Cook It ... Sticky Buns

Saturday night I was busy cleaning all my sheet pans and oven, I know, I know so exciting it's almost unbearable.  While I was scrubbing away my mind drifted to that time in 2013 when I was 9 months pregnant and obsessed with making sticky buns and I wondered why I had not baked a single tray since then. 

Sunday morning I woke up and knew what I had to do. Sticky Buns. Not just any sticky buns but the best sticky buns in the world. Seriously, in 2013 I wrote "...they are ah-mazing! For real, amazing! It was all I could do not to eat half the pan for dinner last night." 

This little guy could not keep his hands to himself and tried to dig into the pan before I could scoop a bun out and onto a plate for him. 

Seriously, these are so good, and fairly easy to make, they just take a little forward thought. Admittedly something I am not good at when it comes to cooking. When I want something I want it. How am I supposed to know that I want something 24 hours ahead of time?

Fortunately these only take a few hours to prepare and sometimes that is doable. The recipe is originally from Donna Hay but I have adapted it a bit to suit my taste.

Ridiculously Ah-mazing Sticky Buns

dough

1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

2/3 cup lukewarm milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

sticky glaze

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

6 tablespoons butter

filling

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the dough…

1. Place the milk, yeast, and vanilla in a bowl, mix to combine and set aside for about 5 minutes while the yeast does its thing.

2. Add flour, sugar, salt, eggs, melted butter and yeast mixture to a stand mixture fitted with a dough hook.

3. Mixing the ingredients slowly at first. As they incorporate increase speed to high and beat for 8 minutes. the dough should form a ball like shape, and begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Be sure to hold onto your mixer or it will shimmy right off the counter as the dough becomes more solid.

4. Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Set in a warm place for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size. Our microwave is mounted above our stove and has a work light option that warms up the inside of the microwave. I have found this to be the best place in my kitchen for things to rise.

5. To make the sticky glaze place the maple syrup, brown sugar, and butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stirring as the sugars and butter all melt together. Boil for 2-3 minutes.

6. Grease a 10 x 14 baking dish and pour in the sticky glaze to coat the bottom. Set aside.

7. For the filling cream the butter, sugar and cinnamon on high scraping down the sides as needed. beat for about 5 minutes, or until mixture is pale.

8. Tear two pieces of parchment paper about 25-26 inches long.

9. Place one down on the counter and turn the dough onto it. Place the second sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough and begin to roll it out. I use my hands a bit to flatten it out before the rolling-pin was helpful. Roll dough until it is about 24″ by 9″.

10. Remove the top sheet of parchment and spread the filling over the dough leaving a 1/2″ border.

11. Preheat the oven to 350°F

12. Begin rolling up the dough using the 24″ length. You should end up with a nice long snake like piece of rolled dough. using a knife, cut the length in half. You will want to get 6 buns out of each section.

13. Cut your buns and one by one place them in the baking dish. You should end up with 4 rows of 3 buns each. But if you don’t that is fine too, they will still taste great.

14. Bake for 20 minutes then cover with a piece of aluminum foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes. I like to rotate the baking dish at this point to ensure even cooking.

15. Once removed from the oven let sit for 5-10 minutes and then turn out onto parchment paper, a cutting board, or whatever you like.

16. Dive in and enjoy! these are SO good right out of the oven. You will need a cold glass of milk, or coffee to accompany these sweet sticky buns.

I hope that some of you are able to try these sometime soon. If so let me know how it went.

XO