Easy Sticky Buns
These Easy Sticky Buns from Ina Garten are pretty good. A lot of recipes for things like this (see others I’ve made) are time consuming because they involve yeast for the dough. Not this one. It utilizes puff pastry which saves a huge step, so all in all, it barely takes any time to put everything together. You could even make them the night before, and just take them out of the fridge the next morning once the oven is pre-heated.
The components consist of a butter and sugar mixture that it topped with pecans in the bottom of a muffin tin. The puff pastry is thawed and then rolled up with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins inside. After the roll is cut, you place each individual piece inside the muffin tin and bake. Once out of the oven, you flip the pan over and you have Pecan Sticky Buns for breakfast.
Sounds easy, right? Of course, there is one little downfall… the puff pastry gets pretty hard in places. Maybe baking them a few minutes less might help, but it’s really kind of in a Pecan Rolls nature to become a rock soon after baking. I would say make only as many of these as you need at one time, although they do reheat ok.
Also, make sure you follow the step about placing the pan on a baking sheet with parchment paper underneath. (You’re going to need the parchment when you invert the rolls anyway, although I got around this by just spooning the pecan mixture over the tops of each one after flipping them over.) Normally I just say “yeah, yeah, whatever” to this type of parchment placing step in a recipe with no ramifications, but it backfired on me this time. The butter mixture overflowed… a lot. All over the bottom of my oven. It was pretty obvious to me that I ignore steps like this so much because until someone pointed out my mistake on one of the Musings posts, I didn’t even know it was written in the recipe! Note to self: need to pay more attention and actually read things.
Overall, though… delicious and super easy. Thanks to Melissa of Made by Melissa who chose Ina’s Easy Sticky Buns for the second January recipe for the Barefoot Bloggers.
Ina Garten’s Easy Sticky Buns
From: Back to Basics
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 oven to 400 degrees. Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper (please do not ignore this step like I did – the butter mixture overflowed onto the bottom of my oven).
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.
Breakfast Part 2,3 and 4: Ellie Krieger’s Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal, Apple-Pecan Muffins, and Peach French Toast Bake
This is the post that could not be written. Every single time I tried to sit down to write, nothing would come. I felt determined to finish it once I kept seeing people were arriving to my blog while searching for the Ellie Krieger things I’ve said I’ve made on my sidebar tracker. So in continuing on with my quest to eat healthier, my obsession with all things breakfast related, as well as Ellie Krieger recipes from The Food You Crave, I bring to you the following three breakfast ideas.
First up we have Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal.
I love oatmeal. The only problem is it’s a tad bland unless you’re eating one of the sugar laden instant kinds (the kind that I know and love so much). To me, oatmeal was never something you broke out a recipe for. Until now. I’ve made this probably 20 times. It’s perfect. It’s old fashioned oats mixed with cherry jam, dried cherries, vanilla and milk. There’s no added sugar but I found it was sweet enough from the jam alone. I’ve adapted to making it in the microwave with no problems.
Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal Recipe on Food Network
Second, I offer to you Apple-Pecan Muffins.
I absolutely loved these. I made a full batch and they were gone in about 10 minutes around here. I thought about adapting this recipe into a loaf. It would make a really good apple bread. You must make these muffins soon, I’m not kidding. They’re made with whole wheat pastry flour and brown sugar. Applesauce and buttermilk add tons of moistness.
Apple-Pecan Muffin recipe on Food Network
And last but certainly not least, we have Peach French Toast Bake.
This one intrigued me from the first time I came across the recipe. Not sure why because I really don’t care for French Toast that much. (Although, I’m considering trying to come around. Matt, my blogging friend, recently featured a Crème Brûlée French Toast that looks pretty good.)
Anyway, this Peach French Toast couldn’t be easier. You make it the night before so in the morning all you have to do is turn on the oven and bake. A whole wheat baguette is the base underneath a milk and egg mixture that’s topped with frozen peaches, brown sugar and cinnamon. Ooooh Mama! It’s only lightly sweet which I think makes it really good.
Watch the video for making Peach French Toast Bake here
Ahh, it feels so good to clear this draft out of my posts. The bottom line is you can’t really go wrong with a healthy breakfast. Remember kids, it’s the best way to start your day. And Ellie Krieger can do no wrong right now with me. Everything I’ve tried of hers has been good.
The recipe links again:
Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal
Apple-Pecan Muffins
Watch the video for making Peach French Toast Bake
Thanksgiving Twofer Pie
This pie is an interesting one. It takes Pumpkin and Pecan pie, two traditional Thanksgiving recipes, and puts them together. I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d like this one going in because I am a Pumpkin Pie purist. And I don’t really like Pecan Pie at all. I’ve mentioned before that I generally dislike nuts in desserts, especially if they are a front and center ingredient. At any rate, I was going to make it and see what I thought.
I baked this morning in preparation for going to my Dad’s later on to celebrate our birthdays (we’re 30 years apart). Since I didn’t get to see him on Thanksgiving this year, I thought it was perfect to bring along this pie as sort of a make-up Thanksgiving thing. We are so much alike that he probably won’t be crazy about the nuts in it either, but he won’t tell me that and he’ll eat some anyway.
This pie was relatively easy to put together. It made a lot of dishes to clean up afterwards… truly a Thanksgiving type pie, right? haha. I caught a post over at Lady Craddock’s Bakery where she made the pie twice and adjusted some of the steps, temperatures and times in the recipe. After reading a lot of the problems people had (anything from overflowing in the oven, to a burnt crust, to an undone middle) I could see some definite benefits to following her advice. I did everything exactly the same from not pre-baking the crust, to baking at 450 for 15 minutes then dropping down to 350 for 35-40 minutes. Thanks, Lady Craddock, I had zero issues!
What I Thought: This is a good pie to choose if you want to mix it up a little for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s a twist, but not at all “too far out there” from traditional foods people expect on Turkey Day.
I’m grateful to Laurie for extending the deadline to November 30th on this one. I am so glad I had additional time this week, I really needed it.
Many thanks to Vibi of La Casserole Carrée for choosing the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie. Please make sure you stop by Vibi’s to check out what she thought of her choice and to see the recipe.
I’ll be back Tuesday with Linzer Sables as chosen by noskos of Living the Life. It’s going to be a busy, but awesome December for Tuesdays with Dorie. There are a lot of great choices coming up in the following weeks, I can’t wait!
