Sticky Buns (SMS)

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays (SMS) recipe was chosen by Jen of Not Microwave Safe: Sticky Buns with Toasted Almonds. I love cinnamon rolls and sticky buns and almost chose this recipe when it was my turn to pick, but in the end I chose the Bee Stings instead. So I was delighted to see that someone finally picked this recipe!

Working with yeast really isn't that bad. I remember when I used to be so intimidated by it. This recipe is a bit time consuming, but is not difficult at all. It is split into two days with an overnight refrigeration so you don't feel like you are baking all day. One thing I always do when baking with yeast is I use my oven as a proofing box. I'll preheat the oven for about a minute, just long enough for it to warm up but not to where it starts to get hot. Then I turn the oven off and stick my dough in and let it rise. This ensures that it is always warm enough for my dough to rise regardless of what time of year it is.

I omitted the orange zest from this recipe, just because I didn't have any on hand and didn't want to make a grocery store run just for orange zest... I am sure that the zest would probably add a great subtle flavor to the dough but it also tasted just fine without it.


I also omitted the toasted almonds because I don't like nuts, but you can also cover these with cream cheese frosting if you don't want to top them with sticky sauce. These smelled so good while they were baking in the oven... in fact, that was how I knew to check on them early. The smell of sugar and cinnamon was so strong that I though I'd better check on them - and it was a good thing I did because they were done in HALF the time indicated on the recipe! If I had waited for my timer to go off, these would have been burnt to a crisp!


I would love to try these with cream cheese frosting some time. The dough was really soft and sweet and it's probably just as good as my favorite Cinnabon recipe - though I'll have to try these with the cream cheese frosting before I declare them better than the other recipe :)

Thanks Jen, for choosing this recipe. I will definitely be making this one again. If you would like the recipe, you can find it here. Make sure you visit the SMS Blogroll to see how everyone else enjoyed this sweet, sticky treat!

* Recipe Notes:
- I added room temperature milk instead of cold milk to make sure that my dough would rise.

- I had to add a little over 1/2 cup of extra flour to get my dough to be not so sticky. So I used the full 2-3/4 cup, and then continued adding 1 tbsp of flour at a time until the dough no longer stuck to the edges of the mixing bowl.

- I did not have pure maple syrup so I used pancake syrup instead (Aunt Jemima's).

- I used salted butter in my sticky sauce and could taste a little bit of the salt in it - this was great because salty and sweet flavors go together very well.
- Use your oven as a proofing box. Preheat the oven for about a minute, just long enough for it to warm up but not to where it starts to get hot. Then turn the oven off and stick your dough in and let it rise. This ensures that it is always warm enough for your dough to rise regardless of what time of year it is.- Start checking on your buns around 20 minutes. They will probably be golden brown and done around 25 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven.
- You can easily freeze these. Prepare the recipe as directed up until the overnight refrigeration step. Then, instead of refrigerating it, wrap it tight and freeze it. When you are ready to bake, remove it from the freezer for the second rise until the dough has doubled in size and then bake.
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