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Tonight, I tried a new recipe, Our Favorite Sticky Buns, from the KAF site:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/our-favorite-sticky-buns-recipe
I adore a good sticky bun, and except for the two designer ingredients (three, if I count the buttery dough flavoring), everything else was in the refrigerator or the pantry, and because I'm on vacation, I have the time. I did not use the dough enhancer or the special cinnamon sugar, as I have neither. I used 3/4 Cup of light brown sugar for the topping. I don't know why the instructions say to leave 1/2 inch between the buns in the pan: there is NO WAY that will work. I had five around the diameter, and two stuffed in the center of the two 8-inch round pans that I used. I couldn't change pans at this point because I already had the topping ingredients prepared in them.
I did tweak the recipe slightly by substituting in 1 cup of white whole wheat flour. I also only used 2 Tbs. of sugar in the dough but added 2 Tbs. of honey. I used light sour cream, which was all that I had. Indeed, I was about 2 Tbs. short, so I made it up with nonfat Greek yogurt. The first rise took 90 minutes. The second only an hour, but the house was 70F, thanks to the wood stove, so that probably helped.
Because the rolls were so tightly packed in, they blew out. Also, the butter in the pans appears to have overflowed, so there was a burning smell, and melted butter all over the bottom of the oven. During baking, the top part of the buns had some surface burning, perhaps due to butter bubbling up. The buns did come out of the pan easily, and I was able to scrape the sauce and nuts off the bottom onto their bottoms (now the tops). Tomorrow, I'll add an addendum on taste and on the burnt bits.
There are glowing reviews of the recipe, which was in a link in a recent KAF email, although some reviewers wondered about the pan sizes. I know that my oven was at the correct temperature, because I use an oven thermometer, and all my other baking has been without issue. I don't think that the changes I made would have skewed the results. Some people mention a 10x10 pan, which the recipe does not indicate, but perhaps did in another version? However, I'm not sure that it would be big enough.
Follow-up: In the right sized pan, I think this recipe might be a winner. The non-burned parts of the dough have a lovely texture, and the topping tastes wonderful. However, due to the burning, I cannot give away the second pan as I had planned. I have submitted a review to the KAF site. I'm hoping that they will address the pan issue, but I'm not holding my breath.
Thank you for the good wishes, Cass. I did use an oven thermometer with the stove at this place, so I know that the temperature was accurate, even with the foil liner on the bottom. Everything else I baked had no issues, so in this case, I'm pretty sure that KAF mislead me about pan size. It might also be that their "special cinnamon sugar, which they use in the topping and the filling, makes a difference in how the topping absorbs the butter, which would be why it bubbled out and onto the oven floor.
I am waiting to see if KAF will post my review and respond to it. If not, I may e-mail them directly later today, and see if I can get an answer. Their answers to people's questions lately have been less than helpful.
I would only make Sticky Buns once a year or so. If I try the recipe again, with larger pans, it will not be until sometime next year unless I can be sure that they will come out well enough that I can give one pan away. We are going to have to do a lot of walking to offset these! They are good enough to eat but not good enough to give away.
Added thoughts: I note that a lot of reviewers for the recipe were refrigerating the rolls overnight on the second rise. Perhaps that is why no one else reported a butter boil over. It's also possible that the KAF special cinnamon sugar mix soaks up more butter. Apparently, more butter boiled over than I realized, because I'm baking bread tonight--and the oven is still releasing smoke. I will need to do a thorough cleaning of it tomorrow.
King Arthur finally posted my review of the sticky buns recipe. I gave it a 3, since the taste is good and the dough soft, but clearly there is an issue with the recipe. Someone replied to the review and said that it was not clear why I had trouble squeezing the rolls into 9-inch pans. (Hmm--could it be because the recipe specifies 8-inch pans?!) It was suggested that I had not rolled out the dough to the specified dimensions. However, I know that I did so because I used a measuring tape. The responder did say that my feedback would be included in "future discussions of the recipe." The topping issue was not addressed.
I will have to think about whether I will try 9-inch pans. I also think that I need to find a way to use some ClearJel in the topping, so that I can come closer to creating one that is more like what KAF sells. I don't want to buy it.
I did e-mail the Baker's Hotline. The reply suggested that due to the discussion needed, I should call. That makes sense. It would not be worth my time if I received an answer similar to the response to my review.
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