When there’s a cinnamon bun cyclone heading your way, govern yourself accordingly: make your own tasty warm version; easy enough to whip up for friends dropping in with New Year’s wishes. They won’t want to leave if you give them one of these delicious easy-peasy buns. Leave the treats to cool while you corral these hungry pals to help you shovel. Seems like a good bargain to me. Our twenty-year old door butler agrees.
This was one of those weird weather statements received in the dwindling hours of my holiday.
“A lot of jargon is thrown out during extreme weather, but the baroclinic leaf is the initial sign of the storm rapidly intensifying (a great indicator of robust lift in the atmosphere). A powerful jet stream surged up towards New England, allowing the system to rapidly strengthen, as the baroclinic leaf and associated low expanded Wednesday evening.But, there’s another key indicator for a serious storm: the cinnamon bun swirl.
If you insist, read rest of the weather breakdown here.
I stopped reading there. They had me at cinnamon.
Weather Bomb Buns
Makes 12 sticky delights, adapted from Barefoot Contessa
What you need:
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1½ sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
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⅓ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
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½ cup pecan pieces, chopped into mid-size pieces
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1 package frozen puff pastry: you will need the two sheets that come in most frozen packages. DEFROST THE DAY BEFORE. Leave in fridge overnight.
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for filling: 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, ⅔ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed, 3 teaspoons cinnamon
What you do:
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Preheat oven to 400 ⓕ. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. On top, place a standard 12-cup muffin tin. No need to grease the tins. Do NOT use muffin papers
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Beat butter and sugar together in mixer until combined. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of the mixture into each of the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the chopped pecans on top of the butter/sugar mixture, distributing evenly. When you flip the cooked buns, this will be the gooey sticky stuff on the top (YUM!)
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Lightly floor a smooth surface to roll out the thawed pastry dough. Unfold one sheet and roll it out to a nice rectangle-no need to enlarge it too much. Brush the whole sheet with the melted butter. Do the same with second sheet.
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Melt the 2 T butter for filling. Let it cool for a minute. Mix together with the sugar and cinnamon to make the filling.
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Spread about ⅓ cup of filling on each sheet, leaving a one-inch border all around.
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Roll pastry up around the filling. Finish with seam down. Trim the ends off. Slice each roll into 6 equal pieces. Place each, with the spiral side facing up, in each muffin cup.
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Bake buns for approx. 25-30 minutes until tops are dark golden brown. Leave to cool on rack for five minutes before inverting onto serving plates, spooning the hot sticky sugar-pecan topping over each bun as you do (there may be some leftover in each muffin cup to scrape out and add to the yummy mess).
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