I've Been Holding Out

Although the camera had been broken for months, I just threw it away a couple of weeks ago. I was smart enough to take the memory card out of the camera before tossing it. (My brilliance comes in spurts.) On the card, I found pics from the best thing I've ever made in my life - sticky buns. No joke. After I pulled them out of the oven Easter morning, I had fleeting thoughts of not going to church. These quickly passed after I realized I could eat another one in the car.

The recipe is from Baking Illustrated. The recipe was time-consuming and tedious, but I promise it was worth every caramel-oozing bite. ... I just had to pause and gather myself.

Again this recipe is long. Apparently I didn't capture all of the steps. I'm going with brevity here so I can get to the finished product. Start by mixing the dough. The dough is a combination of milk, butter, water, yeast, sugar, eggs and flour.

I know this doesn't look attractive, but keep reading.

The above needs a two-hour rise. While the yeast are doing their thing, move on to the caramel sauce. It looks like I made a recipe detour here. These pics are not the makings of the carmel sauce as directed in the recipe. I was also experimenting with caramel cakes around this time, so I must've found a recipe I liked better. I wonder where that is now ... I digress.

 Happy! Happy! Joy ! Joy!! Pour all that lusciousness into a greased 9x13 baking dish.

 I know that's a really bad shot. Remember, I do have a new camera now. Anyhoo, why don't we just cover all the caramel with some toasted and roughly-chopped pecans. This is getting better.

I was so tempted to stand over that pan with a spoon and work it out. Back to the dough. I managed to contain myself and roll the dough out into a rectangle.

Well, that's sort of a rectangle. Now, slather the wonderful butter, sugar, cardamom (yep cardamom) and cinnamon filling all over the dough.

 Roll it and cut it. Unflavored dental floss was the cutting tool.

 Get your cute little buns ;-) into the pan.

 I parked these in the refrigerator overnight. I let them do the final rise Easter morning.

  Thirty minutes of hot oven time later, you get this:

Now, that might not look all that spectacular to you, but just you wait. Honey, flip that pan and you get this!

Break them apart and you get this!

 

I heard angels sing ...

 Tools of the Trade

• KitchenAid Stand Mixer
• French rolling pin
• Pyrex baking dish
• All-Clad 3-qt saucepan