Just Putzing Around the Kitchen

Flour Bakery Sticky Buns + Anniversary…and a GIVEAWAY! {GIVEAWAY CLOSED}

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Sticky Buns 6b (1 of 1)

Exactly 1 year and 19 days ago, I married my best friend. To be honest, typing that makes me cringe a little – usually I’m the person that secretly judges other people for posting gushy love notes to/about their significant others online for everyone to see – but it’s a true statement, and I stand by it (I never said I wasn’t a hypocrite).

I love him, we survived a whole year of marriage, and the moment should be celebrated! Hence, this post with the gushy intro, the sticky-sweet recipe, and the giveaway (more on that later).

But, because I’m a benevolent blog-dictator, I’ll spare you the spiel about how much we love each other (a whole bunch), and how Dan completes me (he does), and how even after almost 9 years together I sometimes look at him and can’t believe that the boyishly handsome guy with the messy hair and ridiculous Seinfeld t-shirt is mine (he’s pretty lucky too!). Instead, I’ll tell you a little bit about our wedding. And then I’m gonna show you a kick-ass recipe and give you free stuff!

Wedding Collage 29794082035_161e6c2961_kWedding Collage

OK, so the wedding. It was outdoors, with lots of trees and flowers and chirping birds. I wore a floaty white gown that made me feel like a princess, Dan wore a summery gray suit and bright red tie that made him look super dashing. My bridesmaids were dressed in red chiffon, his groomsmen had on identical gray suits and red ties.

The ceremony, which was officiated by our friend Mikey, was short and sweet (20 minutes from start to finish). Poems were read. Vows were spoken (we wrote our own!). Rings were exchanged. Our moms cried. We kissed. 134 of our nearest and dearest clapped and cheered. We were married! Then there were lots of pictures and hugs. And eating. And drinking. Then speeches. More drinking! Cupcakes! Dancing! Dancing! Dancing! So much dancing! It was best time, y’all.

By the end of the night, our voices were hoarse from all the yelling and singing (it is impossible to not sing along to “Party in the USA”), our feet ached, our faces hurt from smiling all night, and we remembered exactly none of the conversations we had with anyone, but we were happy. Like, ridiculously happy. It didn’t hurt that we were heading off to Jamaica for 2 weeks the next day…

Wedding Collage 4 9793827614_f832095ab0_k Wedding Collage 3

Fast forward to now, and we’ve been married for a little over a year. Our thank you cards aren’t done (but they’re almost done!). My anniversary blog post is late (nobody is surprised). I am stressed out about both those things, but married life with Dan and the kitties has been great! Not entirely free of bumps (see e.g., recent heated argument about whether Gucci Mane’s ice cream face tat makes him look stupid), but for the most part things have been smooth sailing.

Nothing has really changed in any major way (aside from my name – I’m hyphenated now!), since we were already living together and sharing expenses and all that jazz before the wedding. But we did finally get around to nesting a little bit – we furnished our home with actual furniture and decorations (no more bare walls!); we revamped the bathroom (thanks to Dan’s parents); and we repainted everything (again, thanks to my incredible in-laws).

And, more of our weekends are spent doing married-couple things like hosting football-watching parties and spending all day on the couch in our pj’s watching too much TV and going on double-dates to local wineries (hi, Amy) and inviting people over for dinner parties and renting river-side cabins with other couples. It’s kinda really great.

Recipes (1 of 1)

And speaking of things that are really great, that brings me to today’s recipe, which was made possible by my super amazing, greatest-ever bridesmaids, who chipped in and bought me a standmixer as a wedding gift. A standmixer! Which I, like millions of other females/home cooks around the world, had lusted after since I discovered their existence (probably on a Food Network show)!

And it’s red! So, you know, my life is now complete.

Naturally, I would have been (and was)  happy with just the standmixer, but my girls, being the wonderful people that they are, also gave me an old school-style recipe box filled with handwritten notes and some of their favorite recipes. BBQ sauce, crab dip, cake balls, pumpkin bread…all of which sound delicious, and would be perfect for breaking in my new kitchen baby (FYI, her name is Bessie)!

