Lievito Madre Cinnamon Buns Recipe

These lievito madre cinnamon buns are made with a stiff sourdough starter and enriched dough. The cinnamon rolls have delicious buttery flavor, soft texture and the perfect amount of warm cinnamon! 

A warm gooey cinnamon bun is one of the best breakfast treats and while these quick and easy no yeast cinnamon rolls will always have a special place in my brunch rotation, I started experimenting making lievito madre cinnamon buns and as they say the rest is history!

A lievito madre sourdough starter is an Italian stiff sourdough starter often used to make Panettonne. It’s not quite as sour as a traditional starter and perfect to use in enriched doughs like these cinnamon rolls crafted with lievito madre!

Why I Love This Recipe

• Lievito madre recipe: I love discovering new ways to use my lievito madre sourdough starter whether it is this rustic Italian bread or these lievito madre cinnamon rolls.
• Incredible flavor and texture: If your buns have turned out dry before, using lievito madre ensures the rolls turn out moist, soft and chewy with only a hint of sourness. 

Ingredient Notes

• Milk: 2% or whole milk is best for the enriched dough.
• Lievito madre starter: Your stiff starter needs to be active and then broken into pieces. I find it easiest to break into pieces using wet hands.
• 00 flour: This flour is best but if you do not have this finely milled flour where you live, you can use bread flour, sometimes I like to use half bread and half pastry flour.
• Granulated sugar: Since this is a sweet dough for cinnamon buns, sugar needs to be added to the dough.
• Salt: Just a pinch but adjust to ¼ teaspoon if using unsalted butter.
• Egg yolk: Enriches the dough for a lighter, sweeter and softer bread.
• Vanilla extract: Adds another layer of flavor to the dough.
• Butter: I used salted butter softened to room temperature.
• Cinnamon bun filling: Brown sugar, cinnamon and softened butter. 
• Frosting: Cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, maple syrup and cream.

Activating Your Starter

For the cinnamon rolls with lievito madre to rise properly, you will need to use an active levain not discard. Follow these steps:

• Remove the starter from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature for 1-2 hours.
• Remove the top layer of the dough (the drier part), weigh the dough and add enough water to equal half the weight of the dough. Add 105 grams of flour for every 100 grams of the weight of the starter. Stir until combined and then move a lightly floured surface and knead until sticky yet compact. 
• Divide dough into two. Place the amount needed for this recipe into a clean bowl to let rise for 3-4 hours so it is ready to use and the remaining dough then add to a clean jar, let rise for an hour at room temperature then refrigerate. 

How to Make Lievito Madre Cinnamon Buns

To start, in a medium bowl add the milk and lievito madre broken into pieces and combine.

Next, in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, add the flour, sugar, salt, egg, vanilla and lievito madre mixture then knead on low speed for 1 minute, increase speed and continue to knead.

Add the butter in three additions, kneading between each addition, then continue to knead until the dough stops sticking to the side of the bowl. The dough should be soft, smooth and slightly tacky (not sticky) if sticky add a bit more flour. Let the dough rest in the bowl.

Move the dough to an unfloured flat surface and fold into an envelope then turn 180 and fold again.

Place dough in a lightly buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap then place in a warm draft free area and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Place the dough on a very lightly floured flat surface and roll into rectangle, spread the softened butter on the top of the dough, and sprinkle with the brown sugar cinnamon mixture. 

Roll up the dough from the long end jelly roll style then cut into 9 slices, and place in the prepared round cake pan.

Cover with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel let rise until doubled in bulk.

Bake until lightly golden brown and baked through.

Combine cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, maple syrup and 1-2 Tablespoons cream in a mixing bowl. Cream until smooth, adding more syrup or milk if too thick or powdered sugar if too thin. Frost the lievito madre cinnamon rolls and serve immediately.

Variations

• Orange: If you love a citrus flavor, you can add orange syrup to the dough (instead of sugar) and orange zest to the filling. Instead of a cream cheese frosting make the orange glaze from my orange cake.
• Nutty: Add ground walnuts or pecans to the filling.
• Brush with an egg wash: If you don’t plan to add frosting, you can add an egg wash to the top of the rolls before baking. 
• Frosting: Swap mascarpone cheese for the cream cheese in the frosting. 

Storage

While cinnamon rolls always taste best fresh, you can store the buns at room temperature in an airtight container for a few days. I prefer to store them without the icing. That way you can warm them up and then add the frosting. Almost as good as fresh! 

More Lievito Madre Recipes

Nothing better then warm sweet bread from the oven and these Lievito Madre Cinnamon Buns are just that! Enjoy.

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