Milk Bar Mondays: Cinnamon Bun Pie

I have been coveting the book Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi for quite some time. She’s a self-proclaimed sugar-aholic, she unapologetically cooks with butter, sugar, eggs, Skippy peanut butter, Cap’n Crunch cereal, cream, and fat.

She can apparently consume raw cookie dough by the batch.

I love this woman already.

She creates crazy, decadent, mind-blowing recipes that include ingredients ranging the gamut from clear imitation vanilla extract rather than expensive vanilla because it has a “taste people associate with home” to ingredients you probably don’t have laying around your home, like glucose, freeze dried corn to grind into corn flour, citric acid, and feuilletine.

If you’re not familiar with the book, you should to be, but you are warned.

First, the recipes in the book are not of the quick and easy variety. Most recipes have recipes within the recipe.

For example, in the actual Cinnamon Bun Pie recipe in her book, first you are to make mother dough from scratch.

Then make cinnamon rolls with it.

Then, make a liquid cheesecake filling from scratch.

That’s my rendition of liquid cheesecake filling, oozing, below.

Then make a crumble topping.

Finally, combine and layer all the recipes within the recipe together and bake.

I love anything with a crumble topping and was thrilled to get my crumble on.

Secondly, many of the recipes themselves are (extremely) over-the-top.

Try this title on for size: PB & J Saltine Panna Cotta: Concord Grape Jelly, Peanut Butter Crunch.

In that recipe, you’d make panna cotta (I hadn’t the foggiest idea of how to make it until I read about it)

Make your own grape jelly (making homemade jelly just to use within a recipe? I just made my first ever batches of jelly here and here last month)

And then make the peanut butter crunch (peanut butter recipes, I can handle those)

Amazing? Yes, I’m sure. Time consuming? I can guarantee it.

You be the judge if it’s worth it to you to cook like this. This cookbook is for people who love to create, love being in the kitchen, and are bored by standard issue chocolate cake and run-of-the-mill peanut butter cookies and who want to elevate their culinary creations to the next level. Christina calls these people “hardbodies”; those who go above and beyond, never complain, work through the toughest of times, approach each recipe and task with a sense of humor, keep cool, and keep creative. She further states, “Softbodies need not apply in our kitchen.”

If you eat too many of these cinnamon rolls, softbody in the more traditional sense of the word is a foregone conclusion. But worth it.

Some of those hardbody types include the ladies who formed the group Momofuku Milk Bar Monday’s in which they are cooking their way through the book, one recipe at a time.

Audra from The Baker Chick

Cassie from Bake Your Day

Erin from Big Fat Baker (the original recipe for Cinnamon Bun Pie is on Erin’s site today)

Jacqueline from The Dusty Baker

Krissy from Krissy’s Creations

Meagan from Scarletta Bakes

Nicole from Sweet Peony

Follow the Milk Bar Monday ladies on Twitter

Each member cooks the same recipe and everyone posts it on Mondays. I was honored when the ladies asked me last week if I wanted to be a part of their group. Ever since they began in a month ago, I have been eyeing all of their posts, every other Monday, secretly wishing I could do something so fabulous, and took being asked to join as a cosmic sign from the Cooking Gods.

Based on time constraints and the short notice for this post, I did not make my cinnamon buns from scratch. Instead, I used these. Like using a boxed cake mix, or boxed brownie mix, there’s no shame my friends.

I have a feeling that if I had made Christina’s recipe as written, 99% of you reading this would never make it anyway.

And I want you to make these!

The way I made this “pie” (as an 9×9 pan of bars) is extremely do-able, with only about 15 minutes of active work-time in the kitchen.

And the taste, the layers, the combination of it all. Oh.my.word.

These cinnamon rolls have enough layers and butter and fat to make Paula Deen jealous. I may need to buy bigger pants.

Topped with a Butter + Sugar + Cream Cheese mixture.

Topped with a Cinnamon Streusel layer.

A nice light dessert.

