Ina Garten's Easy Sticky Buns {An Easy and Fun Autumn Treat}!

Ina Garten's Easy Sticky Buns are the epitome of easy. There is no need to make any dough because you simply use puff pastry. Puff pastry is so easy to work with and the recipe comes together in no time.

First you make a mixture of butter and brown sugar and smear it into the bottom of a muffin tin. The butter and brown sugar mixture is topped with chopped nuts - feel free to use any nut you have. The recipe called for pecans, but I had walnuts so I used those!

Then you roll out the puff pastry dough, brush it with melted butter and top that with brown sugar and cinnamon. At this point you can add raisins or really anything else you'd like. I chose to forego the raisins.

Then you roll the dough up lengthwise and cut each roll into sixths. Place each sixth on top of the butter and brown sugar mixture with the nuts and bake!

I would advise to watch these closely. The butter and brown sugar mixture will rise up around the puff pastry and you don't want it to over cook or it will become to hard and sticky and start to take on a burnt sugar flavor. Ina says to bake these for 25-30 minutes, but I found that just under 20 minutes was the right amount of time for my oven!

These rolls are in fact sticky and delicious. Fair warning though, they are not a soft cinnamon roll sort of pastry. Instead they are buttery, flaky, crispy, sticky and almost verging on too sweet. Which reminds me to point out that you could do with using less brown sugar, especially if you don't like desserts that are cloyingly sweet. Otherwise, they are delicious and fun to make!

Easy Sticky Buns

Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa

by Ina Garten

Serves 12

12 tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) butter, at room temp

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup pecans, chopped in large pieces*

1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted)

For the Filling:

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cups light brown sugar, light packed

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup raisins* 

*Note: You can make this recipe with nuts and without nuts. With raisins and without raisins. You can use pecans or walnuts, or use any nut. The point is, feel free to tuck any nut or dried fruit in this mixture. You could even sub chocolate chips or caramel chips. Make it your own!

Preheat the oven to 400F. Place a 12 cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 12 tablespoons of butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 tablespoon of the mixture in bottom of each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly between the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.

Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half the melted butter, leaving a 1 inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/2 cup of raisins (if using). Starting with the end nearest to you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam-side down. Trim the ends of the roll about 1/2 inch and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second piece of puff pastry.I

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the buns/rolls are golden brown on top and firm to the touch. Be careful- they're hot! Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and nuts out onto the buns with a small spoon) and cool completely! Enjoy!

September Potluck @ I Heart Cooking Clubs!