Sunday, October 11, 2009

Sticky Buns with Toasted Almonds


This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays' recipe was chosen by Jen of Not Microwave Safe, Sticky Buns with Toasted Almonds. Now let me first begin by saying that sticky buns are HUGE in my husband's family and my mother-in-law makes awesome sticky buns. Over the past several years, she has been gracious enough to bestow her sticky bun making skills on me and I have always used her recipe. So I was a little nervous about this one... the recipe has a lot to live up to in our house.

I was hoping to make this for breakfast on Saturday morning, so I threw the dough together on Friday after I came home from work. My first and only issue with the recipe came with kneading the dough. It seemed very sticky to me, but I didn't want to add too much flour otherwise the buns can turn out super tough. Luckily, I remembered the group ran into the same issue when they made Bee Stings a couple months ago and I believe it was Wendy of Pink Stripes who suggested continuing to knead the dough to release the gluten in the flour. So I decided to let the mixer do its magic and walked away. About fifteen minutes later I came back to perfect dough. Yeah!


The dough rose beautifully. I had just pulled dinner out of the oven as the dough was finishing so I left the door open for a few minutes and then popped the dough in to rise. About two hours later, it had started to rise above the bowl, so I tightly wrapped it with plastic wrap until I had my girls in bed and I could assemble the buns. When I did get around to putting them together, they assembled very easily. My big alteration to the recipe was I covered the bottom of the casserole dish with chopped pecans and raisins before I put the buns in. I guess this is the more traditional approach to making sticky buns (at least in every bakery around here). I would have loved to try the almonds, but knew my husband would not be a big fan.


I woke up Saturday morning and started the second rise for the buns. After about an hour in the oven with the hot water bath, they were ready to bake. And did they ever smell wonderful in the oven! They baked much faster than the suggested baking time- mine were finished in a little under twenty-five minutes (this is my one criticism of the Sweet Melissa Baking Book- the cooking time always seems to be overstated)- so if you decide to try this recipe, be sure to keep a careful eye on them after the twenty minute mark.

So I know I said I was nervous about this recipe because of how wonderful my mother-in-law's recipe is, but oh were these good! They were different, very tender, but oh so delicious. Full of butter and cinnamon, and I loved the flavor the maple syrup gave to the sauce. I will definitely be making this recipe again! In fact, and don't tell anyone in my husband's family, I think I like this recipe a littler better than the one I had been using.


Great pick Jen- this recipe was a huge hit in our house! If you would like the recipe, be sure to wander on over to Jen's blog. And be sure to check out what all the other Sweet Melissa Sunday bakers thought!

13 comments:

Nina said...

Looks great!

Pecans and raisins sound like a great addition!

Jen T. said...

Thanks for baking this week, Karin! My grandpa loves sticky buns with pecans, and I'm pretty sure your way is the more traditional. I'm glad you liked them so well, and they lived up to everyone's expectations. I'm a bit annoyed with the overstated times in the book, too, I checked mine at 30 minutes and they were a little overdone, but oh well. Great job!

Shandy said...

How delicious sounding putting raisens and pecans to the bottom of the baking dish. I love it and you like the recipe better then your family recipe. I overbaked mine just a tad so I know what you mean about keeping an eye on baking times with this cookbook. Beautiful sticky buns!

Julie said...

Your sticky buns look great . Love the addition of the raisins.

I'd read the comments that they were easy to overbake, so I took mine out after about 30 minutes.

Unknown said...

I'm so glad these lived up to the high standards that have been set by your mother-in-law! They look terrific - I love that you added raisins to the sticky sauce. I am definitely going to try them that way next time. Mine only took about 30 minutes to cook too - the baking time seems to have been way off on this one!

Jaime said...

I thought about using pecans but didn't have any...even though I do not like nuts I did like the pecans in Dorie's pecan honey sticky buns so I think I might have liked them w/these... your sticky buns look great!

k.a.r.e.n said...

Your sticky buns look great! Love the pecans!

Sarah said...

Your sticky buns look amazing! I used pecans, too, and loved them. The sauce was definitely the best part, I'll be making it again to use on all kinds of treats! I like your idea of the nuts and raisins on the bottom of the pan.

margot said...

The buns look fantastic and I'm glad your family enjoyed the new recipe. It was a good idea to add the nuts and raisins with the sticky sauce, they didn't blend so well by just tossing them on at the end.

Eliana said...

Your sticky buns look perfect Karin.

Jeannette said...

raisins sound like a great addition to the buns! and i'm just as nervouse cooking for my fiance because i feel the need to "live up" to his mom's cooking ;)

Lulu the Baker said...

I'm calling your mother-in-law right now! I think it's funny that you know neither your husband nor your MIL is going to read your blog; mine don't either!!

Joy said...

My what beautiful buns you have, Karin. I completely understand what you mean about being afraid to try a new recipe that might challenge a favorite old standby (that was the theme of my post too). But I'm glad you decided to give them a try and ended up enjoying them so much. I love your addition of the raisins too... they must have added another interesting texture and complementary layer of flavor. Fantastic job!

Hope you're doing well, and I look forward to hearing from you soon... definitely after our pumpkin themed postings (if not before). Have a wonderful rest of your week!

<3,
Joy

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