On a whim. I decided to bake some sticky buns today. These are not buns you’ll find in a recipe book but they’re easy to make and even a beginner could make them. I didn’t follow a recipe, but made it up as I went along. If you’d like a taste, you’ll have to make some and try it out.
Whenever I cook or bake, I might start with a basic recipe but I always end up substituting things depending on what I have in the house.
Anneli’s Fennel Hazelnut Buns
First I make a sweet dough. I doubled the recipe today but I’ll write down the basic one here – and you must remember that everything is approximate. I just throw things into the bowl according to what I feel is right.
A basic bread recipe is 2 cups of milk and 5 cups of flour. Based on that, I used:
2 cups warm milk
3 Tbsp. melted butter
3 Tbsp. honey (or use sugar)
2 scant tsp. salt
1 tsp. fennel seeds (if you like them – they have a licorice taste)
Add some of the 5 cups of flour before adding the
2 tsp. fast rising yeast (bread machine yeast).
I put all this in the mixing bowl in my Kitchen Aid mixer and let it mix using the bread hook. When the batter is thoroughly mixed I add the rest of the flour and continue mixing until the mixer is struggling.
Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead it (adding more flour if needed) until the dough is smooth and elastic but not dry and hard. It should be just at the stage where it doesn’t stick to your hands anymore.
Put it in the big bowl that you’ve warmed up in the oven and have rubbed inside with melted butter. I put the dough into the bowl upside down to coat the top with the butter and then flip the dough over so the top of it will stay moist and not get dry and cracked as it rises. Cover dough with a towel and leave it in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours. I leave it in the oven which is not turned on but has been warmed.
When the dough has risen, take it out and roll it into a rectangle about half an inch thick. Maybe about 10 inches by 15 inches. Spread melted butter on the rolled out dough. Sprinkle it with a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle it with raisins or currants. Lastly sprinkle it with ground hazelnuts (or you can use chopped nuts of your favourite kind – soft ones work best – pecans, walnuts ….)
For baking I use a rectangular glass baking dish – the kind you’d make lasagne in. I put a syrup in the bottom of the baking dish.
To make the syrup, put about a quarter cup of water in a pot, add a big spoon of butter and about a cup of brown sugar and let it all come to a boil. Stir it as it bubbles and be careful not to let it boil over. It will want to froth right out of the pot. After about a minute of boiling, pour it into the baking dish and spread it all over the bottom of the dish. I sprinkle ground hazelnuts on the layer of syrup, or you can sprinkle other kinds of chopped nuts on it.
Back to the dough with all the goodies on it. Roll the dough up tightly and cut the roll into twelve one-inch pieces. I cut the roll in half and in halves again, and then into thirds. That gives me twelve rounds. Lay the coiled up buns in the syrup which should be only lukewarm by now. Let the buns rise for about half an hour and bake them at 350 for about 35 minutes.
Turn them out onto a platter while still warm so the syrup from the pan will stick to the buns.
Now go put the coffee on and call your favourite person to share a sticky bun with you.
September 19, 2016 at 8:31 pm
Your baking is delicious!
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September 19, 2016 at 8:52 pm
Diet time tomorrow.
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September 19, 2016 at 8:34 pm
Wow. Holy Cow. Feed me!
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September 19, 2016 at 8:53 pm
Hahaha! You’ve got the cow part right. If I eat many more of these sticky buns, I will look like a cow all right! Be happy to feed you if I could send one of these through the keyboard. It would definitely become an attachment that way. Sticky business.
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September 19, 2016 at 9:29 pm
Laughing.
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September 19, 2016 at 10:24 pm
My eyes glazed over about halfway through. I do not know how to cook so I will have to stick to the store bought ones🙂
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September 20, 2016 at 8:57 am
Sorry. I guess I could have made the recipe instructions simpler, but I don’t use exact amounts, so I didn’t want to risk writing it down in the conventional way. Maybe I could email you some sticky buns instead. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do that?
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September 20, 2016 at 1:24 pm
It would be but I am in Ca.
