Barefoot Bloggers: Easy Sticky Buns

The Barefoot Blogger recipe for this week, brought to us by Melissa, is Easy Sticky Buns. And they were not kidding about the easy part. I threw these together and had it all done in under an hour. (It helps that there was no chopping involved.)

Unfortunately, I did these on the same day as my Cooking Light day, so I was tired and up way too late, so really no process photos for you. I'll try to keep the talking to a minimum.

Somehow, I had almost all the ingredients for this already in my house. Why did I have unsalted butter and puff pastry just lying around? I don't know. But I'm glad, as all I had to purchase was a small package of raisins. Here is the short version of how to make these.

1. Let puff pastry sit out for 40 minutes to defrost. Or 60 minutes. Or 75 minutes. Poke them to make sure they're not getting all dried out because you're slowly chopping stuff up for another recipe. They're okay? Good.
2. Hopefully remember to put 2 sticks of unsalted butter out so they will get to "room temperature," which I assume is not the 63 degrees my house typically stays at.
3. Nuke butter for a bit to soften more. Put a bunch of butter in the stand mixer. Add brown sugar. Beat to within an inch of its life. If it had one.
4. Plop a spoonful in each of the 12 muffin....holes? spots? Whatever. Sprinkle some (pre-chopped in the package) pecans in there, too.
5. Nuke a little more butter (because there wasn't quite enough in there to begin with) until melted, cool.
6. Unroll the puff pastry, brush on half the butter. Sprinkle with more brown sugar, (apparently not enough of that, either) cinnamon and raisins.
7. Roll up. Cut into 6 pieces. Put in muffin tin.
8. Repeat with other piece of puff pastry. Bake for 30 minutes. Inhale deeply. Mmmmm.
9. Wait 5 minutes. Flip pan over onto parchment paper and pop buns out of tin. Try really hard not to eat one.

Here are my ready to bake guys. Can you see how far they stuck up out of the pan? I thought maybe my muffin tin was too small, but it said to use a regular sized one. On the right is the butter/sugar mix with pecans on top.

Now, the directions said to put parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put the muffin tin on top of it. I did that, but I didn't realize the cookie sheet should have edges. As this cooked, the butter/sugar melted all over the place and dripped off the pan. And onto my oven. Oops. I also think I cooked them a little too long. I should have checked them 5 minutes earlier, but I got distracted.

This is how they puffed up and settled into the holes? spots? Whatever.

Other than that, these turned out great. I took them to work the next day, and they seemed to go over well. I have to say, I didn't actually eat one. I know, how could I? But I am trying to behave myself right now, and almost 2 sticks of butter does not a light recipe make. I did taste one pecan with some of the caramel-type stuff and it was pretty good. I think these would have been more popular at work if I had served them warm, and if there weren't any raisins in them. Not everyone is a fan. I will probably make these again when I need this type of recipe for a group, but will definitely cut back on the total butter and nix the raisins.

Here is the full recipe, if you want to give it a shot:

Easy Sticky Buns from Ina Garten

Makes 12
We used to make really delicious sticky buns at Barefoot Contessa, but they took two days to make because the yeast dough needed to rise overnight in the refrigerator. I was dying to find a way to make them easier, so I decided to try baking them with Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough, instead. OMG are they good … and they’re really easy to make! Light, flaky dough filled with brown sugar, toasted pecans, and sweet raisins — my friends go crazy when I make these.

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces
1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted for the filling
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the 12 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.

Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half of the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, and 1/2 cup of the raisins. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down.

Trim the ends of the roll about 1/2 inch and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces, each about 1 1/2 inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry to make 12 sticky buns.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon), and cool completely.