Sticky Sticky Buns

Sticky Sticky Buns.  No comma.  

Have you ever tried these?  These are the famous sticky buns from the bakery, Flour, in Boston.  I had the privilege of tasting these babies about a year ago at Flour.  

The real Sticky Buns from the Flour bakery in Boston

I wouldn't label myself as a "sticky bun person".  Or a "caramel roll person".  Or a "pecan roll person".  I mean...who would really?  That would be pretty embarrassing.  No, but seriously...if no one told me to try the sticky buns at Flour, I never would have.  

Bonus points for me.  I did try them.  And they are perfect.  As a die hard caramel lover, these complete me.  

The Goo

What makes them special is that they are made from a rich and decadent Brioche dough.  To make the dough, you need to throw every ounce of trust into your stand mixer.  To be honest, after minute 27 of my mixer chugging along, I doubted its endurance.  I was actually just waiting for it to blow up.  I put on my apron, hoping that would somehow spare my life.  And although the housing motor arm thing was at least 480 degrees.  Celsius.  It survived!  It did it!  So what I am trying to say here is:  you are going to need a stand mixer to pull off this Brioche dough.  And you will also need some patience and 5 eggs.  And just a tiny bit of butter.  

Now, I have to admit that I messed up the recipe.  There have been several corrections to the original printing of the Flour cookbook.  None of which I was aware of until today.  And what a bummer that one of the corrections was to this very (famous) sticky bun recipe.  In the book, it says to use an entire batch of Brioche dough listed on page 73.  Unfortunately, it should say use half the batch.  I used the whole batch.  The recipe below is the correct version.

There are really worse things in life than having monster sticky buns.  Lucky for me, I also used the wrong yeast and I live in Colorado, so I didn't get much rise out of them before baking.  Even with the multiple mistakes (even though they may have cancelled each other out), these were still amazing.  They tasted just like I remember.  Not sure why, but even with twice the dough, these weren't super dense or heavy.  Killer.

Speaking of killer, that is the reason I did not wait to try these again with the right amount of dough and the right yeast.  These are an annual breakfast treat.  But I love them and couldn't wait that long to share them.  But at the same time, I didn't want to risk my slender/tan winter bod.  Ya know what I mean?

These will make you happy.  Share them.  Be a good person.

Sticky Sticky Buns

by Joanne Chang, Flour

Goo:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 170 grams, 6 ounces) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups (345 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup (110 grams) honey

1/3 cup (80 grams) heavy cream

1/3 cup (80 grams) water

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Basic Brioche Dough, (1/2 the recipe below)

1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup (100 grams) pecan halves, toasted and chopped

To make the goo: In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the brown sugar and cook, stirring, to combine (it may look separated, that's ok). Remove from the heat and whisk in the honey, cream, water, and salt. Let cool for about 30 minutes, or until cooled to room temperature. You should have about 2 cups. (The mixture can be made up to 2 weeks in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.)

On a floured work surface, roll out the brioche dough into rectangle about 16 by 12 inches and 1/4-inch thick. It will have the consistency of cold, damp Play-Doh and should be fairly easy to roll. Position the rectangle so a short side is facing you.

In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and half of the pecans. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the entire surface of the dough. Starting from the short side farthest from you and working your way down, roll up the rectangle like a jelly roll. Try to roll tightly, so you have a nice round spiral. Trim off about 1/4- inch from each end of the roll to make them even.

Use a bench scraper or a chef's knife to cut the roll into 8 equal pieces, each about 1 1/2-inches wide. (At this point, the unbaked buns can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 1 week. When ready to bake, thaw them, still wrapped, in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, then proceed as directed.)

Pour the goo into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish, covering the bottom evenly. Sprinkle the remaining pecans evenly over the surface. Arrange the buns, evenly spaced, in the baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm spot to proof until the dough is puffy, pillowy, and soft and the buns are touching-almost tripled in size, about 2 hours.

Position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 350 degrees F.

Bake until golden brown, about 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool in the dish on a wire rack for 20 to 30 minutes. One at a time, invert the buns onto a serving platter, and spoon any extra goo and pecans from the bottom of the dish over the top.  The buns are best served warm or within 4 hours of baking. They can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day, and then warmed in a 325 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes before serving.

(Servings: 8, Prep time: 10 hrs.+, Cook time: 45 min., Difficulty: Intermediate)

Brioche Dough*

2 1/4 cups (315 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cups (340 grams) bread flour

1 1/2 packages (3 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast or 1-ounce (28 grams) fresh

cake yeast

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (82 grams) sugar

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 cup cold water

5 eggs

1 3/8 cups (2 3/4 sticks; 310 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 10 to 12 pieces

In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the all-purpose flour, bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water, and 5 of the eggs. Beat on low speed for 3 to 4 minutes, or until all the ingredients are combined. Stop the mixer, as needed, to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure all the flour is incorporated into the wet ingredients. Once the dough has come together, beat on low speed for another 3 to 4 minutes. The dough will be very stiff and seem quite dry.

