Using your hands, a mixer, or a bread machine, mix and knead all of the dough ingredients till you’ve got a smooth, fairly soft dough. Remember, the more flour you add to cut down stickiness, the drier and tougher your final bread will be; so go easy on flouring your kneading surface, if you’re doing this by hand. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and allow it to rise at room temperature for an hour; it’ll be puffy, though not necessarily doubled in bulk. Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a clean work surface. Place the milk and the cinnamon filling or sugar in separate small bowls. Lightly grease two 9" round cake pans. If desired, pour ¼ cup maple syrup or cinnamon syrup into the bottom of each pan. Tear off 1"-or-so pieces of the dough. Dip the irregular dough pieces into the milk, then into the cinnamon. Place them, close together, in the prepared pans. Each pan should be full enough that you can only see the bottom of the pan in scattered places. Cover the pans, and allow the dough to rise for about 90 minutes, till it’s puffy, though probably not doubled in bulk. Drizzle the bites with melted butter, if desired. Bake them in a preheated 180°C oven for 20 to 22 minutes, or until they’re beginning to brown around the edges, and they seem done. These are hard to check for done-ness, as their cinnamon coating makes it hard to see how brown they are; what I usually do is just take one of the pans out of the oven, use a fork to carefully lift out one of the bites, and break it open. If it looks wet and gummy, continue to bake; if it looks ready to eat, they’re done. Remove the pans from the oven, and carefully turn the bites out of the pan onto a rack to cool. If you’ve used syrup, let them rest upside-down on the rack till they’re cool; otherwise, the syrup will stick to the rack. Serve the bites warm or at room temperature.