Sticky Buns 1 (1 of 1)

Slacker that I am, I never actually got around to making any of those recipes until recently, when I realized it had been a whole year since our wedding. Then I was all “holy crap, where did the time go?” Followed by “sh**, I should probably do an anniversary post soon” and “omgaw, what the hell am I going to make????”

When cooler minds finally prevailed (i.e., I asked my friend Sarah for advice), I realized that I had an entire box full of awesome recipes to choose from for the anniversary post. And, what more appropriate way to celebrate one year of marriage than to make one of the recipes gifted to us at our wedding?

Sticky Buns 4c (1 of 1)

After some agonizing, I finally settled on my friend Charlene’s recipe for Flour Bakery’s famous sticky buns, (1) because I’d been dying to try these buns for years but never had a chance to check out the bakery, and (2) I wanted to make something extra special (read: super complicated/involved) in honor of the occasion.

As it turns out, these buns were kind of the perfect metaphor for marriage…the recipe was very hands on, time-intensive (seriously y’all, I started at 8:30am and finished at 7:30pm), a little bit sticky/messy, occasionally frustrating but generally fun/gratifying to watch develop, and so sweet and amazing and worth all the effort in the end.

Sticky Buns 5 (1 of 1)

No joke – these sticky buns are one of the greatest things I’ve ever tasted. I may have grumbled and cussed my way through each step of the recipe (and swore I’d never make this again), but as soon as the pan went into the oven and our whole place filled with the delicious scents of caramel, butter and cinnamon, I was back on board.

And that first bite, y’all…the bun was so buttery and soft and fluffy it practically melted in my mouth, the caramel on top was hot and sticky and decadently sweet (but surprisingly, not cloying), and the cinnamon-y filling was everything you could want in a sticky bun. It was pure heaven!

I just kept eating and eating, even though each bite burned the roof of my mouth (FYI, fresh out of the oven buns, particularly those with caramel on top = super hot). And Dan, who said he was too full from dinner to eat any, tried a bite, let out an involuntary “mmmm!”, and then proceeded to gobble up half a bun (they’re enormous) before crying uncle. So yeah. These buns are fantastic. Pain in the ass, but fantastic.

Sticky Buns 2c (1 of 1)

OK. We’re done. If you’ve made it to the this part of The Longest, Most Rambling Post Ever, thank you! This can only mean that you’re a masochist, or you love me. I choose to think y’all love me, so I’m going to reward your love with (1) the recipe for these amazing sticky buns, and (2) a $100 Amazon gift card. Excited? Me too!

(BTW, did you notice anything different about the blog? Yup! Redesigned, courtesy of the brilliant mind behind Snixy Kitchen)

** This giveaway is sponsored by Just Putzing Around the Kitchen.

$100 AMAZON GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY!

amazon

In the spirit of love and marriage and all that good stuff, I’m going to give one lucky (and randomly selected) reader the chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card.

  • To enter the giveaway, leave me a comment telling me what you did/would do to celebrate your 1-year wedding anniversary. If you’re not married/not interested, tell me what you’d do to celebrate any big milestone!
  • To earn up to FIVE bonus entries, do one (or all!) of the following and then come back and leave me separate comments below telling me what you did:
    (1) Subscribe to my blog via email or RSS feed (if you are already subscribed, leave a comment saying that!).
    (2) Like Just Putzing Around the Kitchen on Facebook.
    (3) Follow Just Putzing Around the Kitchen on Twitter.
    (4) Follow Just Putzing Around the Kitchen on Instagram.
    (5) Pin any sticky bun pic from this post onto Pinterest.
  • Giveaway will end at 5pm next Saturday, September 13. Winner will be notified by email.

Congratulations to Simoriah, winner of the giveaway!