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Cinnamon Bun Pie, inspired by Cristina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook

Makes 8 to 12 servings

8-count package of refrigerated cinnamon rolls

8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cinnamon Streusel Topping

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt, optional

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare an 8-by-8 or 9-by-9 inch baking pan by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying it very well with cooking spray. Place the cinnamon rolls in the pan, distributing them evenly. There will be gaps. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla and blend until mixture is smooth. Pour this mixture over the cinnamon rolls and spread evenly over the entire pan.

For the streusel topping combine flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, salt in a small bowl and stir with a spoon until combined. Add the melted butter and vanilla, tossing it with a spoon until pea to almond-sized dark oat clusters form. Sprinkle the streusel in an even layer over the top of the cream cheese layer. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, or until edges begin to brown very slightly, taking care not to overbake because these are best when gooey.

Allow dessert to cool before slicing and serving. Optionally, add or drizzle any frosting over the top of the dessert if the brand of packaged cinnamon rolls you purchased came with frosting included. Dessert will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator. Gently reheat individual servings of refrigerated leftovers in the microwave if desired.

Note: The cinnamon rolls will rise underneath the layers of cream cheese and butter and the streusel topping, so take care that your baking pan is deep enough to accommodate this. A “standard” depth 9-by-9 inch baking pan is what I used and I barely had enough room to accommodate the growth and rise, but was fine. I suggest placing your baking pan on top of a cookie sheet so if there is a bit of overflow, it will be caught on the cookie sheet rather than the bottom of the oven.

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If you are looking for a seriously great weekend morning recipe, a brunch recipe to impress the heck out of everyone who eats them, or need something for a party, potluck, or to replace standard-issue vanilla cake at a bridal or baby shower, make these.

Scott told me these were the best cinnamon rolls he’s ever tasted. Better than Cinnabon. I agree and I have a thing for Cinnbon’s. I worked at a job at the mall inches away from the food court and can tell you a thing or two about Cinnabon’s or Mrs. Field’s.

They may have started with a little help from Pillsbury and ironically the Pillsbury wrapper said they are “made with Cinnabon cinnamon” whatever that means.

The half pound plus of butter and cream cheese took them from canned discs of dough to rolls of pure glory.

The crumble topping added a hint of crunch and texture to an otherwise smooth creamy layer and fluffy dough, and it “absorbs” some of the goeey cream cheese and butter layer perfectly.

They are so moist, and rich, and well, ridiculously good.

I normally go to bed thinking about the first cup of coffee I’m going to drink the next day but I went to bed thinking about these after I made them.

And then couldn’t bear to wait for morning so had a midnight snack.

If you like a little food with your frosting, these are your recipe.

Tons of soft and tendy gooey-ness in every bite, adorned with little nuggets of cinnamon-sugar streusel topping.

Semi-related recipes in my archives include:

Raw Vegan Gluten Free Cheesecake

Raw Vegan Gluten Free Apple Crumble

Caramel Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars (GF with Vegan adaptation) – They have a great crumble topping

Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze

Do you enjoy complex and multi-step recipes? If so, what do you make that’s fairly involved?

I am thrilled to be a part of Milk Bar Mondays.

I can say without a doubt that reading Christina’s recipes and book, reading about her approach to cooking, to baking, to recipe-development, and being a part of the Milk Bar Monday group has already, and will continue to, be a mind-expanding way to cook and grow, and I love that.

Or, do you prefer making things that are quicker, easier, less involved, and with less steps?

If my blog stats and page views are an indication, most of you prefer the easier and less involved recipes, based on which recipes get viewed most often. It’s the simplest things that people write in to tell me they loved and made, and make frequently.

I think we can all appreciate cooking as art, cooking as it’s own supreme craft, but unfortunately many of us don’t have the time (or desire) to cook like we’re on an episode of Top Chef or Cake Wars in our daily lives, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate it when others do it or do it for special occasions.

Plus, putting a few intricate recipes on your bucket-list of things to tackle one day in the future keeps the inspiration going.

The winner of the Nature Box Healthy Snacks Giveaway is Aimee @ ShugarySweets

Thanks for the Enjoy Life Plentils Chips Giveaway entries. Keep them coming!

See what the other Milk Bar Ladies created this week: