Thursday, January 22, 2009

Barefoot Bloggers: Pecan Sticky Buns

Time for the next Barefoot Bloggers recipe. This months choices were very me... first the pancakes and now Stick Buns.

We made these Sunday morning for breakfast when K was here. They were really easy and tasty. It only took a few minutes to prep everything. About as long as it took the oven to warm up. Flipping them out is a little bit scary. Here's a tip when making sticky buns in a muffin pan: lay a piece of parchment over the top. Then put a sheet pan over the top. Then flip. Then slowly lift off the pan and check if it released. This helped to keep the buns from flying out all over the place and took away some of the scariness of inverting a pan.

I think I prefer them with a chewier dough. I made them again using the dough from my cinnamon buns rather than puff pastry. Nothing against puff pastry. These were really flaky and all, which is good in some applications. But in this case I think a breadier dough that soaks up more of the sticky gooeyness works better.




Easy Sticky Buns
from Back to Basics, page 240

Makes 12
We used to make really delicious sticky buns at Barefoot Contessa, but they took two days to make because the yeast dough needed to rise overnight in the refrigerator. I was dying to find a way to make them easier, so I decided to try baking them with Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough, instead. OMG are they good … and they’re really easy to make! Light, flaky dough filled with brown sugar, toasted pecans, and sweet raisins — my friends go crazy when I make these.

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 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i prefer a chewier dough too, i thought these were super good for how easy they were.