On low speed, add the butter one piece at a time, mixing after each addition until it disappears into the dough. Continue mixing on low speed for about 10 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. It is important for all the butter to be thoroughly mixed into the dough. If necessary, stop the mixer occasionally and break up the dough with your hands to help mix in the butter.

Once the butter is completely incorporated, turn up the speed to medium and beat until the dough becomes sticky, soft, and somewhat shiny, another 15 minutes. It will take some time to come together. It will look shaggy and questionable at the start and then eventually it will turn smooth and silky. Turn the speed to medium-high and beat for about 1 minute. You should hear the dough make a slap-slap-slap sound as it hits the sides of the bowl. Test the dough by pulling at it; it should stretch a bit and have a little give. If it seems wet and loose and more like a batter than a dough, add a few tablespoons of flour and mix until it comes together. If it breaks off into pieces when you pull at it, continue to mix on medium speed for another 2 to 3 minutes, or until it develops more strength and stretches when you grab it. It is ready when you can gather it all together and pick it up in 1 piece.

Place the dough in a large bowl or plastic container and cover it with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap directly onto the surface of the dough. Let the dough proof in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or up to overnight At this point you can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

*Note: You will only need half this recipe for Brioche dough for the sticky buns. However, I used the whole batch of dough and they still turned out wonderful.

Printable Version

foodforscot Ratings:

Shanon (taste):  9/10

Scot (taste):  9/10

Effort:  5/5

Dishwashing Effort:  4/5

Chinatowns: NYC and Boston

Hi, I am back!  I have been doing all sorts of things.  And I will tell you all about it.  But first, I am going to take a few more posts to tell you about the last few places that we loved in NYC and Boston.  And the theme is Chinatown.  Above is the entrance to Boston's Chinatown.  It is much smaller than NYC's, but both were great.  

Here is the Nice/New Green Bo restaurant in NYC's Chinatown.  I showed you the soup dumplings we had.  They are dumplings filled with soup.  Although, they aren't called soup dumplings on the menu.  I can't remember what the English part of the menu said, but I had to ask what dumpling was the soup dumpling.  They are Xiaolongbao in Chinese.  And I think the menu might have said something about pork and buns.  Not sure though.  

They really were delicious.  We also enjoyed the regular pork dumplings.  But filling dumplings with soup is just too good to be true.  I guess they make them by putting frozen cubes of broth in the dough (according to Wikipedia).

The restaurant is not fancy.  Semi-dirty.  They are too busy making amazing soup dumplings to clean, I think.  But I am not complaining because we arrived really late and they kindly served us (we were the only ones in the restaurant).  Although, there was no closing time on the door.

And, you know how at Chinese restaurants, they always serve you tea?  And how most of the time it tastes kind of like water with a little bit of flavor...but it is hard to put your finger on what the flavor actually is?  Maybe it is dust?  Maybe it is a little burnt something or other?  Well, this tea was awesome. No idea what they did.

You can see them cleaning up behind me.

We also checked out Boston's Chinatown.  We went to the New Golden Gate restaurant in Boston.  Like many Chinese restaurants, this one was designed for large families.  They had only a few tables for two people and only a few tables for four people.  The majority of the tables were for 8-10 people.  Secretly wished I was eating with some of those families.  They had so much food and so many different dishes at their tables.  Some of my coworkers, a while back, treated us to a family style Chinese dinner and it was like the best moment of my life.  Gnawing on shell fish shells.  It is what I was born to do.

The two of us shared a shrimp and lobster sauce (below) with white rice and each tried a soup.  I got hot and sour soup (above).  It was amazing.  Scot got a dumpling soup (two up).  It was also delicious.

We had to wait probably half an hour to get a table.  This was on a weeknight.  And it was totally worth it.  They have a lot of seafood and lobster specials, which is what I was tempted to try.  But, I wanted to try soup and knew I couldn't eat a ton.  It was super cheap.  Something like $14 for two soups and the shared meal.

And lastly, we had an avocado smoothie at one of the little Boba tea cafes in Boston's Chinatown.  Scot and I love Boba tea.  My favorite is some sort of a Chai tea.  But, we had to try the avocado smoothie since we love putting avocados in our fruit smoothies.  It was awesome.  Not super sweet actually.  Will definitely try to recreate these at home!

I really loved our time in both of the Chinatowns.  We didn't even have time to try all the things we wanted to try.  Next time!

Sweet Treats in NYC and Boston

We ate a lot when we were in Boston and NYC.  There were way too many things we wanted to try.  I thought I would start by telling you about all the wonderful bakery type places we tried.  

