"And perhaps a sticky bun...or 4..."

Once again, I went on a bit of a blog hiatus. I blame my show. It was a blast, but it left me with very little time to blog. I did bake a lot though. Mainly props for my show…and I figured I might as well share some of them with you, in case you ever have to play a hungry little girl in a Sondheim musical one day.

One of the specific sweets I needed to eat in the show was a “sticky bun”. Well, actually 4 of them…every night…however, they couldn’t actually be all that sticky as I had to be able to swallow them and sing and not get it all over my costume. So, I altered these buns to make them not so sticky…however, I made these twice last week and the second time I doubled the batch so I could have some for my cast and I sticky-ed them up with some cream cheese icing goodness. And they were divine.

I know there are a lot of cinnamon bun recipes floating around out there, and I’ve tried a handful…but these are my new favorite. They bake up beautifully and taste divine. So go make some sticky buns! And eat at least 4…

Cinnamon Buns
(Recipe adapted from Allrecipes Ooey-Gooey Cinnamon Buns)
I find that these are better if you roll the dough thinner and maybe up the filling a bit…this recipe is a great starter, but you can definitely improvise with these in terms of what you want to put in them.

Ingredients:

Dough
1 tsp white sugar
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and yeast in the warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter and salt; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.

In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 1 1/2 cup flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.



Once risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, roll into an 18x14 inch rectangle (the thinner you can roll the dough though, the better - these dimensions are simply a guideline). Brush with 2 tablespoons melted butter, leaving 1/2 inch border uncovered; mix brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough.



Starting at long side, tightly roll up, pinching seam to seal. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. With serrated knife, cut into 15 (or more) pieces; place cut side down, into a buttered pan (I like to use circular foil pans that look like Chinese food take-out pans…they work pretty perfect for these). Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in volume. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes, then invert onto serving platter.

Finally, frost these babies up with some cream cheese icing and you’re good to go!