Pecan Sticky Buns

Pecan Sticky Buns

Growing up we had a huge holly bush in our front yard. When I say huge it was well over 50 years old and had never been trimmed. Every year at Christmas our neighbors would come over and ask if they could have holly for the holidays. My mother loved sharing the holly and it was a nice way to catch up with neighbors. For me the holly was one of the sure signs that Christmas was coming. We would cut a huge basket full of branches and decorate the table in our living room. My mother would add tall candles and candle holders and on Christmas Eve it was beautiful.

Christmas Eve was always the bigger holiday in our house. While I loved opening presents Christmas morning, Christmas Eve was special. My mother would host a party every year and our entire family would come over. We had a tiny 2 bedroom cottage house and it would be busting at the seams. My mother would cook for days and the house smelled wonderful and looked beautiful with candles and lights everywhere. There would be small plates of pickles, olives, smoked oysters and crackers. 7 layer bars, brownies, cookies, veggies, and cheese trays would be all over the house. It was an evening to enjoy the season and most of all family. There are many things that I miss about my mother, but I think the biggest part for both my father and I are those Christmas Eve parties. Neither of us have felt the same about Christmas Eve since she passed. Christmas is still wonderful, but Christmas Eve will always be my mothers.

I often times try multiple recipes for the same dish. There are so many small changes that can be made to a dish that drastically change the outcome. A few weeks back I tried a new recipe for Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns. They were great, but my husband wanted me to try a recipe that was more brown sugar based. This week I tried a new recipe for Pecan Sticky Buns from the Number 160 issue of Saveur magazine.

Lake Vesuvius

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 2 hours 30 minutes (plus fridge time) and makes 12 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I mixed the dough by hand. While I have a great kitchen aid mixer, oftentimes I prefer to make my dough by hand. The original recipe was heavy on butter. While I love butter as much as the next person since my kids were eating the majority of this recipe I reduced some of the butter. I cut the butter down by more than half to a total of 1 1/2 sticks. 3 1/2 sticks for 12 buns was just a little too butter heavy for my tastes. The reduction in butter worked out well and the dough still rose beautifully. Plus my kids and husband didn't notice the fat reduction so a win-win all around.

Lake Vesuvius Spillway

My husband preferred this recipe to the last one I tried. The combination of 3 types of sugar made for a great molasses taste on top and sweet swirled bun in the center. Cutting down on the butter was a nice way to make the recipe more family friendly. If you are taking this to a party I would keep the recipe with the full amount of butter, but for home baking the modification worked out well.

For the recipe go to Pecan Sticky Buns.

Looking for a Great Homemade Gift Idea? Try Blackberry Sage Vinegar

Blackberry Sage Vinegar

I grew up in a family that made everything from scratch. My mom was the oldest of 12 kids and my grandfather, great grandfather and aunt were all artists. I thought it was perfectly normal to make candles and soap by hand and when we celebrated the holidays at my aunt and uncles we made pottery and all sat around watching the raku firing. I think my love of making as many foods from scratch comes from this upbringing. We grew up with very little money, but I never really knew. I knew that my mother was a beautiful seamstress and for one of my birthday parties we went to the beach and made sand candles. My friends talked about the candles that they made for years to come. The idea of not spending money on things that you can make or re-purpose is something that I have passed on to my kids. My kids can't wait until their tomatoes are ready to eat and helped me to plant all my flower and vegetable posts. As many of you know I grow my own herbs. My new herb garden is doing great, so much so that I was swimming in sage last week. I decided the best thing to do with the abundance was to make Blackberry Sage Vinegar.

This recipe has three ingredients. It takes 2-3 days total (including time for the berries to soak into the vinegar) and makes one quart sized jar. I followed the recipe almost exactly as written. I did make two jars so I used a total of 14 sage leaves and two containers of blackberries. I filled the blackberries full in the canning jars since I wanted lots of flavor. Make sure to sterilize your jars before making the vinegar. Vinegar shouldn't grow bacteria, but I try to be as safe as a I can with any food prep. I let my jars boil for ten minutes to ensure that they were fully sterilized. After the vinegar was complete I made a funnel out of parchment paper and poured the strained vinegar into a cleaned and sterilized wine bottle.

I love how pretty this vinegar looks in the bottle once completed. Making homemade flavored vinegar is a great way to use garden herbs and makes a beautiful gift as well. I also made a batch of tarragon vinegar that I will post about later this week. Herbs can be used in a variety of ways and this recipe is a great one!

For the recipe go to Blackberry Sage Vinegar.