We got a lot of recommendations, but I would have to say that one of Scot's besties gave us the most best recommendations of all.  He has such good taste.  Or at least the same taste as me.  Which is the best kind of taste to have, obv.  ;)

The first place (and one he recommended) is a small bakery/cafe in Boston.  It is called Flour.  He recommended the sticky buns, so that is definitely what I got.  Along with some fresh squeezed orange juice.  And not that I have tried every sticky bun in the world, but this was the best I have ever had.  So soft.  Served warm.  A nice deep, caramel flavor.  Nutty.  Really, really good.  And they have lots of other baked goods and some sandwiches.  

Now, to NYC.  We had to try the famous Doughnut Plant.  It was on my list.  It was also recommended by lots and lots of people.

The "Plant" in the name is very misleading.  This is the smallest little doughnut shop you will ever see.  There is enough room for maybe 10 people inside.  

I don't know if I have told you about the "donut kick" that I recently was on.  Luckily, that kick ended several months ago.  That does not mean I don't eat donuts anymore.  It just means I don't crave them every Thursday morning.  

Also, luckily, I do not live near Doughnut Plant (or any good donut place actually).  Because that kick would be very permanent.  

So, we test tasted four different kinds.  (Test tasted means we just ate them.)  First up, Tres Leches.  By far the best donut on earth.  See Mark (genius behind the donuts) did not start selling cake donuts until 2005!  He worked on his cake donut recipe for 5 years.  And I am kind of a cake donut girl.  And Mark is my cake donut maker boyfriend.  This is the prefect donut.  

We tried one more cake donut.  The Blackout.  This is obviously like a chocolate explosion.  It honestly tasted like a brownie.  Or like chocolate cake.  There is really no excuse to eat this for breakfast.  Unless you just convince yourself that this is a donut.  And that donuts are breakfast appropriate.  But, Scot thoroughly enjoyed this.  The easiest way to tell how much Scot likes something is to see how much of it he left on his face.  

Here is the blueberry yeast donut.  I really liked the yeast donuts too.  The dough itself was not super sweet, which I really like since the glaze is so sweet.  We liked the texture too.  The outside "crust" is very chewy.  

And last, a jelly filled donut.  This was blackberry filling.  I have never liked jelly filled donuts because there is always too much filling.  I like a little filling, with mostly donut.  These donuts are genius because they have a thin tube of filling that runs along the entire length of the square donut.  It is like the perfect bite every time.  Yum!!!

Next, we had to check out the Magnolia Bakery.  It is famous.  Gotta do it.  The one we went to was tiny and so packed with people.  I love that because it makes you know you picked the right place.  They have all sorts of cakes and desserts, but we kept it simple by trying their famous cupcakes.  I was slightly disappointed that we could only pick from some traditional flavors (chocolate cake/chocolate frosting, white cake/white frosting, yellow cake/chocolate frosting, etc.)  You have to place an order to get the more exciting flavors.  

However, it was a delicious cupcake.  And didn't have a ridiculous amount of frosting on it.  I am not a fan of the equal amounts frosting and cake.  I like just a little frosting.  I think I still took some off.  But I am picky.  It was good frosting too.  Definitely a fun experience.  

We also tried out Momofuku Milk Bar.  I was pretty excited about this place.  I had heard a lot about it.  It is a bakery, but not really at all.  The pastry chef tries to stand on the boundary of genius and disgusting.  The menu is made up of crazy soft serve ice cream flavors, delicious cookies and cakes and a few interesting drinks.  We got a sampler of all the ice cream flavors and toppings.  Starting with the purple one on the bottom (in above pic) we had:  purple drink, cereal milk, BBQ sauce, creamed corn, corn flake toppings and potato chip topping.  

Now, at first bite, each ice cream was so intriguing.  Very interesting to get your brain and taste buds to realize what is going on.  But, after a few bites, I had a really hard time with the BBQ one.  Secretly almost made me gag.  

Then, there were two problems.  One, I hate cereal milk.  I never drink the milk after I eat my cereal (something that Scot totally does not approve of).  To me, it is kind of like drinking something out of a bottle and then when it is gone, refilling it with water without washing it out.  So, it kind of tastes like what you just had in the bottle, but not really.  On one hand, I was like, "awesome, you totally replicated the taste of cereal milk and made an ice cream out of it."  On the other hand, I was like, "why did you make ice cream out of it?"  100 points for creativity.

Second problem is that I am not a huge fan of creamed corn.  I mean sure it is a pretty good side dish.  I mean I will eat it.  But it isn't like the most amazing flavor ever.  Not really sure why I would want it in ice cream for.  But, it did taste spot on like creamed corn.  

