New year - (hopefully) more food

Last year midsummer or so, I decided to order some items from King Arthur Flour company and at the same time I signed up for their email list. Yeah - so I am convinced that some of the poundage I lost earlier in the year and have since re-located, is directly contributed to the oh-so-good and amazingly evil concoctions that come out of that place in Vermont.

This first one to catch me up is from this very baker's haven. It is a simple application for making a batch of frighteningly easy to make (and eat) sticky buns.

Here are the basics.

The dough is assembled in a standard method for sweet dough. Mixing the ingredients by hand will require a heavy duty spoon until the dough starts to come together then you will need to knead. HA! Kneading is needed. HA!

Yeah - I am sick.

I use Clyde. You all know who Clyde is. The dough hook, medium fast speed until the dough is sticky and forms a mass that comes off the sides of the bowl but will kind of gather on the bottom. It will be sticky to handle. If doing by hand keep working it until it is at this point.

Once done, leave it in the bowl, covered, to rise. It needs to double in bulk. The cooler the room is, the longer it will take to rise. The cool thing is that this also has the effect of making the dough smoother and the final product much finer to eat.

After the rise, put it into the refrigerator for 8 - 24 hours. Hey - I said easy, not instant. You want quick, go to Cinnabon (disclaimer - this was NOT an endorsement) The dough can stay there up to three days.

After the time in the fridge, pull off about a third of the dough to make a batch. The rest stays in the fridge. I separate the rest into two little packets that look like this.

That's one packet. Not two. I mean, I make two extra packets but thought I really only needed to show the one. What's the point of taking a picture of two. So, yeah.

Ok, I decided that I didn't take enough pictures of the process. I'll take more when I do these again and post an update. (Anyone that believes that, please wave your hand.)

When you are ready to make the rolls, the pan must be prepared. Melted butter, brown sugar (KAF has a thing that they call Sticky Bun sugar, but I haven't ever purchased it. I tend to make some brown sugar fresh right before I make the buns), chopped pecans and maple syrup. The syrup gives it an extra amount of yum.

So, pull out your wad of dough (remember, three batches out of one dough) Flour the counter lightly and put your ball-o-dough onto it. Spread it out into an oval with your hands and then roll it out into a 10X18 (roughly) rectangle. This might take a couple tries. I have found that if the dough really starts to fight you, walk away for about 10 minutes and come back at it. Don't be freakish and break out the ruler though.

Once rolled out, it is sprinkled with the filling (cinnamon sugar mix or KAF has a filling called Baker's Cinnamon filling that is supposed to be good but again, I haven't ever purchased) and rolled. Here is where I wish I have a couple more pictures. When rolling the dough up, use your fingertips and work quickly as possible. It takes practice. You want to get as tight as possible in those inner rolls, but again don't get OC about it.

Once rolled divide into eight equal pieces and place into the prepared pan. Allow to rise until puffy. While they are rising preheat the oven. They will look like this:

I am lucky enough to have a warming drawer in my over (at home) and I set it to warm and let them rise in there.

After the nice rise, they go in the hot box for 40 minutes and they will look like this:

Let them cool about a minute or two. Not much longer because if they get too cool you can forget taking them from the pan easily thing. The sugar on the bottom will fasten itself to the pan like a gold digger to a New York banker.

When you turn them out, you will have the lovely deliciousness seen here.

Hope it was worth the read. Thanks for dropping by. More to come.