Pecan Sticky Buns

Here is another recipe that I tried from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Which really, if you haven't checked this out - you should. The recipes are straight-forward, and you can't beat the method for convenience. With the dough made up and waiting in your fridge, anytime is a great time to bake!


The sugar/butter topping goes on the bottom of the pan, and then the rolls get flipped over to serve.


It said to sprinkle the pecan halves in there, but I placed each one carefully, because that is how I was feeling at the time.

Here is my rolled out dough, with the spicy/sugary/buttery mix on it.

I did sprinkle the toasted pecan pieces. Incidentally, this is the first recipe I've ever made that called for toasted nuts. So I had to look up a YouTube video on how to do it.

Then I rolled up the dough. I used the very last of my dough for this recipe, and wish I would have had a bit more. Oh well, no one ever complains that their sticky bun has too much sticky on top, right?

And here is the final result:

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls

Last night I got the urge to bake. So I visited All Recipes and did a quick search for cinnamon roll recipes. I ordered them by their ranking, and printed off the first 5 star recipe I found that didn't call for cream-cheese frosting. The recipe was submitted by Julie Sterchi and can be found here.

I put on my apron, rolled up my sleeves, put the first two ingredients in the bowl and then... ran out to buy yeast. Mine was way past its expiration date, and wouldn't proof.

When I got home, new jar of rapid rise yeast in hand, I made up the dough. It was very sticky (there isn't a picture of that, because my hands were completely covered). I am not sure why it was that way, but I did not enjoy kneading it and kept adding flour.

Below is a picture of the dough before its first rise. In the background, Dioji looks a bit bored.

I covered it with cling wrap and put it into the oven. I had heated it to the lowest setting, and then turned it off. I just wanted the dough to have a warm place to rise, so that it would go more quickly. (That trip to the store really put my start time back!)

After the rise:

Rolling out the dough, on the nice mat that my Nana gave me. It actually has inches marked off so I could have rolled it into a 14 in by 10 in rectangle as directed. But it got a little out of hand.

Adding the goodies. For half of the batch I did white sugar, for the second half I used brown sugar like you see below. (The recipe didn't specify.) I followed the suggestions of those who had commented that there should be more cinnamon. I applied it liberally without measuring.

Here it is all rolled up and ready to cut. If you notice by the (empty!) cinnamon container, there is a dental floss. I use this to cut off the individual rolls. You just slide the floss beneath the dough and then pull the two ends together above the dough where you want it cut, and cross them as you slice through the roll with the floss.

Here are the rolls ready for their second rise.

When they came out of the oven:

Here they are with frosting drizzled on top:

So what did I think of this recipe? I thought that they tasted more like doughnuts than cinnamon rolls, which is probably due to the cake mix in the recipe. They are good, and I'm glad I made them, but they weren't my favorite cinnamon rolls ever.

So... who out there has a recipe for cinnamon rolls that they really like? I'm looking to try another one. Leave me a comment with the recipe or a link, k?