Episode 28
December 12, 2010
Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns
Are you entertaining this year for the holidays? Anybody spending the night? You know what that means – they’ll be there for breakfast now. Well, I’m sure you’ve already planned it all out but in case you want to add something new to the menu how about some easy to make cinnamon rolls and sticky buns?
I actually found this recipe online. I needed a sweet dough that was good for making cinnamon rolls but I kept finding recipes that required yeast. Yeast fermented doughs have a very unique flavor (think bread) but sweet doughs are so sweetened and covered in icing and seasoning that I feel the yeasty flavor gets lost – although it’s not like I wouldn’t use a yeast recipe if I had the time. Who wants to wake up at 4 am to make cinnamon rolls to be ready by 8 am? At least with this recipe you can get up at 6:30 or 7 and have them ready around 8.
So you may have noticed in the video that my sugar started to crystallize in the pot when I was making the pecan smear (sticky bun goop!) for the sticky buns. I probably didn’t put enough cream of tartar in but other factors may have been in play as well. Sugar crystals may have be on the side of the pot which started the seeding process and it was just beginning at that point in the video. The more likely option was that I actually heated it higher than 235 degrees (it was such a small amount! I’m sorry!) and it was almost entirely sugar in that pot – the only thing keeping it liquid was being so warm. Either way, I probably should’ve just made it again. If you want to just avoid this potential issue use 3 ounces of corn syrup instead. I know some people try to avoid corn syrup so I use this alternative to make everybody feel included : ) The corn syrup will also make the goop much more sticky so you probably won’t have to worry about scooping it off the pan at the end of baking.
Speaking of baking, be warned the goop may boil out of the pan creating a huge mess in your oven and any sheet pans you have in there. Before you start this recipe make sure you line everything with foil or something to help control the mess. You can also just use a smaller amount of smear – once that caramel starts burning it really smokes up your house. I wish I had known all this before I baked them. Having your door wide open in the dead of winter is not fun.
The cream cheese icing (although it’s more like a drizzle or topping) is so delicious in this recipe. I’m so glad I ended up using Bailey’s Irish Cream – it really gave it a nice flavor. Remember if you don’t want to use any booze in your icing that you can swap out the Bailey’s for a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a tablespoon of whole milk. This icing would be great on a variety of muffins and pastries as well so definitely keep this recipe in mind. Also, I used neufchatel instead of regular cream cheese in my recipe for a couple reasons. For one, neufchatel is lower fat, but that’s hardly the main reason. Neufchatel is soft and spreadable even while cold so it’s so much easier to use than cream cheese – for spreading or for recipes! Once you start using neufchatel (also known as 1/3 less fat cream cheese) you’ll never go back to cream cheese… except if you want to make cheesecake.
Don’t forget, if you want, to sprinkle in extra pecan pieces when use press in the cinnamon filling if you want an extra nutty roll.
All of these little blurbs are in the recipe: Corn syrup or cooked sugar, pecans in the filling, and Bailey’s or milk – so you don’t have to worry about remembering all that. Oh! I almost forgot! I just bought myself a microphone and recorder for my episodes now since I had so much feedback that my videos were so quiet and hard to hear. I ended up using it for almost all the scenes – all except for the last one… I forgot to turn it on… sorry! Let me know what you all think! I think it sounds better but it’s more important what you all think! And while I’m talking about new features / excitement, I just got enabled for videos longer than 15 minutes on YouTube! You know what that means don’t you?? I can finally just have one video per blog post making it easier to watch and less clutter (crazy number of parts) filling up my posts and YouTube account!
Cinnamon rolls with booze, new microphone, extended uploads… it’s been a pretty great weekend. : ) Anyway, here’s the recipe for cinnamon rolls, pecan smear (sticky bun goop) for the sticky buns, and the cream cheese icing. Enjoy the only video below! Thanks for watching!
