Easy Sticky Buns

Add these to my list of “oh my goodness!” food!!  Easy doesn’t accurately portray these buns.  Awesome would be a much more appropriate word.  Yes, yes, they were easy to make but the end product will definitely fool anyone who didn’t see you make them.  You could totally pull it off that you spent hours making dough…kneading it, letting it rise, making the filling, shaping the buns, letting them rise again.  Too.much.work.  The next time you’re in the mood for sticky buns, you must try these.  Trust me, you won’t be sorry.

I did make a couple of adjustments to this already easy recipe.  I’ve gotten a little tired of using puff pastry dough for sweet recipes…more disappointed than tired I guess.  Disappointed in the fact that it doesn’t always give me the texture I’m looking for and it’s never sweet enough for me.  So this time, I swapped out the puff pastry for Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations dough, which now handily comes in a full sheet without the perforations you usually get for the crescent rolls.  I rolled it out just a wee bit to get the right proportions and then added my filling. I halved the recipe since 12 of these delights would be overkill for us and used just one sheet of the Pillsbury dough. Instead of the pecans that Ina calls for, I used extra raisins and some dried apples.  Kyle and I are both big raisin and apple fans and since the nuts would, well, kill Kyle, I needed something else to beef up the filling.  This was a great decision and I will continue to add the apples in the future as well. Ina does recommend placing the muffin tin on a baking sheet before baking – heed this suggestion. There have been a few reports of members’ ovens taking a hit from the overflow of sugary goodness…and it’s not something you’d want to deal with in the morning…with or without your first cup of coffee.

So my great thanks goes out to Melissa of Made by Melissa for choosing this awesome recipe from Back to Basics.  If you haven’t done so recently, I would highly recommend going over to the Barefoot Bloggers blog to see how our ever-growing list of members is looking…and be sure to check out some of the blogs to see how their sticky buns turned out.

Easy Sticky Buns

source: Ina Garten, Back to Basics, pages 240-241

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces
• 1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted for the filling 2 packages Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations dough
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup dried apples, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the 12 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.
3. Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half of the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, and 1/2 cup of the raisins. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down.
4. Trim the ends of the roll about 1/2 inch and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces, each about 1 1/2 inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry to make 12 sticky buns.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon), and cool completely. Serve warm