Caramel Pecan Sticky Rolls: With the earnings of this winning recipe, I bought a show pig. “Cinnamon” (the mythical female pig) was on my mind for a long time after I’d banked some $ entering cinnamon rolls into contests. Spa day? Nope. New boots? Nope. I decided to spend the ‘dough’ on a PIG. I’d thought of her, I’d named her, I’d wanted her… but I hadn’t met her yet. In September of 2013, we trucked to John and Ruth Huinker’s farm “HD Durocs” in NE Iowa and we picked out the best gilt we thought we could handle and it was love at first sight.
We stopped to check on her a few times on the way home. She did fine but I was worried about her!
Recently I took a batch of these up to John and Ruth… when we bought “Cherry D” (the female pig I bought with some of the winnings from my $2,000 Cherry Danish recipe).
Back to “Cinnamon”: I bought her with my mother-in-love and we named her Cinnamon. (The portion of the money I used to buy her was money won from Cinnamon Roll Contests.) We bred her that fall and she was set. We were lucky to have a litter of 8 the next February and you’ve seen her daughters and sons on my blog before. What I haven’t told you is… she passed away in March.
I just decided to omit that part (her death) from my blog, but if you are friends with me you know… I cried over her for days. It was rough for me to think about, and worse for my to write. I can tell you now, how she died: She got into a tangle with the ‘BOSS sow’, OINK and lost. They were in a large pen together, where if they wanted to, they could go to parts of it and not even see each other. Rather, they tangled…
She had a bad injury and she couldn’t survive it. Luckily we have these goons/her first and only litter (see below) to keep us company. Cookie Dough, Sassy and Big Foot are all still here at my place and their brothers have been sold, one is going to be coming to our freezer soon. (He was the only barrow we castrated from the litter, the other boars have been sold to farms that will use them for breeding).
Here’s the little goons (with one of Oink’s litters), after they were weaned.
Sassy: She’s acts as fancy as she is.
And spoiled… we did that do her. Ooops.
Cookie Dough: remember… she likes to swim, and she’s got a great personality.
Cookie Dough was busy in August:
Big Foot: this guy is the only male we have left from the litter. We’re using him to detect heat in his sisters and new girl “Cherry D”. He’s a horn-dog, to say the least and is growing more ‘manly’ every day!
Sassy and Cookie Dough.
“We like ‘pig butts’ and we cannot lie!”
Here’s what you’ve probably been waiting for, but thank you for entertaining me and reading this far… the recipe for the most winning baked good I’ve ever entered… Caramel Pecan Sticky Rolls. I have a box of blue ribbons to prove it, and an extra 15 pounds. Ha! (A few step by step photos at the end of the recipe.)
Caramel Pecan Sticky Rolls
Ingredients
Dough:
- 4 ½ tsp 2 packets yeast (use instant, for bread machines, active dry, whatever you want, just make sure it is fresh- as in, recently purchased.)
- 1/2 C warm water
- 2 tsp honey Ebert’s Sully IA
- 1 C buttermilk warmed to 115 degrees
- 6 TBSP Land O Lakes Sweet Cream butter room temperature
- 2 eggs at room temperature lightly beaten
- 1/3 C sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 C creamy mashed potatoes
- 1/4 C nonfat milk powder
- 5 C King Arthur All Purpose Flour
Filling:
- 6 T Land O Lakes Sweet Cream Butter softened
- 3/4 C brown sugar
- 1/4 C granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 TBSP Tone’s Ground Cinnamon
- 1 T flour
- Dash of salt
Caramel Glaze:
- 6 T Land O Lakes Sweet Cream butter
- 3/4 C brown sugar
- 2 T heavy cream
- 2 T KARO light corn syrup
- 1 T Ebert’s Honey Sully IA
- Dash of salt
- 1/4 tsp Tone’s Ground Cinnamon
Pecans:
- 1 C quality pecans chopped
- 1 T Land O Lakes Sweet Cream butter
- Dash of salt
Instructions
Filling: Mix in a small bowl: brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, flour and salt. Set aside to use once dough is rolled out.
Caramel Glaze: Combine all ingredients except cinnamon in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil for 30 seconds. Remove from heat, stir in cinnamon. Stir and divide glaze evenly between 3-8” cake pans.
Pecans: Toast pecans in butter and salt in skillet over medium heat, until fragrant. Chop and divide evenly over caramel glaze in 3-8” cake pans.
Dough Instructions:
- Proof yeast with warm water and honey in a large mixing bowl until foamy. Add buttermilk, butter, eggs, sugar, salt, potatoes and dry milk powder, whisk well. Stir in flour. Add flour, stir until dough comes together. Turn out on floured surface, knead 8 minutes. Place in greased bowl, flip dough over so both sides are well greased then cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise until double. (60-75 mins). Punch down dough. Let relax 5 minutes. On a lightly greased surface roll dough into 12×24 inch rectangle. Spread butter evenly over dough, evenly sprinkle filling on butter. Roll up long end to long end. Pinch seam at the end of the roll. Score the dough in 2 inch increments. Slide dental floss under roll. Bring up ends of floss and criss cross at the center and pull quickly, slicing through the dough. Place 4 slices each, cut side up in 3 well buttered 8” cake pans containing caramel filling and nuts. The rolls should not be touching at this point. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size. (60-75 minutes) Remove plastic wrap.
- Bake the rolls in a 350 degree oven for 24-28 minutes being sure the internal temperature is 190 degrees F. Do not let the roll tops overbrown. Tent with foil during the last 10 minutes of baking if necessary.
- Remove rolls from oven. Let rest a couple of minutes then invert onto serving plate. Serve warm.
Notes
We work the wet ingredients first to get them well combined.
After all ingredients are added, turn out and knead until a smooth dough forms.
Cover and let rise until double.
In a warm area, of course!
This is what the caramel glaze looks like after it is cooked. Don’t put too much caramel in the pans… it is easy to do. Just know, a thin layer will do (that’s all I do) because the dough is very tender and if too much caramel is used… you could make your rolls too dense and weighted down by caramel!
This is the roll-out process.
After cutting the slices, you place them in the greased pans that already have the caramel syrup and nuts inside.
I’ve spent many hours… trials…. pounds of fat (on my own body) and headaches trying to get the best recipe… and here it is. Just for you. XOXO
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