Shake your honeybuns!
I’ve had the B52’s Cosmic Thing running through my head ever since I flipped through the September issue of Martha Stewart Living and spied the honey bun recipe. I’m pretty sure it’s been over a month now, and every time it pops into my head, I get the urge to make the gooey, sweet rolls. Which luckily (or, perhaps, unluckily depending on how my waistline is feeling that day) is easy to do because one batch makes a triple recipe of dough, so you have dough tucked away in the freezer for two more panfuls. A single dough ball makes 9 buns which are fantastic when warm, straight from the oven, but don’t keep all that well once baked. Next time I make the dough, I might split the extra dough balls into two, yielding just 4 large rolls each.
The other benefit of making several small batches is that you can play with different fillings for this dough. The original recipe has a yummy mascarpone and creme fraiche filling, but I ended up substituting sour cream and the results were delicious… just a little tangy to offset the sweetness of the honey. I’ve also tried a batch with apples tucked into the mascarpone, followed by a drizzle of dulce de leche once baked. Yummmm.
Sour Cream Honey Buns
based on Martha Stewart Living’s Honey Bun recipe
Makes 9 buns
1 batch of dough (from this recipe), at room temperature
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup agave syrup
3/4 cup sour cream
1 t cinnamon
2 T raw sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
a bit more honey for drizzling
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the honey and agave syrup and bring to a gentle simmer. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Add the sour cream to a small bowl, and stir in about half of the honey mixture until smooth.
In a small bowl, stir together the cinnamon and raw sugar
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 9 x 12 inch rectangle. Spread the sour cream mixture over the dough, leaving a little border around all of the edges. Sprinkle with the pecans, and then the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Starting on a long side, roll dough into a log and pinch closed along the seam. Cut into nine rounds.
Pour the remaining honey mixture into an 8-inch square baking pan. Place buns, cut sides down, in pan, 3 to a row, and then drizzle with a bit more honey. Gently cover over with plastic wrap. Let buns rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, 30 to 40 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place oven rack in lower third. Bake buns, rotating halfway through, until brown and bubbling, about 1 hour. (If buns darken too quickly, cover with foil.) Set a wire rack on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Immediately invert buns onto rack. Serve warm.
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
YUM. These look delicious. And yeah, thanks to halloween I won’t be making them anytime soon. Actually, that is thanks to pork fat really.
Great photos as usual. The apple version sounds really awesome I have to say. Love the drips on the parchment under the rack of honeybuns. Please tell me you didn’t place those drips by hand!
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Your pictures are making me want to dance. They are really singing to me. hehe
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Wow, those look so wonderful!
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Matt - hee… it does look that way, but no the drips were all real.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:50 am
They look so moist and tender… Wonderful!
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:58 am
Mmmmm!!!
Your pictures look better than Martha’s.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
YYYammy! That’s Hot!
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
oh no that song is so sticky! ahhH! i’ll be singing this for weeks
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
So gloriously sticky and decadent! They look utterly scrumptious.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I enjoyed making Martha’s Boo-tatoes for Halloween, but these little babies will definately be on my cook list this week, just need to see if I can find an outlet that sells Agave syrup, or maybe something similar.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Wow~! What a lovely looking breakfast…I couldn’t open the Martha Sweart page and I wanted to see how difficult it is to get such a great pastry…
November 6th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I love the sticky buns out of the can from the supermarket (the sugar in the frosting alone could give someone a seizure) but these look incredible. Just might have to try ‘em.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:38 am
These look really, really good right now! (I haven’t had breakfast yet). I have family coming into town in a couple of weeks and they would love these buns…
November 10th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
It looks marvellous! The pictures looks like a newspaper cover! Elga
November 11th, 2008 at 9:14 am
OHHH these Honey Buns are the perfect recipe for the holidays!
November 13th, 2008 at 8:28 am
I tried to make them, but after an hour in oven they got almost burned… I don’t know what i did wrong.I covered them with aluminum foil.Before I put them into oven they were well grown and looking promisig.. I am foreigner and I couldn’t figure out , what “rotating halfway through” means. Should I rotate buns or pan…?
November 13th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Ania - on the rotating, yes it is the pan (not the buns themselves). Just spin it around, in case your oven has hot spots, so they can cook more evenly.
Also, oven temperatures can really vary. I know that my oven runs about 50F too hot. So, yours may be hotter than the temperature you set. You might try getting an oven thermometer to see how accurate your oven is. But, even without that, the best measure of doneness is to check for a deep golden color on these buns. If they have that, and it has been less than an hour, they are probably still ready.
-L
November 13th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Thank you very much for quick response :)I will try with lower temperature and shorter time. I’ve stil got lot of frozen dough in frezer :))Thank you , I am sure that this time they will come out great
November 18th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
These look fantastic!! But you list “sour cream cheese”… is that sour cream? or cream cheese? Or something else I’ve never heard of?
I’d love to make these for a get-together this weekend… Inquiring minds want to know!
Thanks!
November 18th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
oops… that should be sour cream, not cheese! Thanks for the catch!
November 21st, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Looks like a recipe I’m going to have to try asap! I really enjoy your blog. Beautiful, beautiful photographs.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:35 am
How timely, that I stumble upon your amazingly beautiful blog the day before I am planning to make honey buns!
These look gooey and perfect…and now I’m going to go read more about that tea cake with the poached quince on top…