Sticky Saturday

My friend Janelle and I always have a lot to talk about. Though I live in London and she lives in Toronto, the emails fly between us, veritable essays on anything from the latest Facebook gossip to the state of the housing market to longterm life goals. But this week Janelle felt like the ennui of February had descended. I felt much the same way. Hibernating at home for weeks on end as we had both been doing, however, does not make for the most scintillating of conversations. So for lack of anything interesting to say, Janelle sent me a sticky bun recipe.

I'm so glad she did! I had forgotten how much I love sticky buns and how much fun they are to make. All the individual steps do add up to a bit of work, but there's something very satisfying about taking the time to assemble them and ending up with a most professional-looking product.

To clear away the final February gloom and usher in March, I decided to make these for Saturday's breakfast.

The only trouble with sticky buns for breakfast is that you have to make them the night before - not an ideal situation when you arrive home after 10pm on Friday night. But I wanted that sticky sweetness the next morning, so I mixed and kneaded and melted and sprinkled and sliced, and around 11:30 I popped the buns into the fridge, ready for baking the next day.

In the morning it's easy. All you do is take the buns out of the fridge and let them stand while you preheat the oven, pop them in for 30 minutes and voila, the most decadent breakfast you could ask for.


The recipe below is a pecan version, but someone in this house doesn't like 'em so I left some of the buns nut-less. I have to say that I found the quantity of nuts nearly overwhelming and very filling, so I have reduced it. In place of nuts you could use raisins, or spread some raisins onto the dough along with the cinnamon-sugar filling. If you're not using nuts, I like to lightly ice the buns with a simple mixture of icing sugar and water, like so.

Sticky Buns
Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

Dough:
1/4 cup warm water
1 (1/4oz / 7g) package active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
3 large egg yolks
1/2 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
4 to 4 1/4 cups all purpose / plain flour, plus more for dusting

Filling:
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Topping:
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
juice of half a lemon
1 cup coarsely chopped pecansor or raisins

For the dough, in the bowl of an electric mixer combine warm water, yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar. Let it sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add milk, butter, remaining sugar, egg yolks, orange zest, salt and 3 cups flour. Mix on low speed until blended. Switch to a dough hook and slowly incorporate the remaining 1 cup of flour. Increase speed to medium, kneading until the dough is smooth but still slightly sticky (add a little more flour if too wet) for 3 to 5 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a large, oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let is rise until doubled in volume. This can take anywhere from 1-2 hours depending on the warmth of the spot (a warmer spot will help it rise faster.) When the dough has risen punch it down and turn onto a lightly floured surface.

For the filling combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Melt butter and keep separate.

Roll the dough out into a 12" x 18" rectangle. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Starting with the long side, roll dough into a long cylinder. Place seam side down and cut crosswise into 15 pieces.

For the topping, in a pot combine brown sugar, butter, honey, corn syrup and lemon juice over low heat, and stir until smooth and melted. Pour the mixture into a greased 9" x 13" pan and sprinkle pecans or raisins on top.

Place dough pieces, flat side down, on top of the topping. Be sure they are crowded together ad touching. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for a minimum of three hours.

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Remove the pan from the fridge and let stand at room temperature while the oven preheats. Bake the buns until golden, 25 to 30 minutes (check progress after 20.) Remove the pan from the oven and immediately invert it onto a serving tray or baking dish. Let the buns cool slightly and serve warm.

Focaccia

I have a guilty secret. One that's hard for a budding baking blogger to admit. In the past couple of weeks, I have found myself - gulp - getting a bit sick of sweets. When I started this blog I don't think I was prepared for the amount of stamina required to bake and eat two batches of baking a week.

The obvious antidote to sugar overload would be a spot of bread baking. But to me it always seems easier to buy a really good loaf than to make one myself. When I do make my own, even though I believe salt to be the single most important ingredient in food, I always, always undersalt for fear of oversalting. And then after all that work, my underseasoned bread lasts for a single day before it goes stale.

But when I saw a focaccia recipe in Nigel Slater's column in the Observer Magazine last Sunday, I decided that it was perhaps the perfect opportunity to switch tack and take a break from the sweet stuff. In my family we are big fans of Nigel Slater. Well I'm sure my dad couldn't care less, (amended to say that apparently my dad LOVES Nigel Slater and consults Real Food and Real Fast Food regularly!) but my sister and I are big fans, and my mother is a big, big fan. So much so that I'm pretty sure if Nigel told her to sacrifice her first born, I would just escape with my life...

But she likes him that much with good reason! Nigel is a brilliant and thoroughly entertaining food writer and he is all about good ingredients and simple recipes - nothing too fancy. His focaccia recipe looked so easy that I couldn't not give it a go.


And it was easy. After some simple mixing and kneading, two shorts risings (rises?) and a half hour bake in the oven, I had this lovely looking loaf on my hands.


It looked charmingly rustic and had a lovely chewy texture, but I wasn't wild about the garlic-olive-parsley-thyme topping. And, true to form, I had undersalted! (Even Ed thought so, and this is a guy who won't even salt pasta water unless supervised.)

This is why I leave the bread baking to the professionals. Maybe you'll have more luck?

Focaccia
Recipe by Nigel Slater from the Observer Magazine
You can put whatever you want on top of this bread - garlic, sundried tomatoes, herbs, olives...

450g / 2 cups strong bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
7g / 2 tsp fast-acting yeast
400ml / 1 3/4 cups warm water
Cornmeal
Sea salt

Put the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl or a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. Pour in the water and mix to make a sticky dough.

Flour a work surface very generously then tip out the dough and knead in some of the flour from the work surface. Add more flour if the dough remains sticky. It shouldn't be too sticky and should come away cleanly from the work surface, but it will be a bit more moist than usual bread dough. Keep kneading for about 5 minutes. Technique is really not important here!

Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and put in a warm place to rise until it is doubled in size. This can take up to an hour.

Rub the bottom of a 30cm-ish baking pan (a pan with a removable base is best) with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. This helps the bread to not stick to the bottom of the pan and keeps it crisp.

Preheat the oven to 425F/220C. Remove the dough from the bowl and press into the pan, covering the whole base. Cover and set aside again for 30 minutes until well risen.

With your finger, poke several holes deep into the dough, then spread whatever topping mixture you are using over the dough followed by a good sprinkling of salt flakes. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and crisp on top. Drizzle with one or two tablespoons of olive oil.