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.

Barefoot Bloggers: Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

I have joined yet another cooking group. Someone stop her before she bakes again! As of this month, I am a member of the Barefoot Bloggers, who make two Ina Garten (also known as The Barefoot Contessa) recipes a month. I have two of her cookbooks, thanks to my brother Tim and sister-in-law Angela (thanks guys!) and I like that it's every other week, so not a huge commitment, but gets me in the kitchen.

The other day I made these lovely pancakes. Can you say "Christine has never cooked pancakes in butter before"? I had a heck of a time keeping these from burning. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start.)

I was excited about this recipe because I often put bananas on my pancakes. Sliced up with some maple syrup, and a few chopped pecans...heaven! It was very easy to put together. The very first time I try a recipe, I attempt to follow it exactly. Then if I don't like it, I know it was the recipe and not me doing something wrong. Then I can adjust from there or ditch it. So since I was following directions, I actually sifted my dry ingredients together. WHAT? You SIFTED? Yes, I sifted. Here's the proof.

My new sifter that I got at the kitchen store.

They made me stop playing with the handle because it was noisy and annoying. (But it's fun!)

Action shot! Yeah! Go, dry ingredients, go!

Next I put together the wet ingredients. I got to use my new Microplane grater (thanks again Tim and Angela!) to zest my lemon. It is so sharp! I was having a hard time getting the lemon to move across it and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized I was pressing WAY too hard on the lemon and it was getting stuck. I'm so used to using my crappy grater and pressing down hard to get it to work. This was a breeze once I clued in.

Ooo, shiny. (The grater, not the lemon.)

Of course, now I have a half naked lemon in my fridge. I'll have to find a recipe to use it. Maybe I can make lemon-flavored kale since that's still in my fridge, too.

So here are the wet ingredients all combined.

Yowza. So glad I took THIS thrilling picture.

I mixed up the wet and dry ingredients and got some...batter! Whoo-hoo!

Sorry, I am feeling like this was kind of a weird recipe to document. It's not like you don't know how to make pancakes. Or you've never seen batter before. But, oh well, we'll just keep going.

Finally I chopped up a banana. I was so happy, I ACTUALLY REMEMBERED to buy bananas a few days before making this. Usually I forget, then have to use unripe fruit, which is gross. But my bananas were perfect. Not green, but not yet turning brown, or mushy, or smelly, or all of the above. Can you tell I'm banana picky?

Go banana go. Go banana go. Go banana, go banana, go banana go!

(Sorry, had a cheerleading moment there.)

I heated some butter in the pan. Now as I mentioned before, I have no previous butter-pancake experience. When I was a child, we used bacon grease for frying. ACK! Arteries clogging! But it was soooooo good! Later on we switched to cooking spray or vegetable oil. So this whole butter thing threw me. But I was FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS like a good little girl.

After pouring in the batter, I added a spoonful of banana to each one. I don't think I've ever said "spoonful of banana" before. Sounds weird.

My only issue in making these was that I kept burning them, especially the edges. My stove is seriously old and doesn't cook super evenly, so that might be part of it. But I just couldn't seem to find the right temperature to actively cook them without scorching them. I will probably go back to oil or cooking spray next time.

So pretty! (Ignore the black edges. Stop looking. Stop it!)

I made them all beautiful, decided to add pecans because I love them so (my only deviation from the directions) and took a big bite. Bleh! Yuck! What is wrong with these pancakes? Oh my gosh. The bananas cooked. It didn't occur to me that the bananas would no longer be raw inside. DUH! Something about the texture and flavor of the cooked banana just didn't work for me in this. Too mushy or sweet compared to the sourness of the lemon and sour cream maybe? Or possibly, I am too used to having fresh bananas on my pancakes. I don't know. But I didn't really like them. I'm sure it's just a personal thing, and if you wanted to make these they might be great for you. But I made the rest of them without adding the banana pieces. I liked the flavor much better that way and they cooked a little more evenly.  But I still burnt them. Darn it!

Check back in two weeks for another Barefoot Blogger creation. Until then, here's the recipe if you want to try them for yourself! But I should tell you. Lisa at Magic Sprinkles used the recipe analyzer on this, and it is definitely NOT in the Shrink My Butt Cooking Light category. Consider yourself warned.

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes
recipe from Food Network

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Unsalted butter
• 2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving
• Pure maple syrup

Directions

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until it bubbles. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan to make 3 or 4 pancakes. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan, and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, butter and maple syrup.