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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.
My son is doing duck for Christmas, plus some ham, I think. Ran into someone at the grocery store last night who had several large packages of ribs that she was going to do today, the ribs were nice looking ones.
We had the usual oyster stew and chili for Christmas Eve, though the chili wasn't quite the usual recipe (it was spicier than the chili I make and had corn in it, much to my wife's dismay.) M]
I managed to get the last of the oysters at the gourmet grocery store, with all the liquor they had left (lots of it!), and these were some of the best oysters I've had in years, there was essentially no oyster stew left at the end of supper. (It doesn't reheat well anyway.)
Sunday morning I made pancakes from a mix but added a lot of oats. On Monday, in preparation for our trip to Indiana, I baked my variation of Moomie's Buns as 12 rolls. I also baked the KAF recipe for Eggnog Scones with my modifications (substituting in 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour and reducing the cinnamon chips from 2 cups to 1 cup--what were they thinking!!). I had mixed up a double recipe of Sourdough Cheese Cracker dough on Sunday evening, and I baked these as well. After three days of travel, on Friday evening, I baked shortbread and used my Christmas stamps to flatten the balls of dough. For the first time, I used the Hudson Mill Bleached Flour that I bought, after Kid Pizza recommended bleached flour for shortbread. The balls of dough were less greasy, and the taste and texture is superb. From now on, I will use bleached flour in my shortbread. On Saturday, I baked a loaf of Grape Nuts Bread. I also baked my variation on my Mom's pumpkin pie and used the buttermilk crust recipe that I have posted here. This time I remembered to use the industrial coffee filter, with beans inside, when I blind baked the crust. I had to send my husband to the store to buy a bag of beans for the blind baking; in this little town they had only two kinds of dried beans--black, which he bought, and chick peas. I suppose a lot of people do not cook beans from scratch around here .I finished my Christmas Eve baking with the No Fail Sugar Cookies found on the Fancy Flours website.
This recipe, by Abby Mandel, originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times, 25-30 years ago. I have altered it by halving the sugar and decreasing the oil from 1/2 to 1/3 cup. I added the 2 Tbs. of lemon juice in the muffins. I have sometimes used 1 1/3 cup flour and 1/2 cup fine cornmeal. Fresh or dried blueberries can be used.
1 1/2 cup unbleached AP flour
1/3 cup finely ground cornmeal
1 tsp. baking soda
scant 1/4 tsp. saltgrated zest of two lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil (I use canola)
1 large egg
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 cup buttermilk1 cup blueberries (or 1/2 cup dried blueberries mixed in with the flour mixture)
In small bowl, stir together dry ingredients. In large mixing bowl, whisk together lemon zest, sugar, lemon juice, oil, and egg. Stir in buttermilk. Add dry ingredients, and mix in. Fold in blueberries (if using fresh ones).
Let batter stand 15 minutes. (This waiting period produces puffier muffins.) Ladle batter into either 12 regular or 6 jumbo greased muffin cups.
Bake at 375F until lightly browned and tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 22 minutes. Let cool in pan 5 minutes before turning out onto rack.
There is an optional glaze which I've never used:
Lemon-Sugar Glaze.
Combine 3 Tbs. lemon juice and 1 1/2 Tbs. sugar in small bowl. Be sure that the sugar dissolves. Dip top of muffins, while still warm, in glaze.It has been a hectic week, and I have not had time to do the Christmas baking that is for me so much a part of the season. Between the business of the end of a semester, and packing to move some of our furniture to Indiana, most of my baking has been necessity. On Sunday, I baked my variation on Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (recipe in The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion). I've been working on a healthier version--substituting in 3/4 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and adding 2 Tbs. special dried milk and 2 Tbs. flax meal. Instead of nuts, I put in 1/4 cup pecan meal. I reduced the brown sugar this time by 1/4 cup, as I've always found them too sweet. Instead of chocolate chips, I used red and green Christmas M&Ms, and I also put Christmas colored sprinkles on top. I also baked Semolina Rolls (KAF recipe from the back of a bag of semolina flour) to go with our pot roast. I substituted in a cup of buttermilk (did not use buttermilk powder), used the 1/3 cups of additional water, and used almost the full one cup of regular flour. On Friday, I baked two loaves of Grape Nuts Bread. On Saturday, I baked an eggnog Bundt cake for our family Christmas celebration that evening.