Print
Flour Bakery Sticky Buns + Anniversary...and a GIVEAWAY!
Author: 
 
Ingredients
Basic Brioche
  • 2-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2-1/4 cups bread flour
  • 1-1/2 packages (3-1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
  • ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • ½ cup cold water
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 cup + 6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 10-12 pieces.
Caramel Goo
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter
  • 1-1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
  • ⅓ cup honey
  • ⅓ cup heavy cream
  • ⅓ cup water
  • ¼ tsp salt
Bun filling
  • ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup pecan halves, toasted and chopped
Directions
To make the basic brioche dough:
  1. In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine 2 flours, yeast, sugar, salt, water and eggs. Beat on low for 3 to 4 minutes, or until all the ingredients have come together. Stop the mixer as needed to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Once the dough has come together, beat on low speed for another 2 min. The dough will be very stiff and seem quite dry.
  2. With your mixer still on low speed, add the butter one piece at a time, mixing after each addition until the butter has thoroughly disappeared into the dough. Then continue mixing on low for about 10 minutes. If necessary, stop the mixer occasionally and break up the dough or push the dough off your hook with your hands to help mix in the butter.
  3. Once the butter is completely incorporated, turn up the speed of your mixer to medium and beat for another 15 min, or until the dough becomes sticky, soft, and somewhat shiny. Your dough will look shaggy and questionable at the start and then eventually turn smooth/silky. When that happens, turn the speed of your mixer up to medium-high and beat for about 1 minute. You should hear the dough make a slap-slap-slap sound as it hits the sides of the bowl. (FYI, your mixer will get and start shaking - don't worry, this is normal.)
  4. Test the dough by pulling at it. It should stretch a bit and have a little give, and will feel slick/soft. If it seems wet and loose and more like batter than dough, add a few tbsp flour and mix until it comes together. If it breaks off into pieces when you pull at it, continue mixing on medium for another 2-3 minutes, or until it develops more strength and stretches when you grab it. Your dough is ready when you can gather it all together and pick it up in one piece.
  5. Place your finished dough in a large bowl or plastic container and cover it with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap directly onto the surface of the dough. Let the dough proof in the fridge for at least 6 hours or up to overnight. (At this point you can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to 1 week.)
To make the sticky buns:
  1. Make the caramel goo - in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in brown sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in honey, cream, water, and salt. Set goo aside and allow it to cool to room temperature.
  2. Take half of your basic brioche dough, and roll it out on a floured work surface into a rectangle about 16 by 12 inches and ¼ inch thick. It will have the consistency of cold, damp Play-Doh and should be fairly easy to roll. Position the rectangle so a short side is facing you.
  3. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and half of the pecans. Sprinkle mixture evenly over your rolled out dough. Starting from the short side farthest from you and working down, roll up the rectangle tightly like a jelly roll. Trim about ¼ inch from both ends of your roll.
  4. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll into 8 equal pieces, each about 1-1/2 inches wide. (At this point, the unbaked buns can be tightly wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to 1 week. Thaw them before proceeding as directed, below)
  5. Pour your cooled caramel goo into a 9x13 baking dish, covering the bottom evenly. Sprinkle the remaining pecans evenly on the surface. Place the buns cut side down and evenly spaced in the baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place your baking dish in a warm place to allow the buns to proof for another 2 hours (or until the dough is puffy, pillowy and soft and the buns are touching).
  6. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350.
  7. Bake the buns for 35-45 minutes, or until golden brown.
  8. Allow buns to cool in the dish on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes.
  9. One at a time, invert the buns onto a serving platter, and spoon any extra goo/pecans from the bottom of the dish over the top of each bun.
  10. Dig in!

(Recipe courtesy of my friend Charlene, who I think got it from the Flour Bakery cookbook)

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Comments

  1. Happy Anniversary!

    For our 1st, we went back to the restaurant where we had our wedding reception (Volt in Frederick MD) for a super fancy dinner!

    Reply

  17. We went to the beach for our first anniversary. We wanted to have a beach wedding, but it didn’t work out. It was nice to celebrate one year with sand and surf instead. 🙂

    Reply

  23. I know this might sound awful but I had just gotten out of the hospital the day before my first anniversary. I refused to be in there for my first anniversary. I had a serious health issue but I was learning to manage it. We spent the whole day together and then we went out to the restaurant where my husband took me the night he proposed.
    I still have the health issue but it is almost 15 yrs later and I am managing it and we still love to spend time together. That is the main thing.
    Our second anniversary was a bit better–we were celebrating by traveling.

