Sticky Sticky Buns

When I saw that this week's TWD was Pecan Honey Sticky Buns, as chosen by Madam Chow of Madam Chow’s Kitchen, I was pleased to be able to employ some lessons learned by my earlier posting on Brioche Raisin Snails.

This time I made my grandmother's sweet dough recipe rather than the abusive brioche dough recipe that wreaks physical havoc on mixers and mental distress on bakers, given the various weird stages of dough during a harrowing mixing process.

Grandma's sweet dough is simple, and quick, and the dough is supple and pliant. A breeze to mix, it also rolls like a dream, and based on multiple opinions it bakes up more delicious than Dorie's brioche!

Grandma's Refrigerated Sweet Dough

1 cup milk

1/2 pound unsweetened butter

2-1/4 teaspoons yeast

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1 teaspoon salt

5 cups flour

Heat milk and butter together in a saucepan until butter is melted. Pour into mixing bowl and cool for 10 minutes. Add yeast, stir to dissolve, and let it rest for 5 minutes until yeast actively bubbles. Add remaining ingredients, and beat with your mixer for 5 minutes, using a dough hook if you have one. Refrigerate, covered, overnight. Deflate the dough, shape and fill as desired, and let rise one more time before baking.

From there, using half the dough, I proceeded with the recipe. The log of dough was cut using dental floss, which is much simpler than a knife and makes a very neat slice. Tucking half the slices into the freezer, I rose the spirals and then baked off just a few in the sticky sauce as an afternoon snack. I don't like whole nuts in my sticky buns, so I left them out.

Reynolds has a non-stick foil, which I used to line the pan--the buns and their caramel slid right out.

Warm, these are lovely, although a little stick-to-your teeth kind of sticky. I think the 'sticky' was the honey, which does lend its delicious flavor. When I have occasion to retrieve the frozen batch, I will substute Lyle's Golden Syrup instead. In fact, I think I will just drizzle Lyle's or honey on the freshly baked buns and forget about baking with the glaze altogether.


More baking is on my list today for my 45 year old birthday boy--I'll be baking his favorite (but certainly not mine)--yellow cake mix filled with cherry filling and canned chocolate frosting. Life is funny that way, isn't it?