Finally, after all that, at this late juncture, I have at last arrived at Cinnamon Bun Station. I have been making these things my whole life and these right here are the best that I've done. *bows deeply, performs elaborate salaam, backs out of room*
Steamed, that is the way to go. The Asian way with baking powder included in the dough that changes the pH and makes the gluten a lot more elastic.
The dough has sugar which speeds it, and a touch of cocoa powder just because, and powdered milk because the yeast likes that a lot and the resulting bread is fortified with milk solids, and a touch of cinnamon to carry that through. It seems to go faster than usual. Speedy Gonzalez dough, that's what this is.
The topping before rolling is regular cinnamon roll filling; butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice, raisins, pecans, salt.
The white topping after steaming is the same cream cheese topping used for carrot cake.
Here is the thing about bread made by steaming instead of baking that seems counterintuitive to Westerners, I think. If you take baked bread and steam it then it absorbs all that wetness, weakens, dissolves and falls apart, and that is what we think will happen when you steam dough.
But that does not happen. When raw bread dough is steamed then the moist heat acts on the dough the same way as if the dough was held in a clay cloche except more completely and does not dry out so does not form a dry outer crust. The bread is the same as baked bread.
The spongy crustless bread can be sliced and toasted as ordinary bread. Little sandwiches can be made from it toasted or not. It is excellent.
Conclusion: win
