Christmas Eve Cinnamon Rolls/Christmas Morning Sticky Buns

 

This recipe is for the Advanced Student, it's a PAIN IN THE ASS and it's worth every second you'll sweat over it.  I've tried to dig out of my sister the nuances of the whole ordeal but it's very "if it's humid, you have to do this" and "if it feels like this you need a little more of that" so I'm going to try to make it at plain as I can.

What happens is, you make this one batch of dough and then you split it in two.  Half the dough goes to make two cake pans of Simple Cinnamon Rolls with a white sugar glaze that are perfect for Christmas Eve dessert just before you go off to Midnight Mass and the other half goes to make those obscene-looking Christmas Morning Carmel Sticky Buns pictured above.  OHMUHGUH, they're flaw-free and they're even better reheated On The Feast of Stephen so, once a year, suck it up and make this recipe...it's a delightful treat.
It ALSO freezes beautifully, so you can make these in some glassware, seal it up good, and pull this out months later for a delightful treat.

BASIC SWEET REFRIGERATED DOUGH

5 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups of BREAD flour (but you're going to need at least a 3 pound bag)

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons salt

3 packages of Active Dry Yeast

1 cup of water

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

• Lightly spoon flour in to a measuring cup, level off and place in a large bowl.  I start with 6 cups.
• Add the sugar, salt, yeast and stir that all together well
• In a saucepan heat water, milk and butter "until it's very warm" ... that means that you want to make sure the butter melts but the mixture DOES NOT EVEN COME CLOSE to bubbling.
• Pour this liquid in to the center of the flour bowl.  Crack an egg on the edge of the flour and stir everything together.  My sister has a fancy mixer with a dough hook and her instructions are "Blend at low speed until moistened then beat 3 minutes at medium speed."  My hand mixer is useless so I stir the flour until it's all moist and then I get my hands in there and squeeze them over and over again for three minutes.
• You're going to add 2 or 3 more cups of flour until the dough is STIFF, and I mean you don't think you're going to be able to get your hands through it let alone what happens when it wraps around a dough hook.
• Turn out on to a floured surface (you're using bread flour throughout this whole process).
• Knead in another 1 to 1 1/2 cups of flour "until dough is smooth and elastic" ... this takes about TEN full minutes, I'm not kidding.  And you're gonna use muscles you didn't know you have and I still don't know what my sister means by "smooth and elastic" ... I've been making this for years and I feel like it's a ball of rubber and it doesn't really feel or look like it's going to work AT ALL.  Courage, kiddies ...
• Cover your hands in butter and make the dough in to a ball.  Place the ball in a bowl greased with butter.  The dough is going to expand to more than double this size.
• Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap or a damp cloth. Let rise in a "warm place".  That's a toughie.  I can never find a suitable place so I either turn the oven on 350 and place the bowl on top or I place the bowl in the oven at 150 (make sure it's an oven-safe bowl, trust me on this one lol).  Leave it about 45 minutes.
• (my favourite part) Wipe your hands with some butter and PUNCH down dough in the bowl.  Reform in to a ball and place it on a flat surface.  Flip the bowl and cover the dough with the bowl.  Let it sit for another 15 minutes.

You're all done with the dough.  Use a bread knife and cut the dough in half and you're ready for Rolls and Buns.

SIMPLE CINNAMON ROLLS

1/2 of the Basic Sweet Refrigerated Dough

"1/4 cup softened butter"

"1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar"

"1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon"

(The reason I put those measurements in quotes is, this doesn't even come CLOSE to how much of that you need ... I know I at LEAST double this ...)

• Grease (do not flour) two 9 inch round cake pans.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough in to a 16 x 12 inch rectangle.  This is not entirely easy.
• Cover with softened butter.
• Sprinkle brown sugar over the entire surface.
• Sprinkle cinnamon over the entire surface.
• Grease your fingers with butter and roll the long side up in to itself like a jelly roll, roll as tightly as possible.  Pinch the edges inside themselves.
• Cut in to 16 one inch slices.
• Place the slices cut side down in to the cake pans.
• Lightly cover with buttered plastic wrap and refrigerate from 2 to up to 24 hours.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS

• Let rolls stand at room temperature for 10 minutes while you heat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• REMOVE FROM PANS IMMEDIATELY.  My sister says "cool on racks" but I've never done that.
• Combine 2 cups of powdered sugar, 4 TABLEspoons of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or almond extract), pour this glaze over the rolls and ENJOY !

CHRISTMAS MORNING STICKY CARMEL BUNS

CARMEL NUT COATING

"1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar"

"1/2 cup softened butter"

"2 tablespoons dark Karo syrup"

(The reason I put those measurements in quotes is, this doesn't even come CLOSE to how much of that you need ... I know I at LEAST double this ...)

• Grease and flour a 13 x 9 inch pan.
• Mix the above ingredients together and drop by spoonfuls in to the bottom of the pan.
• I HATE this part.  Spread mixture all over the bottom of the pan.  It's hard at first because the flour gets involved and it doesn't feel like it's going to work but eventually it does.  I always think I don't have enough of the mixture and I threaten every year to double it but it all seems to work out well.
• Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of chopped nuts (as if.  I usually end up using about a half cup).  Walnuts and pecans are YUMMY.

BUNS
1/2 of the Basic Sweet Refrigerated Dough

"1/4 cup softened butter"

"1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar"

"1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon"

(The reason I put those measurements in quotes is, this doesn't even come CLOSE to how much of that you need ... I know I at LEAST double this ...)

• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough in to a 20 x 12 inch rectangle.  This is not entirely easy.
  
• Cover with softened butter.
• Sprinkle brown sugar over the entire surface.
• Sprinkle cinnamon over the entire surface.
• Grease your fingers with butter and roll the long side up in to itself like a jelly roll, roll as tightly as possible.  Pinch the edges inside themselves.
• Cut in to 20 one inch slices.
• Place the slices cut side down on the carmel-nut layer in the pan
• Lightly cover with buttered plastic wrap and refrigerate from 2 to up to 24 hours

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS

• Let rolls stand at room temperature for 10 minutes while you heat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Bake for 20 minutes
• Turn on to a cookie sheet or serving platter and ENJOY !
• (reheats beautifully, 350, about 10 minutes)