Awesome Sticky Buns

I love being invited to gatherings where I can bake something that is usually too tempting to have in the house, something that is awesome in its deliciousness and always a hit at parties. Last Saturday we were invited to a breakfast barbecue, that's right, breakfast! I was asked to bring sticky buns since the host and hostess knew that I love to bake such things. The challenge was to have them still a bit warm even though I was to be at the gym at 8 am and the picnic was at 9 am about 45 minutes north of our house at Lake Sonoma dam.

The solution was to make the dough for the buns and to do the filling and cutting into discs, then to freeze the discs, cut side down, until solid. Frozen discs went into plastic freezer bags, with waxed paper in between the discs. In that way I could do all of that well before the event.

The night before I melted the butter and added it and the brown sugar to the bottoms of the pans

(for the second pan I used a round pan and only put in 6 slices...we didn't need a full 24 buns!), topped that with the discs, leaving space between bun discs, and let them rise overnight in the 'fridge.

In the morning I preheated the oven, added the heavy cream to each pan and baked them. Once they were baked they were put into cardboard boxes that had been lined with crumpled newspaper. Sweetie took over from there since I had to leave for the gym. He left the foil on the top of the pans, put the daily newspaper on top for more heat retention, then took them to the picnic.

They were only slightly warm, but the sticky part was still plenty sticky and runny and so, so good!

If you don't have a picnic to go to, you can bake the recipe all at once. Just skip freezing the slices. Put them, cut side down in the prepared pan, let rise, add cream, and bake in the preheated oven. Imagine how good your house will smell! I warn you, these are addictive. That's why I had to take them to a gathering...no leftovers to tempt!

Awesome Cinnamon Sticky Buns from DeeDee
Frozen slices version
Makes 20 - 24 rolls

1) 1 Pkg yeast
    1 1/2 cups warm water (about 108-110 degrees F)
    1 teaspoon sugar
Place yeast, water and sugar in a small bowl. Let stand 5 minutes to proof the yeast.


2) 1 cup sourdough starter
    1/2 cup melted butter, cooled (1 stick)
    1/2 cup sugar
    2 eggs, beaten
    2 teaspoons salt
Add the yeast mixture to the the sourdough starter. Mix in the melted butter, sugar, eggs and salt.

3) 6-8 cups flour
Add enough flour to make a soft dough (6 - 8 cups). Oil a large bowl or rising container, Add the dough, turn to coat, cover and let rise until doubled.

4) Divide dough in half. Work with each piece separately.

Roll the first piece of dough to a 12" x 10" rectangle.

5) 1/2  stick butter (1/4 cup), melted
Spread dough liberally with melted butter, leaving a 1/2 inch rim around the edges unbuttered

6) 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon

7) 1/3 pound brown sugar
Cover with the brown sugar, leaving a 1/2 inch rim around the edges without brown sugar
(Optional - sprinkle with 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans for Pecan Sticky Buns)

8) Roll up from the long side and cut into 1 - 1 1/2 inch slices (cut 10-12). I used dental floss to cut them and they turned out great that way. Here the first batch is laid out for the freezer.

9) Repeat from step #4 with the other half of dough. You will have a total of 20-24 slices.

10) Place slices, cut side down, on a parchment or silicon mat lined baking sheet. Freeze until firm. Remove from sheet and seal airtight in a zip closed gallon bag. (I put a small piece of waxed paper between the slices to make them easy to remove when I was ready for them.) Return to freezer until ready to bake.

11) When ready to bake, remove frozen slices from freezer. Cover bottom of two 9 x 13 inch pans well with 1/2 cup melted butter each (which means you will use 4 sticks or 2 cups butter for the recipe).

12) Sprinkle with about 1/3 pound brown sugar in each pan (which means you will use a full pound plus 1/3 of a pound of brown sugar for the whole recipe).

13) Add the frozen rolls, cut side down. Pour about 2/3 cup heavy cream around the rolls in one pan and 2/3 cup heavy cream around the rolls in the other pan (for a total of 1 1/3 cups heavy cream). Let rise until doubled.

14) Bake in preheated 400 degree F oven for 25 - 30 minutes until brown.
Let rolls cool slightly before serving so no one gets burnt with the hot sugar. Serve with the bottom, sticky, side up.