, which I’ve never made before. Obviously I had already started on my dough, so I’m not reviewing that portion, but the honey, sugar, butter mix is amazing. I left out the rasins & nuts. I am jotting this version down. I’m always looking for different fillings & toppings. Roll dough is so versatile. Thank you!
So glad it worked out for you! I do that often as well – start one thing and end up with something different :) Thanks!
Hi! These look delicious! However, can you leave out the raisins and pecans?
Hi Skye and yes, you can absolutely leave out the raisins and pecans :) Enjoy!
These are SO DELICIOUS! I didn’t read carefully when it came to making the honey butter and melted all the ingredientstogether in the saucepan. Oops! So I put it into the refrigerator until ready to spread. No problem at all, just warmed it a little to make it easier to spread and continued on more carefully. Love a forgiving recipe!
So glad you enjoyed these, Nancy and yes, I love a recipe that works with me, too :) Thanks!
Delicious!
So glad you enjoyed them, Jett! Thanks :)
These are perfection, love, love, love.
Thanks so much, Jacque :)
Hello. I noticed the recipe had an egg in it, but it’s not in the step by step part. I was looking at a donut recipe and noticed an egg added to the milk mixture once it cooled. Not sure if that’s what I’m supposed to do here or not.
Thanks for the heads-up, Samantha. The egg should go in the bowl after you add the milk mixture and before the flour. I’ve just corrected the recipe to reflect that.
These look so good – can’t wait to try them. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. I think you would enjoy them!
These look so good! Your house must have smelled amazing! Oh, to have one with tea.
Thanks so much, Renee and yes, it smelled lovely baking! Saw you tweets about your glamping. Beautiful! hope you had a great few days.
Ok I just made cinnamon rolls in a round pan for the first time recently (growing up we always used a Pyrex 9 – 13) and now I can’t stop thinking about making more! This sounds like a wonderful version! LOVE all that buttery-honey goodness. I am still missing my sense of taste due to my cold but I am imagining these are tender and just sweet enough! Delicious!
I should warn you that cooking with yeast can become a bit of an addiction. I will never tire of taking a few ingredients and making a tasty treat out of it :)
Gorgeous buns, love that brush of honey!
Thanks so much, Laura.
My son just asked me to make Honey Buns last week. I have yet to make them but now I know where to look for a good recipe! :)
Thanks Liz. Hope he enjoys them :)