Blog Archives

Caramel sticky buns--obscenely great!

3/9/2015

The Alpha Bakers tackled Caramel Buns from The Baking Bible this week, and they are so delicious, polite words fail to describe them!

The recipe isn't a quick one. First, there's the brioche bread dough. Rose's silky, buttery brioche dough must be made a day in advance of baking. The dough is refrigerated and allowed to mellow at least overnight for flavor development.

Incidentally, If you haven't tried her brioche, you are missing out on one of the most wonderful breads in her repertoire! I haven't compared the two, but you can find the recipe for brioche in The Bread Bible or in the new Baking Bible. It is superb on its own, but it is also the basis of several of her best recipes!

Essential kitchen equipment--a ruler! The chilled dough is rolled into a rectangle.

The filling is a mixture of white and brown sugars, cinnamon, toasted pecans and raisins soaked in dark rum. For extra flavor, I used Rose’s recommended Muscovado brown sugar. This sugar has a deep, delicious, almost smoky flavor. It’s not readily available, nor is it inexpensive, unfortunately, so I don’t use it often. My favorite raisins are Sunkist Jumbo Mixed Raisins.

An extensive, and increasingly desperate hunt finally turned up a roll of plain (not mint-flavored) dental floss in my travel bag!! The dental floss makes tidy slices from the soft dough rolls.

My over-proofed buns are tucked into a foil-lined pan with a pint-sized mason jar in the middle. Right before baking, the mason jar is half-filled with boiling water to create steam in the oven. One batch of buns makes 12 rolls, enough for two pans.

They have emerged from the oven, and the foil is lifted from the pan. The jar is removed half way through baking. Contrary to the recipe, by the way, my dough DID stick to the mason jars, so next time I will grease the jars before baking. A glaze consisting of dark rum, the leftover raisin-soaking water and butter is brushed on the rolls. The rum and water is reduced to a syrup.

The Soft Sticky Caramel...ooh, la la!! Sugar, corn syrup and water are boiled rapidly until the mixture is just the right caramel color, and then hot heavy cream is added. The cream produces a volcano of steam and furious bubbling. When the mixture calms down, butter is added and finally a touch of vanilla finishes it off.

One note---Smitty and I did have a "discussion" during the panic of making (and trying to NOT BURN) the caramel.
Me: "Take it off the heat! Take it off the heat!"
Smitty: "It's off."
Me: "That's NOT THE SAME as taking it off the heat! Remove it from the hot burner!! Hurry!"

This recipe for Caramel Buns is significantly changed from the version in The Bread Bible. Rose calls this one her "ultimate sticky bun recipe," with double the amount of caramel, and she completely altered the baking method. In her previous recipe the caramel baked in the pan, and the buns were baked in jumbo muffin tins. She likes this one better. Who am I to argue? They are superb!!

Unlike bakery buns, the dough is more than just a supporting act. It's feather light and full of buttery flavor. Topped with toasted pecan halves and plenty of caramel, this bun is heaven!

Notes for next time:

As much as I liked the filling, I think it would be just as delicious with more pecans and no raisins.
I will grease the jar!
I was interrupted and the rolls spent too much time proofing, but they didn't seem to suffer a bit in flavor or texture.
I made a double batch of this recipe. Once the buns were shaped, I put them into a foil-lined pan and froze them. I am going to try defrosting them and see if they will rise and then bake successfully. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

NEXT WEEK: Sour Cherry Pie!

Thank you for stopping by and commenting!

8 Comments

Hamantaschen to honor an old friend!

3/3/2015

6 Comments

Who knows—perhaps it was for a time like this that you became queen?” Esther 4:14

When Smitty was an intern at IBM, he was befriended by a nice guy named Tom who often invited him home to dinner with his wife Judy. Tom and Judy were to become dear friends in the early years of our marriage. This week's blog post is in honor of my friend Judy.

This week the Alpha Bakers made Hamantaschen, pastry cookies with a poppy seed filling that are served on the Jewish holiday of Purim. Purim celebrates the triumph of the Jewish people over a plot by an evil oppressor named Haman. This story is familiar to both Jewish and Christian believers and is detailed in the Book of Esther.

Once again, baking allows me to connect with dear ones near and far. This week, I am reminded of Judy, who taught me that "Hamantaschen" means "Haman's hat," and that the three-sided pastries represent his three-sided hat.

Judy shared some of the treasures of Judaism with this clueless Catholic girl. The joy she takes in her faith and heritage is inspiring, and it never diminishes her deep respect for other people's faith traditions. I am so lucky to have had her as an older "sister" when I was a young bride.

I hope I am excused for taking so few photos! I have been sick and I am lucky to have gotten the baking done at all.

I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where there is a large and vibrant Jewish community. That means there is no shortage of great Jewish FOOD! Bagel shops, delicatessens, restaurants and bakeries are easy to find in south Florida.

Thus, I have sampled Hamantaschen many times, but the recipe from The Baking Bible is far superior to anything I have tasted before. As Rose puts it, the cookie dough is always "sturdy" in bakery Hamantaschen. Even if the filling is good, the cookie dough always reminded me of stale Pop Tarts. The Hamantaschen were always the size of the palm of your hand, too--way too much of a not-great thing.

Like all of Rose's recipes, the sugar is perfectly balanced and never overpowering. The dough recipe calls for turbinado or "raw" granulated sugar. On the left is the coarse sugar as it comes from the store. On the right, I have ground it in the food processor until it is fine.

Butter, turbinado sugar, flour, egg yolk, cream and vanilla are combined with a pinch of salt in the food processor to quickly make a tender and delicious cookie dough. After chilling, the dough is rolled and cut into three-inch circles.

I did opt to use the canned poppy seed filling, but per Rose's instructions, I added lemon zest and apricot preserves. The resulting filling resembles caviar!

The borders of the cookies are brushed with beaten egg wash, and then I used a small scoop to put little balls of fillings in the center of the cookies. The edges are folded up to form the triangle.

The finished cookies are tender and delicious, and filled with glossy poppy seeds that are given just the right edge with lemon zest and apricot preserves.

One more quick story about Judy. Smitty told me that Judy made this great chocolate cream pie, and suggested that I call her for the recipe. When I did, Judy cracked up and said, "The recipe is...one frozen pie crust, one box of Jello chocolate pudding mix and one tub of Cool Whip." After all the home-cooked meals she served him, that shortcut "recipe" is the one Smitty requested!

I hope that Judy and her beautiful family had a happy Purim yesterday, and thanks, everyone for stopping by my Artful Oven!

6 Comments

Caramel sticky buns--obscenely great!

NEXT WEEK: Sour Cherry Pie!

Hamantaschen to honor an old friend!

Archives

Categories