    Reply

    • I’m so glad to hear that you’re managing the health issue! And your anniversary story sounds perfect – grand adventures aren’t always necessary!

      Reply

  24. My husband and I celebrated our 1 year marriage anniversary by taking a cruise to the Bahamas. Per tradition, we enjoyed cutting into our wedding cake, sipping champagne and watching our wedding video that week as well. Two years later and we now have a sweet baby girl, so celebrating our anniversary will be a little different, but we look forward to getting a babysitter and spending some alone time together for every anniversary so far. Thanks for the opportunity!

    Reply

  28. Happy 1st Anniversary, Tina +Dan!! Love you guys!!

    Andy and I just had our 3 week anniversary!! For our first I think that I want to go somewhere fun with a small group of friends – maybe a weekend up in the Adirondacks…lobster, peach salad, nice “Thirsty Thursday” cocktail, maybe some homemade fruit cobbler with ice cream…mmm… Makes me nostalgic about summer already!!

    Reply

    • Happy 3 week anniversary, Kat!!!! Don’t be nostalgic about summer – fall is going to kick ass, esp our weekend in Luray 😉

      Reply

  34. Happy Anniversary! I’m not married, but I’d like to think we’d sleep in late, have brunch, go for a walk, dance sing giggle drink wine cuddle, then toast s’mores.

    Reply

  37. For our one-year anniversary, I brought my wife to the place we shared our first kiss…then we went to our favorite restaurant.

    Reply

  45. Congrats! And what a lovely gift they gave you- those personal recipes are the best! We spent our 1st anniversary moving cross-country from Pittsburgh,PA to Bremerton, WA! On the actual day we finished our drive in a small town in Minnesota and we went out for dinner and I had one of the best steaks ever (I think my hubs had fish)! Oh- and we ate the icky 1 year old top of our cake (actually the very middle of it was quite yummy all things considered! Or maybe it was just exhaustion from diving all day that made me think that).

    Reply

    • Haha, your anniversary sounds like it was great! We had ourselves a fancy steak dinner too 😀 And my MIL saved the top of our cake for us – we ate it last weekend!

      Reply

  69. I am overwhelmed with thoughts about this post! Love the redesign! I adore Flour’s sticky buns and yours look amazing and as good as the real thing! Also love the pictures you shared from your wedding!!

    Reply

  75. Done. Twitter: edmond18. Followed instagram: edmond180. Pinned: edmond180. Pick me, pick me! Your next winner!!! Show me the money!!! It would be a dream come true & means more to me than anyone else to win. Starving artist here desperately needs the Amazon gc to shop & eat again. Winner, winnner. Chicken dinner. A life changing experience. Top of my bucket list. Thanks for the awesomeness, the contest, & generosity. Dear Santa: I have been nice. My X-Mas wish this year is to win this contest.

    Reply

  78. Hi there! Those sticky buns look uh-mazing! Could eat one right off the screen 🙂

    As for the anniversary idea (I’m not married): I would celebrate with a visit to the fanciest, schmanciest restaurant/bakery I could find in say, a 40 mile radius. We have a saying here that goes “love goes through the stomach”, which I’m realizing now might seem a bit, ehm, odd in English but it basically means that if you’re a good cook, you’re set for love 🙂 Sometimes we need someone else to cook for us to feel all that good stuff optimally though!

    Reply

    • We have a similar saying here – “the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”…which totally applies to women too! 😀

      Reply

  82. On our first year anniversary we sat at home and just cuddled. If I recall, that was right after we were voted World’s Most Boring Couple. Even these sticky buns look a bit too intense for me… but your description talked me into trying them out some time. Maybe next anniversary.

    Reply

  83. Happy Anniversary!

    To celebrate our one year anniversary, we had dinner at the waterfront restaurant where we got married. We went back for years two and three, but they were temporarily closed year four because of extensive flooding.

    They’ve since reopened, but I’m due on November 6th, so probably not going to make it to a fancy sit-down dinner on the 14th!

    Reply

  86. Follow on Instagram as well!!!

    (Love these sticky buns btw, they make me feel back at home even though I now live in Spain) thank you!!!

