Do you have one of those ‘recipe files’ where clipped recipes go to die? For me, it’s a black binder stuffed with the contents of Canadian Living magazines and torn pages of the Guardian. My mum’s got a big manila folder with casserole and pastry recipes dating back to the mid 80s. Even Edward has a plastic folder snatched from the office containing a single recipe for a lentil and chorizo dish.
These days, on top of all those magazine recipes which will never see the pilot light of the oven, we’ve got to worry about neglecting blogged recipes, too. All those bookmarks to various posts that we’ve got stashed on our computers and our social bookmarking accounts? The recipes which we read and drool over daily on blogs just like this one? I mean, well, oh I should make that one day, I want to cook that, but uh, time is tight… so I think I’ll just make my usual again.
You can find more recipes at barbara-luijckx.com
Through my daily web reads I’ve assembled a mountain of ideas I’d like to try. So enough is enough! It’s time to bake some of these treats. At least once a fortnight I’ll be ‘stealing’ something I fancy on another blog – and I’m starting close to home.
When I spotted these sticky buns on my sister’s blog, Kitchenist, a couple of weeks ago, I immediately got that ‘I have GOT to make this!’ feeling.
It was actually the oozing cream cheese icing that won me over to the recipe, but as luck would have it, I didn’t succeed in that area. An icing drizzle should be the easiest thing in the world, but I can never get the consistency right. My first try was too gloopy, my second too runny. So I gave up. To see the buns in all their glory, check out Ele’s post.
The icing isn’t the only thing that makes these buns a bit different, though. Rather than clustered all together on a baking sheet, these are made individually in a muffin pan. They remind me a little of Ingrid’s monkey bread muffins, which have also been on my to-bake list. I forgot to take a photo of the setup, but again, you can see the prep over at Ele’s.
Despite the icing debacle, these were amazing. Better than these ones, which I made a couple of months back and liked at the time. This batch was softer (softness is imperative in a sticky bun) and had everything in the right quantities – crunchy nuts, oozing toffee sauce and fragrant cinnamon. With the cream cheese icing these would be a total knockout.
Stay tuned for my next blog steal, Smitten Kitchen’s Chewy Amaretti Cookies. She found the recipe in HER recipe file!
Sticky Buns
Recipe from Kitchenist.com
Makes 6.
Dough:
250 g plain flour
25 g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 g instant yeast
38 g unsalted butter
75 ml milk
1 large egg
Topping:
50 g unsalted butter
90 g dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp golden syrup (or corn syrup)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
60 g chopped pecans, walnuts or a mixture
Filling:
25 g dark brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
Icing:
2 Tbsp cream cheese
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp icing sugar
- Mix together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast together in a large bowl.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter in the milk over low heat. Remove from heat and whisk in the egg.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix to form a dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour, until doubled in size.
- While the dough is rising, make the topping. Heat the butter, sugar, syrup and lemon juice together in a small pan over low heat, until just blended. Divide the mixture between 6 muffin cups, either buttered or silicone. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the mixture, and set muffin tin aside.
- To form the filling, mix together the sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside. Melt the butter in a small pan and set aside as well.
- When the dough is risen, punch it down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. With a floured rolling pin, roll out into a long rectangle, about 15cm by 30cm, with the longest side facing you.
- With a pastry brush, brush the dough with the melted butter. Sprinkle the filling mixture over the dough evenly.
- Roll up the long side of the dough, firmly but not too tightly. You will have a long, coiled sausage-like shape. Cut into 6 even pieces and place, coil side up, in the muffin cups, on top of the nuts and topping mixture.
(The buns can be made ahead up to this point. Simply cover the muffin tin with clingfilm and place in the fridge, continuing with the baking steps when ready to eat. It makes enjoying these buns for breakfast much easier).
- When you’re ready too bake the buns, remove them from the fridge and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until puffy and browning on top.
- While the buns are baking, make the icing. In a small bowl, blend together the cream cheese and lemon juice. Add the icing sugar gradually, mixing until uniform. You may need to add some boiling water, one teaspoon at a time, to achieve a consistency suitable for drizzling.
- Wrap several layers of tin foil around the top of your muffin tin (along with a roasting pan if you have one that will fit over) and quickly invert. Tap the top (bottom) of each muffin cup to ensure the syrupy nuts dislodge themselves, and remove the muffin tin. Voilà! Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before drizzling over the icing.