The best ever SUGAR BUNS!

Nothing that good should be so simple, but it is a really simple recipe. Not for me though: I had to change the original dough recipe several times, before I could call these little guys "the best ever!" They melt in your mouth, not too sweet, with a little crunch on top from the all the syrup and sugar...
And here's how:

• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 0.5 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 0.5 tsp. salt
• 2.5 tbsp sugar plus 4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg
• 3.5+ cups of unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 stick butter softened + 1 tbsp butter for the pan
• For the syrup: lemon zest of 1/2 lemon or natural lemon flavor, 4 tbsp sugar+ 2 tbsp water

Mix together buttermilk and oil and warm up in the microwave oven for about 40 sec. to a minute. Mixture should be warm, but not hot. 

Add yeast, egg, salt, 2.5 tsp sugar and wisk.

Add flour and knead well - the dough should be very soft, but not sticky, add a little more flour if the dough remains sticky after kneading.

Place the covered bowl with the dough in a warm place for about 1 hour. 

After the dough has risen knead it down and roll to about 1/4" thick. 

Spread 1/2 stick of the butter all over the dough and evenly sprinkle 4 tbsp of sugar on top of the butter. Roll the dough up, jelly roll fashion, cut 12 slices and place these cut side uppermost in the pan (use 1 tbsp of butter to spread on the bottom and the sides of the pan) close to each other. For these particular buns I always use Pyrex baking dish - it's just the perfect size and lets the dough to brown evenly from top to bottom. Let them rise for another 30-45 minutes, brush with a beaten egg, than bake in pre-heated oven on 375F for about 30 minutes. 

For the glaze: boil together sugar, water and the zest of a lemon for about 2 minutes. Try to replace lemon zest with 1/2 tsp of a rose water - I love rose water in my pastry.

These buns freeze beautifully. Rather than keeping them on the counter for several days I prefer to freeze them and in the morning pull out as many as I need and warm up in my Secura infrared  turbo oven - this way they always taste like if they were just baked.