Thursday, January 22, 2009

Barefoot Bloggers-Easy Sticky Buns and Craving Ellie- Chicken Cacciatore


This week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe, Easy Sticky Buns, was chosen by Melissa over at Made by Melissa and taken from The Barefoot Contessa's latest cookbook, Back to Basics. Since easy is in the name of the recipe- you expect it to be just that, easy. And it was. I made a couple of changes. I didn't want to buy puff pastry and I had a pkg of Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough in the fridge, so I made the swap. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but I decided to go for it. I am glad I did too. It worked just fine. I just rolled out the dough and reduce the amount of butter by half and made it work. They tasted just great. Probably a little less sweet, but we saved some calories and still had a tasty breakfast sweet. Go see what the rest of the BBloggers thought by checking out the Blogroll.

This week's Craving Ellie recipe, Chicken Cacciatore, was chosen by Peggy over at Pantry Revisited. You can go to her blog to get the recipe. This is a simple, hearty dish that I threw together on a Saturday afternoon. It was good, nothing wowed me, but we enjoyed it. Chicken and veggies, with yummy seasonings and a little sauce is always good. Go check out the Craving Ellie site to see what everyone else thought about this dish!


Easy Sticky Buns adapted from the Barefoot Contessa
6 Tbls unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces
1 package refrigerated pizza dough (such as Pillsbury)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 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 (I used a fork), combine the 6 tablespoons butter and half of the brown sugar. Place 1 rounded teaspoon of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.
Melt the remaining butter/brown sugar mixture and brush it over the pizza dough. Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar over the dough and the cinnamon.
Starting with the end nearest you, roll the dough up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down.
Slice the roll in 12 equal pieces, each about 1 inch wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in the muffin cups.
Bake for 15 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 5 minutes only and then turn them out onto a piece of parchment.

Come back tomorrow for Prudy's Fresh Corn Tamales and Black Bean Salad

22 comments:

Marie Rayner said...

Those both look so good Mary Ann!! You are such a wonderful cook and a fab photographer!

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pigpigscorner said...

They look yummy! Love the sticky topping..

Aggie said...

Thankfully this is an easy BB recipe b/c I am going to have to pull it off pretty quick today or tomorrow so I can post it! ;)

They look yummy and so does that chicken!

Anonymous said...

The sticky buns look terrific. Our cacciatore was done 2 different ways. real chicken and pseudo chicken. Neither bird nor non bird was outstanding, but the sauce was good on both accounts. Will post it tonight.Your's looks delish.

Jessica said...

I love your substitution of pizza dough for puff pastry, way to make it work.

Maria said...

Everything looks good today!! I am really into those sticky buns though!

chocolatechic said...

Great to know that you can swap out dough.

How did you get your buttery~syrupy~nutty~yummy~sticky to stay on top?

Jenny said...

So pretty. I love a good sticky bun! Great photos too, have a great weekend!

Cathy said...

I LOVE how you made the sticky buns healthier, Mare! I will definitely have to try that, since I don't see myself making the full-fat version all that often (even though they are wonderful) because, well, they contain like a day's worth of fat. Your chicken looks great too! Nice pictures!

Peggy said...

All of yours looks simply delicious. I loved those sticky buns!! And the cacciatore was good too. Thank you so much for cooking with me this week on my pick! Great job!!!

Kate said...

Pizza dough --- what a great idea. I'm going to try that as well. I reduced all the butter and sugar as well, and with the puff pastry, it wasn't missed at all. Good job!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I bet the pizza dough made them taste better. I like doughy sticky buns. They look yummy!

Cynthia's Blog said...

Your substitutions are what cooking is all about. I loved that idea of the swap out pizza dough. Nice.

Anonymous said...

I never would have thought to use pizza dough, but I sure it was delicious! I am glad you enjoyed the easy sticky buns and your chicken cacciatore looks delicious as well!

Jennifer said...

You're recipes always look so fabulous!

Having heard the chicken cacciatore was a bit bland...I added rotel tomatoes instead of regular tomoatoes. That definitely jazzed up the dish!

Anonymous said...

Yum! I bet the pizza dough was really good. I've never thought about that!

Your chicken looks delish too!

~Cat

Anonymous said...

good to know that the pizza dough worked for these, that might keeps things from getting overly crispy like the puff pastry.

Suzie said...

How clever of you to sub in the pizza dough!

Anonymous said...

Wow. Both look awesome, Love those sticky buns.

Lisa said...

I'm so incredibly jealous of your sticky buns!! They turned out perfect. Mine came out burnt.

What's for Supper? said...

Your cacciatore looks great. But I would take the sticky buns anyday over cacciatore. Anyways, we enjoyed the chicken dish at our house and thought that it was a good pick!