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Home ❯ Recipes ❯ Bread & Pizza ❯ Cinnamon Raisin Buns

Cinnamon Raisin Buns

Sarah

by:

Sarah

212 Comments
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Updated: 7/18/2025
Cinnamon Raisin Buns, by thewoksoflife.com
Cinnamon Raisin Buns join the pantheon of awesome bakery bun recipes that we’ve built off of what I now consider to be one of the most useful recipes on our blog––our easy Asian milk bread.
 
If you’re new to the Woks of Life, we’ve also done:
  • Pineapple Buns
  • Hot Dog Buns
  • Chinese BBQ Pork Buns 
  • Coconut Buns

These cinnamon raisin buns aren’t really Asian, but they had them at many of the bakeries I’d go to in China. If you’re a fan of cinnamon raisin bread (toasted with a little butter…perfection), you will LOVE these.

And their fancy schmancy swirly look? Way easier to accomplish than you think. Scroll down to see how we did it.

Cinnamon Raisin Buns, by thewoksoflife.com

Cinnamon Raisin Buns: Recipe Instructions

Start by making the bread dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt (in that order).

DON’T HAVE BREAD FLOUR OR CAKE FLOUR?

Feel free to substitute all-purpose flour for both! We have since extensively re-tested this recipe, and have not found that using 100% all-purpose flour in this recipe makes a meaningful difference to the result.

Using the dough hook attachment, turn on the mixer to “stir.” Let it go for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together.

After 15 minutes, the dough is ready for proofing. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough will grow to 1.5X its original size.

After the bread dough has proofed for an hour, put the dough back in the mixer and stir for another 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles. Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces.

Roll out each piece into a rough 8×4 inch rectangle. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dot with a few raisins.

Cinnamon Raisin Buns

Roll into a cigar, and cut the cigar in half lengthwise, leaving one end attached (it’ll look like a pair of pants).

Cinnamon Raisin Buns
Cinnamon Raisin Buns

Twist the two pieces together, and then roll the whole thing into a snail shape, tucking the ends underneath the bun.

Cinnamon Raisin Buns
Cinnamon Raisin Buns

Lay on a baking sheet, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to rise for another hour.

Cinnamon Raisin Buns

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush the risen buns with egg wash and bake for 13-15 minutes. Right after they’re baked, transfer to a cooling rack and brush with simple syrup.

Cinnamon Raisin Buns, by thewoksoflife.com
Cinnamon Raisin Buns, by thewoksoflife.com
Cinnamon Raisin Buns, by thewoksoflife.com

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Recipe

Raisin sweet rolls
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4.94 from 31 votes

Cinnamon Raisin Buns

Cinnamon raisin buns are lightly sweet, soft, and better than cinnamon toast. They disappear quickly but this cinnamon raisin bun recipe is so easy to make.
by: Sarah
Serves: 12
Prep: 3 hours hrs
Cook: 15 minutes mins
Total: 3 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Ingredients

For the bread dough:
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream (160 ml, at room temperature)
  • 1 cup milk (plus 1 tablespoon, at room temperature; total 250 ml)
  • 1 large egg (at room temperature)
  • 1/3 cup sugar (75g)
  • 1/2 cup cake flour (70g)
  • 3 1/2 cups bread flour (500g)
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (11g)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (7g)
To finish the buns:
  • 2 tablespoons sugar (25g)
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2-2/3 cup raisins (75-100g)
  • 1 large egg (beaten with 1 tablespoon water to form an egg wash)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar (12g, dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water to make a simple syrup)

Instructions

  • Start by making the bread dough. In the bowl of a mixer, add the heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt (in that order). Using the dough hook attachment, turn on the mixer to “stir.” Let it go for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together.
  • After 15 minutes, the dough is ready for proofing. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough will grow to 1.5X its original size.
  • After the bread dough has proofed for an hour, put the dough back in the mixer and stir for another 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles. Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces.
  • Roll out each piece into a rough 8×4 inch rectangle. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dot with a few raisins. Roll into a cigar, and cut the cigar in half lengthwise, leaving one end attached (it’ll look like a pair of pants). Twist the two pieces together, and then roll the whole thing into a snail shape, tucking the ends underneath the bun. Lay on a baking sheet, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to rise for another hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush the risen buns with egg wash and bake for 13-15 minutes. Right after they’re baked, brush with simple syrup.

Tips & Notes:

Makes 1 dozen.
If you don’t have cake flour and/or bread flour, feel free to substitute all purpose flour for both.

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 272kcal (14%) Carbohydrates: 45g (15%) Protein: 7g (14%) Fat: 7g (11%) Saturated Fat: 4g (20%) Cholesterol: 47mg (16%) Sodium: 318mg (13%) Potassium: 142mg (4%) Fiber: 2g (8%) Sugar: 10g (11%) Vitamin A: 265IU (5%) Vitamin C: 0.4mg Calcium: 46mg (5%) Iron: 0.7mg (4%)
Nutritional Info Disclaimer Hide Disclaimer
TheWoksofLife.com is written and produced for informational purposes only. While we do our best to provide nutritional information as a general guideline to our readers, we are not certified nutritionists, and the values provided should be considered estimates. Factors such as brands purchased, natural variations in fresh ingredients, etc. will change the nutritional information in any recipe. Various online calculators also provide different results, depending on their sources. To obtain accurate nutritional information for a recipe, use your preferred nutrition calculator to determine nutritional information with the actual ingredients and quantities used.
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Sarah

About

Sarah
Sarah is the older daughter/sister in The Woks of Life family. Creator of quick and easy recipes for harried home cooks and official Woks of Life photographer, she grew up on episodes of Ready Set Cook and Good Eats. She loves the outdoors (and of course, *cooking* outside), and her obsession with food continues to this day.
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