We’re down to one nap. Have we talked about this yet? We’re down to one nap. And while it’s a helluva lot easier to schedule our days around a single snooze, it’s a doozy for my personal time. And my email inbox. And the taking of photographs during (diminishing) daylight hours. Oh, and also my sanity. See again: lack of personal time.

Remember the days when Lana would snooze on my boob to the tune of a Pretty Little Liars marathon? I’m pretty sure I was still too busy fuh-reaking out about new parent shit at the time to fully appreciate the glory that was the nurse-nap, but man, that was a sweet deal. These days, I’m lucky if I can get the dishwasher loaded and a single episode queued up before the distinct dahhhhhhh-dah-dah-dah of a freshly woken babe trills from down the hall.

Good thing she’s so gosh-daggin’ cute.

Despite the shorty nap, Chris and I are rapidly learning how fun it can be to have an older kiddo on our hands. There’s the whole ballet thing we talked about last week, which, in its second week, is still charming as hell. There’s the way she picks up, inspects and then hugs every little thing, from her vast collection of plush buddies to a slivered almond she picked off my oatmeal. (You haven’t seen sweet until you’ve seen Lana cradle a nut in the crook of her arm patting its “back.” Swoon.)

And then there’s the food! Maybe (probably) this is questionable parenting, but as she gets older, it seems slightly more acceptable to let Lana sample a few junky little treats that were previously off limits, like these sticky buns. Yes, I encouraged her to eat her oatmeal first (doctored up only with a little banana and a drizzle of ghee); and yes, I scraped the majority of the toasty, sticky-amber filling from her portion (and, um, onto mine) before handing it over. But just the idea that we could share a little homemade pastry had me envisioning gelato cups topped with two tiny spoons and polishing off santa’s leftover cookies and standing before Tiffany’s, bearclaws in hand.

Pretty powerful little cinnamon roll, eh?

Twitching ovaries aside, the other thing these bunz have going for them is OH YEAH I MADE THEM FROM SCRATCH. Sorry to yell, but a baker I am not, so big girl baking — like I opened a packet of yeast baking — is kind of berg derl.

The recipe below, as noted in the instructions, isn’t mine at all but (barely) an adaptation of a Bread in 5 recipe that was printed here some 8 years ago. (Big thanks to Akiko for forwarding it along — I have a feeling you may have changed my carb-loving life with just one email!) As written originally, this recipe will produce a highly desireable, classic sticky bun with very little effort (no kneading, per Bread in 5’s fame), but the warmth and — ok, I’ll just say it, however premature it may be — holiday spice of the orange zest and clove add undeniable allure that will have me coming back to these guys for Thanksgiving lunch, Christmas breakfast and everything in between.

I know you’ll be equally obsessed.

Hugs and happy weekend from me and my little nut-snuggler! (←heh)
xo,
Em

Orange-Pecan Sticky Buns

 

Print

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Decadent morning rolls laced with sticky caramel + holiday spices. Bread dough and sticky roll method courtesy of Bread in 5 as printed here.

By: Emily Stoffel

Makes: 8 large buns

Ingredients

• 1 ½ pounds prepared, refrigerated boule dough (using this Master recipe)
• 6 T unsalted butter, softened
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ~60 pecan halves
• 4 T salted butter, softened
• ¼ cup sugar
• zest of 1 large orange
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ½ cup chopped and toasted pecans
• pinch of ground black pepper

Instructions

1. This recipe is so very similar to Jeff & Zoe's recipe as printed here that I can't, in good conscience, reprint here in full; instead, I'll encourage you read this article start to finish and then follow the Sticky Rolls recipe (at the very bottom of the article) as written, noting that I made the following adjustments:
   * double the pecan halves to about 60 (this is accounted for in the ingredients list, above)
   * add orange zest and ground clove to the filling in the quantities noted above
   * allow the prepared rolls to come completely to room temperature before baking
2. Serve rolls warm with any extra caramel sauce scraped from the hot pan dabbed over the top. (If your sweet tooth really fiending, a drizzle of no-recipe icing made with powdered sugar and a little orange juice is extra indulgent!) Enjoy!

Notes

Please note that, while the hands-on time required for these little guys is surprisingly short, prep time does not account for making the homemade dough or allowing the prepared rolls to rise for the recommended 1 hour.

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