    Reply

  87. Well first of all congrats on your first anniversary. The wedding looks gorgeous, as do you in that beautiful gown. The sticky buns remind me of ones I’ve eaten at Le Bon Pain and I love those. So I’m sure I’ll be making these.
    I think you should either go back to Jamaica or somewhere else fabulous to celebrate.

    Reply

    • Thank you! And I like the way you think – will definitely have to go back to Jamaica for an anniversary sometime 😉

      Reply

  94. I would for sure make these sticky buns and have my significant other serve them to me in bed for my 1 year anniversary

    Reply

  95. I don’t really remember our first anniversary, but I know we had chinese food and walked around the riverfront downtown. We usually have some kind of disaster happen every year on our anniversary and this year isn’t looking any better because it’s on the 25th and things are bad right now- we are both in pain and my husband might need surgery. I hope we can make the best of it.

    Reply

    • I’m so sorry to hear about your health troubles – keeping my fingers crossed that your husband won’t need surgery. Best of luck to you both!

      Reply

  96. First of all, Happy Anniversary! My husband and I love San Antonio, TX so for our 1st wedding anniversary we went on a weekend getaway and stayed at the same resort we did in our honeymoon, we visited some of our favorite spots and had romantic dinners every night. It was perfect!

    Reply

    • A weekend getaway sounds amazing! I definitely want to go back to our honeymoon resort for at least one anniversary 😀

      Reply

  116. My hubby and I took a trip to the nearest big city and spent the night downtown. We explored the area (we had recently moved) and ate fabulous food!

    Reply

  117. For our 1 year anniversary (Just this past June!!), my husband and I went on a camping excursion to Durango/Mesa Verde. It was scorching hot and incredibly beautiful.

    Reply

  118. I always think a relaxing massage is a great idea for a wedding anniversary. Our lives can get so busy that we forget to appreciate one another, and scheduling a day to just relax and be together without phones/family/kids is a must!

    Reply

  119. On our 1st anniversary, we ate our wedding cake that we’d frozen after the reception (still yummy!) and looked through our wedding album. We just celebrated our 13th, so it’s been a while now. They are all special, but the first was especially sweet!

    Reply

  124. Hi there! I really have to say, I am so inspired by your blog and think not only do you have beautiful photographs and food styling but also your recipes are delicious. I have tried many of them, and they have come out fantastic. All my family and friends have only great things to say!

    I just celebrated my 1 year anniversary with my boyfriend Julian in February. We actually were both in Hong Kong (he was born there, I was studying abroad) at the time, so we went on a romantic weekend getaway to the Philippines. We went to Cebu, which had the most beautiful crystal clear waters and sandy beaches. We spent the first night at a remote mountain retreat, and then spent the second and third nights at the beach.

    We went jet-skiing and snorkeling, and Julian taught me how to sail for the first time. We had the most romantic dinner with a beautiful view of the ocean the day of our anniversary, and they had live music playing for us as well as a scrumptious chocolate cake. It was the most relaxing trip, and definitely my ideal way to celebrate an anniversary! I can’t wait for our next anniversary. Hopefully we will be lucky enough to continue traveling the world and I look forward to seeing where we will go next year.

    I actually have a blog post about it as well! Here is the link: http://unanchoredadventures.weebly.com/blog/philippines

    Reply

    • Laura! What a nice comment to get! I’m so glad you have liked the recipes you’ve tried on my blog, and I hope you keep coming back for more 😀 Happy 1-year anniversary to you and your boyfriend! Your romantic getaway to the Philippines sounds fabulous – I definitely want to make it to that part of the world some time in the (near) future.

      Reply

  131. I’m not married, but I enjoy celebrating milestones by sharing a great meal (and an adult beverage) with friends, usually at a restaurant.

    Reply

  137. For our 1 year anniversary I made reservations at a fancy beachfront hotel for jone night just 3 miles from where we live. It was fun to rent lounge chairs, have cocktails on the beach, we had spa massages and a very elegant dinner in the restaurant. I even went an extra mile and bought rose petals at the local flower shop and surprised my husband by sprinkling them all over the bed! It was truly a memorable occasion 🙂

    Reply

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