Banana Cinnamon Buns

Ripe bananas give these a wonderful caramel covered banana flavor.  When you frost the rolls, put the cooling rack over parchment paper.  The excess caramel frosting will fall onto the paper and you can just pick up the paper and throw it out - easy clean up.

For Dough:                                                          2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

  1/2 Cup 1% Milk                                                1/2 Tsp Ground Nutmeg

  5 Tbl Butter                                                         4 Tbl Butter, Melted

  1 Cup Smashed Bananas                                  For Caramel Frosting:

  1/4 Cup Sugar                                                      8 Tbl Butter

  1 Tsp Salt                                                             1 Cup Light Brown Sugar, packed

  2 Large Eggs, beaten                                            1/4 Cup 1% Milk

  4.5 Tsp Yeast                                                       1/2 Tsp Vanilla

  2 Cups Flour                                                        1 Pinch salt

  2 Cups Bread Flour                                              1 1/2 Cups Confectioner's Sugar

For Filling:                                                            

  2/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar, packed                                          

For Dough:

Melt the butter.  Add the milk.  Heat or cool until it is about 110 degrees.  Add the yeast and set aside.

In large mixer bowl, combine banana, sugar and salt.  Beat in eggs.  Add milk mixture to banana and beat with electric mixer until well mixed.  In separate mixing bowl, combine flours. Add half of flour mixture to banana mixture. Beat mixture on low speed 5 minutes, scraping sides of bowl frequently. Add remaining flour and mix thoroughly (dough will be very soft).  Put dough into a lightly  greased bowl, turning so all sides are greased.  Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.  

Punch dough down. Turn onto floured surface. Knead a few turns to form a smooth dough, sprinkling with enough additional flour to make dough easy to handle.  On lightly floured surface, roll dough into 24x10-inch rectangle.   

Brush with melted butter.  In small bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg then sprinkle over the butter.   

 Beginning with long side of dough, roll up jelly roll style. Pinch seam to seal. With sharp knife, cut roll into 24 slices, about 1 inch wide each. Place rolls in a 9-inch round baking pans that have been buttered.

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover rolls and let rise until nearly doubled.   

Bake rolls at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until golden.  Remove from pan to a cooling rack, making sure to turn upright.

While the rolls bake, make the frosting:

In small saucepan, heat butter and milk until butter is melted.   

Stir in brown sugar.

Cook over medium low heat 1 minute. Transfer to small mixer bowl and cool mixture until you remove the rolls from the oven.   

When the rolls are cooling, stir in vanilla, salt, and confectioner's' sugar. Beat with electric mixer until well blended. If necessary, add more confectioner's' sugar for desired consistency.  As soon as the frosting is done, pour over cinnamon rolls.