Homemade Honey Buns
Ready to see how our honey bun recipe compares with Little Debbie?
Ingredients
FOR THE BUNS:
1Â 1/3 cup water
1/3 cup honey or sugar or a combination of both ($0.70, I used all honey)
4 teaspoons butter ($0.15)
1 teaspoon cinnamon ($0.05)
½ teaspoon ginger ($0.03)
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups flour ($0.50)
2 teaspoons yeast ($0.25)
FOR THE FROSTING:
2 cups Confectioner’s sugar ($0.25)
1 teaspoon vanilla ($0.03)
4 tablespoons milk (more or less to reach desired consistency) ($0.10 depending on how much you use)
Preparation Instructions
Place all the ingredients into your bread maker according to your bread maker’s guidelines.
I use my Sunbeam Breadmaker. Add the wet ingredients first then the dry ingredients.  Make a well and place your yeast in it.
Most bread makers tell you to do the same thing, but check yours to make sure.
Set on the DOUGH cycle.  You can add all honey or substitute some for sugar. I recommend add at least half honey because it gives the bread the rich honey flavor.
When DOUGH cycle is finished, divide dough into about 30 pieces, cover so they do not dry out. Roll one at a time into snakes and coil them, moistening the tail and pressing it down on the edge to make a coiled bun. Keep the others covered until they are all coiled or they will make a crust and won’t rise properly.
Place on foil lined baking sheet and spray the foil with non stick cooking spray. You can get about 15 buns on a sheet. Place in a warm, draft free place to rise. I find that the oven with the light turned on and a bowl of boiling water set in the bottom works best. Allow the buns to rise until they have doubled in size about 45 minutes. Remove pans and preheat oven to 400degrees F. Bake for 15 minutes or until they are lightly browned. My honey buns took about 14 minutes to bake.
To Make the Frosting:
Mix together all the ingredients and drizzle on the Honey Buns after cooling. Icing will be firm like donut icing when ready.
Optional: Top with chopped nuts if desired.Â
Cost Comparison
Homemade Honey Buns= 30 buns for $2.06
Honey Buns bought from store= 8 buns for $3.00
You end up getting more buns for cheaper than the store bought and my family thought they tasted a whole lot better.
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Is there a way to do this without a bread machine? This is like the only recipe i could find for actual Honey buns online :p. Everything else was “honey cake”. & these look good, but i dont have a bread machine lol. :/
I have always heard you could take a regular hand kneaded bread recipe and turn it into a bread machine recipe as long as the recipe fit into your bread machine. But not usually the other way around. Since I do not do a lot of bread making without the macine or my Kitchenaid, I called my county extension agent, who is a lot better bread maker than me, and asked her. She told me that she felt this could be made by hand. She recommended stirring in three cups of flour at first with the bun ingredients and then adding in the last cup of flour as needed. She stated that if you used all honey in the recipe that it would be a sticky dough and you would definately need more flour when kneading the bread. After your dough is mixed and kneaded do not forget to let it rise as this is usually done in the bread machine. Usually it will double in size. Then proceed with the rest of the recipe. Since this is a bread machine recipe, you may need to experiement with it a little to see how it works. I hope that helps you some.
I made this recipe without using a bread machine – proof the yeast with the water (which should be @110 ° F) in the bowl of your mixer. I then melted the butter and mixed it with the honey before adding them to the yeast. I mixed all the dry ingredients together before adding to the proofed yeast/butter/honey mixture. Then I let the dough hook do its thing til I had a good ball of dough. I turned it onto a floured surface and kneaded for a couple minutes. Since I’m unfamiliar with bread machines and didn’t know if the ‘dough’ setting included a rising period, I didn’t let it rise before forming the rolls and placing on the baking sheets. I make pretzels which don’t require a rising prior to forming so I thought it might be OK. They’re about to go in the oven now after the 45 minute rising and they smell great! Good luck!
do these freeze okay? How do you freeze, and then how do you reheat if that is possible?
I’ve frozen bread before by freezing it before rolling it out. Then you just have to thaw it and roll it out when you are ready to cook it. These would be great to have on hand if it works though.
what kind of yeast ? and im not using a bread maker 🙂
Help! I VERY seldom bake bread and when I do it’s a store bought bread mix for the bread machine. I tried this recipe because my son would eat the Little Debbie Honey buns every day if I let them in the house that often. I followed the directions but used wheat flour. And I used the dough setting on the bread machine. But mine look more like bread and they were hard/tough. They didn’t look anything like your picture. I let them rise about an hour and 20 minutes. My oven tends to bake hotter/quicker than recipes call for and I failed to check them before the 20 min mark. What do you think has contributed to having hard bread as the end result? Not being a break baker, I have no clue!
When using wheat flour sometimes your bread can be harder without using a dough enhancer. I would suggest using 50/50 white and wheat flour, this will sometimes solve your problem. I hope this helps you. Otherwise you may want to check out some dough enhancers.
I am currently proofing my honey buns, & I must say I am already very pleased with how easy this recipe has been! The dough smells amazing & I am positive they’re going to taste delicious! Here’s my steps:
1. Warm water and yeast into bread machine, mix and let sit so the yeast activates
(Meanwhile, melt your butter and add the honey)
2. Add butter/honey mixture to yeast mixture.
3. Add in dry ingredients & MIX!
4. My dough was still slightly sticky so I sprinkled in more flour while the dough was being kneaded in my machine
5. Roll & shape
6. Proof!
7.Egg wash & bake
**I REALLY liked your idea to proof on the oven wit a pot of boiling water. Absolutely genius! It kept them from drying out on my counter.
Thank you so much for this recipe! My family will be so happy tonight
Thanks for sharing your steps! I hope your family enjoyed them.
Can the Honey Buns be frozen once they are baked?
I’ve never tried it but I’d assume you could. I freeze rolls and bread all the time. Just try and get as much air out of your freezer bags as you can to prevent freezer burn.
These tasted more like Cinnamon Buns than Honey Buns, what did I do wrong? They were awesome Cinnamon Buns regardless!! Definately didn’t taste anything like a Little Debbie Honey Bun tho.
I’m glad you still liked them! I’m not sure what happened. It may be a situation where they were left to rise for too long. Sometimes bread is just tricky and the weather can influence how it turns out.
No eggs? Just making sure before I begin.
Just made these. I used bread flour but everything else exactly as the recipe says, except one accidental omission in my first batch. I set the butter out to get soft and completely forgot to incorporate into my kitchenaid with the dough hook. Couldn’t figure out why the dough was dry, but added more water to bring it back up. It wasn’t until they were rising I noticed the butter.
I made a second batch with butter. After baking and icing I actually preferred the one without butter, plus the one without butter rose much nicer and cooked 2 minutes faster.
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The kids loved both.
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After thought, the batch without butter was made with honey, the second with sugar (I ran out of honey)
Is it 4 tablespoons butter or 4 teaspoons butter, you have teaspoons but I’m guessing its tablespoons but wanted to check? Thanks!
No eggs in this recipe? Just checking……..
My son and I made these yesterday and they turned out simply fantastic! Thanks so much! I shared your site with my bread machine group on Facebook!