Chewy Sticky Yummy

The month of April has officially become comfort eating April. I felt like things just didn't want to go my way, except in the kitchen. So I have baked and baked and baked. One weekend I made my mom's sticky bun recipe. Actually the dough is a really nice all purpose sweet dough good for cinnamon rolls, nut rolls, sticky buns you name it. I like the texture because they are soft on the inside with a nice tang from the buttermilk, but the outer edges toast up nicely to add some crunch. This particular weekend though I wanted to caramel flavor. My husband cannot resist anything that has a caramel or butterscotch component. This is best made on a day when your kitchen is slightly warm to help aid in the rising times. No one wants to wait until noon for the buns to come out of the oven.

2 t yeast or about 1 packet
1/4 c warm water
5/8 c buttermilk
1 egg
3 c flour
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
1/4 c soft butter
1/4 c sugar

If you desire lightly sticky buns-
1 stick butter
1 c brown sugar
1T. water
additional raisins, nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon optional

Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1 T. sugar, let sit for 10 minutes. Add buttermilk, egg, 1/2 flour, butter, rest of sugar, and baking powder. Mix well. Stir in remaining flour. Dough should be soft and slightly stick. Knead 5 minutes. Roll out dough. Spread with softened butter. Sprinkle on cinnamon, raisins, nuts, and brown sugar as desired. Roll up and cut into 12 rolls.

Meanwhile heat 1 stick butter and 1 cup brown sugar on stove with a tablespoon of water. Bring to a boil. Pour into 8x13 Pyrex baking pan. If you want extra caramel on your rolls, then just make a slightly larger batch of this mixture. Add rolls on top of sugar in rows.

Let rolls rise for an hour. Bake 25-30 minutes at 375. You may want to put another baking pan underneath to catch any spills. I cannot begin to tell you how burnt sugar can end up ruining this or another baking experience to come.

I like to add lots of raisins or dried fruit in the filling step. Just remember when you cut the dough into rolls, some of the raisins will poke out. Try to hide these back within the dough or you can end up with slightly burnt raisins... less than yummy.