And I actually really liked the purple drink flavor.  Tasted like Koolaid.  It was a fun spin on a child hood favorite.  We also tried one of the cookies.  The compost cookie.  It was really good.  Has like a million things in it: butterscotch chips, potato chips, pretzels, etc.  Really soft and chewy.  I totally enjoyed our experience at Momofuku.  It was fun to try crazy ice cream flavors.  

And lastly, back to Boston, we got cannolis at Mike's Pastry in North End.  They were delicious (and huge).  I couldn't eat all of mine.  From what I hear, Mike's Pastry is most known for their cannolis, but they have all sorts of baked goods and desserts.  We went with cannolis and were not disappointed.  

It is also cool how they tie your box up with string hanging from the ceiling.  

And this place is so packed.  We went on a Monday night and didn't have to wait too long (maybe 10 minutes with some aggressive ordering).  But we walked by it again on Saturday and the line out the door was ridiculously long.  

Lastly, I don't have a pic for this, but we got some amazing ice cream at Toscanini's in Boston.  I got Vietnamese coffee ice cream and Scot got Hydrox cookie ice cream (apparently Hydrox was the original Oreo, but Oreo stole it or something...)  I also tried the Burnt caramel flavor.  So good!  They had lots of interesting flavors.  Wish I could have tried more.  

Boston and NYC - A Sneak Peak

I just had the most amazing time in Boston and NYC.  I have been to Boston a few times and have loved it every time.  This time I was a little older, less cheap and way cooler.  All three of these things made my Bostonian experience over the top.  And my first time to NYC!  Wow.  I have been really missing out on one of the most amazing cities that I have ever been too.  I have already been talking Scot's head off about either moving there or trying to visit once a year.  I honestly loved every second of our time in NYC.

Luckily, Scot and I have some friends and family who helped us pick out the BEST places to eat.  And, of course, I did some research before hand.  Guess what?  I ate some of the best food of my life.  And a lot of it.  Like we just ate the entire time.  This is why moving to NYC would be a horrible and amazing idea.  Maybe we walked most of it off.

I can't wait to tell you about all these great places.  I thought I would start with a sneak peak of some of my favs.  Then, I hope to give all the details over the next several days.  These recommendations helped us so much, so I hope they can help other people too.

First, probably my favorite thing I had was the pizza from Grimaldi's Pizza in Brooklyn.  And, of course, I love pizza.  Who doesn't.  But pizza is not my favorite food, by any means.  This is a BIG deal.  So simple and so perfect.  Worth the hour wait.  Worth even longer of a wait.  I am counting down the days when I can go back.

Next, we had these soup dumplings in Chinatown in NY.  The restaurant is called Nice/New Green Bo.  These are dumplings filled with soup!  Scot called it a party in your mouth.  They were so tender and the burst of soup, pork and crab when you finally open them in your mouth is delicious.  Best dumplings ever.  Best recommendation ever.

And we also were told to go to this Venezuelan place (called Caracas) for arepas in NYC.  And we did.  YUMMMM.  I was tempted to try one with each filling (there were about 20 to choose from).  Instead we picked two.  BTW, an arepa is this unleavened bread made of corn.  Then, they fill it with various cheeses, meats, and veggies (lots of avocado).  So so good.  They also have empanadas.  Also amazing.

This is a really horrible picture of the best pasta I have ever eaten.  O.  M.  G.  This was from Terramia in Boston's North End.  We were luck enough to be in Boston and NYC during both cities' Restaurant Week.  And totally scored on picking out this little 40 seat Italian restaurant.  Part of the reason I picked it was because the Restaurant Week menu did not have a dessert course.  Just had 3 regular courses.  I think sometimes the Restaurant Week menus' dessert courses are kind of lame.  Oh and, this was a bolognese sauce with homemade pasta.  Honestly one of the best things I have ever eaten.  Honestly wanted to kiss the chef.

Now that I just bashed Restaurant Week desserts, this was my dessert from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Restaurant Week Menu.  In NYC.  Had to put that in a separate sentence due to too many proper nouns.  Anyways, this is a bread pudding with some fruit in the bread pudding and then a delicious raspberry sauce.  My idea of a perfect dessert.  And I have always been kind of scared of bread pudding. It just sounds gross.  I would order this again and again.

This is by far the best cup of coffee I have had in a long time.  Stumptown in NYC.  A really cute coffee shop where all of the employees dress up in roaring 20's garb.  They are adorable.  And amazing baristas.  I have a special place in my heart for baristas who make designs in my cappuccino.  Especially hearts.  And this woman did.  And she smiled and chatted with me.  Also, they sell this $75 package of coffee beans (Panama Esmeralda Especial, the guy explained that has been decided by all real coffee drinkers that it IS the best coffee in the world).  I will have one,  Thanks.

And that...is just scratching the surface.  I will be writing in more detail about these places.  But mostly, I have many more places to tell you about.  I had to pick favorites.  Which apparently I don't have a problem doing.  :)