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September 19, 2016 at 11:57 pm
I am just having coffee, all I need is a few sticky ones with it – maybe if I look at the picture long enough? ….(less calories).
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September 20, 2016 at 8:58 am
Good idea. Enjoying sticky buns without the calories.
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September 20, 2016 at 12:31 am
Yum – I think I’ll have to just look and dream, otherwise – well, the cow thing ……..
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September 20, 2016 at 8:59 am
I KNOW! I know. They are not calorie free. But nothing that’s good is low cal.
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September 20, 2016 at 2:55 am
yum!! home made delight!! neeeeddd. lol
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September 20, 2016 at 8:59 am
Would love to share with you.
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September 20, 2016 at 6:27 pm
thank you. the thought Counts!
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September 20, 2016 at 3:43 am
anything with yeast is not easy…I am afraid of yeast….a weird fear….
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September 20, 2016 at 5:45 pm
I used to think that, but as long as it’s good yeast (not outdated), and the room is warm, it’s very forgiving.
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September 20, 2016 at 4:28 am
Gosh that looks yummy! Thanks for sharing your recipe, Anneli.
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September 20, 2016 at 9:00 am
It’s sort of “by guess and by golly” but it works fairly well.
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September 20, 2016 at 7:09 am
In my dreams!
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September 20, 2016 at 9:01 am
Never know till you try. Men can be good bakers….
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September 20, 2016 at 8:30 am
Yum! They look wonderful and delicious! Perfect for a cool and drizzly day!
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September 20, 2016 at 9:01 am
Perfect for today!
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September 20, 2016 at 11:54 am
Sounds mighty tasty!
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September 20, 2016 at 11:55 am
Unfortunately they are!
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September 20, 2016 at 6:11 pm
You are seriously making my mouth water! The taste is just jumping off the page!
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September 20, 2016 at 6:13 pm
I just had ANOTHER one, and they are good.
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September 21, 2016 at 6:50 pm
I might have to give you my address to ship some to!
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September 20, 2016 at 11:53 pm
It sounds delicious. I’m very impressed with your ability to improvise as you go along. My wife is a bit like that too. I’m afraid my only real talent is for unintentionally burning things.
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September 21, 2016 at 9:11 am
LOL I’m VERY good at that too.
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September 21, 2016 at 7:33 pm
Scrumptious recipe. Perfect to try on a rainy day, you share so well xox
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September 21, 2016 at 11:14 pm
I’ve found that it ‘s not a good idea to double the recipe. You eat twice as much.
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September 22, 2016 at 12:06 pm
I don’t think I’d know how to bake from scratch. I certainly do that with cooking all the time, but baking is different. There is more of a science to it to add the right amount of each ingredient. You’re super baker! 😀
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September 22, 2016 at 2:55 pm
It just takes a bit of trial and error. I used to have terrible failures with bread, but we just cut it thin and called it crackers.
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September 27, 2016 at 7:30 pm
This was a delicious post with the recipe to make sticky buns! Thanks so much, Anneli. xo
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September 28, 2016 at 8:15 am
The only problem with these sticky buns is that they “sticky” to your thighs.
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September 28, 2016 at 7:53 pm
Salivating … thanks for the recipe!
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September 28, 2016 at 11:18 pm
They’re good, Patricia, but they’re addicting!
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November 23, 2016 at 9:15 am
Wow! Those look amazing!
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November 24, 2016 at 8:52 am
Thank you. They tasted pretty good. 😉
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December 24, 2016 at 2:42 am
The wife and I noticed your blog and appreciate the yummy recipes you have here. Please allow me to encourage you to keep writing and never abandon this site. I am a mobile developer, and if you are ever curious about having a mobile app version of this blog, I would love to help. We appreciate the hard work you have put into this blog and wish you all future success in business and in life.
Thank you for your time, it is the most precious thing we all possess.
-Jacque’
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December 24, 2016 at 8:49 am
Thanks, Jacque. Merry Christmas and thanks for checking out my blog.
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December 24, 2016 at 9:52 am
Anytime! Happy Holidays
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