Tales and Maple Sticky Buns

I've heard that there are some people eager for this recipe I'm going to post. I decided to get right on it so you could all bake the afternoon away. It's raining, after all. But before I begin, I want to talk about this morning's would be training ride in brief:

Leave home, light drizzle.
Just dodge crazy flying goose (!!?!?)
Drizzle turns to downpour.
Pinch flat five miles in.
Patch.
Find out CO2 cartridge brought along is empty.
Get rescued next to Gilbert Lake by best pal and 106.7 The Beat of Detroit.

Anyways, on with the sticky buns! Late last night I realized I still needed to make something for my jewelry class breakfast potluck. It was the last class of the semester, and the teacher likes to end things with treats (a practice I fully support). This is what I made in class, just as a side note:


Anyhow, Maple Pecan Sticky Buns
(Adapted from Maple Syrup Cook Book, Ken Haedrich
(I fell in love with this cookbook when I farmed in Vermont and did all of my baking with maple syrup. Glorious!)

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup PURE maple syrup
1/2 cup vegan margarine (I use the Soy Free Earth Balance)
1 1/4 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat white flour
1 T baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup vanilla soy milk

Preheat yo' oven to 400. In a small bowl, mix up the pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Eat some pecans.

Bring 1/4 cup of the margarine and the 1/2 cup of maple syrup to a bowl over medium heat. At some point, I'd recommend dipping a pecan in it and eating that. You boil it for about 30 seconds, then remove from the heat and pour into a 9 inch square baking pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a big bowl. Now you wants to use the rest of that butter. Cut it in about a tablespoon at a time and mix it in with the flour until it starts clumping into small balls. Then add in the cup of soy milk. Stir it up until things are looking incorporated. If the dough is too wet for the upcoming rolling, just add a little more flour. Put the dough on a floured surface and knead it a bit before rolling out into a 9x12 rectangle. At this point, I took a brush over to my square baking pan, dipped it in the Earth Balance/syrup mixture, and spread some of that over the dough. Then I covered the surface evenly with the pecan mixture. Roll the dough like your sleeping bag, and pinch the seam to seal it off. Cut one-inch slices and arrange them over the syrup mixture in the pan (I think I got 10 buns out of this). Bake for 25 minutes. While waiting, dance to Michigan-made music and read about maple syrup.

As soon as you remove the pan from the oven, carefully flip it over onto a plate, scrape all the ooey gooey goodness out and drizzle it over the buns. DELIGHTFUS.