Sticky Buns

I've posted one recipe each of the last two Sundays, so I figure that I might as well make it a weekly thing for now and see how long I can stick to it.  Below is a recipe for the fantastic sticky buns that my grandmother used to make.   (Yeah...a sticky bun recipe after I typed my fingers to the bone earlier about organic and natural...)

The story with this recipe is that my grandmother somehow got it like 60 years ago from a then-famous pastry chef from NYC who spent summers in the town where my grandmother lived.  No one really knows how or why she was given the recipe, but she kept it under lock and key for years and years.  About 10 years ago I was going through some boxes belonging to my father, and I found a large envelope of my grandmother's things.  Among them was an index card with a very faded recipe for sticky buns.  My father claims that he didn't know it was there, and as far as we know, the recipe remained a secret until that point.  Looking at the recipe, it looks so basic that it's hard to believe that it was ever a secret...

GRACE'S STICKY BUNS

Buns:

2 packs of dry yeast

¼ cup warm water

1 cup milk

1/3 cup oleo

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

5 to 5 ½ cups of flour

Add yeast to warm water plus 1 tsp. of the sugar.  Set aside and let bubble.

Scald the milk, shortening and remaining sugar.  Cool to lukewarm.  To the cooled milk mixture, add 2 c. flour.  Beat at least 100 strokes by hand or 2-3 minutes with electric mixer.  Beat in eggs and stir in yeast mixture.

Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.  Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

Knead dough 8-10 minutes on lightly floured surface.  Don’t skimp on kneading time.  Place dough in a greased bowl.  Turn once and grease the top. Cover and set aside in a warm place until doubled in size.  Punch down; let rest 10 minutes.

Cut dough in half.  Roll each half out to about 16” x 18”.  Cover top with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar (don’t get butter or sugar on edge that you’ll want to seal).  Roll lengthwise as for jelly roll.  Seal edges.  Cut in 1” slices.  Place cut side down in sticky mixture in 8” x 8” x 2” pan pr 9” pie pan.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Sticky Mixture: 

½ c up butter  -  1 cup brown sugar  -  ¼ cup milk  -  chopped nuts optional

Combine ingredients in small saucepan, boil 2 minutes.  Add nuts at end.