What gets a sane woman up at 4 AM?  Does a sane woman get up at 4 AM?  You think maybe she’s not so sane.

Once upon a time, I would get up at 4 AM to run with Sue (Sue Cooks Wild).  Admittedly those were the mornings that we were trying to get in our long milage marathon training runs.  What’s a long training run you ask?  Twenty miles.  It seemed perfectly sane then after all we both had to go to work and I had kids to get off to school.  Maybe one of our funniest runs  . . . it was like this.  We’re up early.  It’s really cold.  Well, actually it was freezing cold.  We’re doing our first loop around the park.  Sue of course is all bundled up with gloves, tights, jacket, and stocking hat.  Me, I’m in a thermo long sleeve shirt and tights because if I wear anything more I’ll be dripping sweat in 5 minutes.  Sweat is wet and then you really get cold.  So, we’re happily jogging along in a very light mist, chatting like we always do and I start to hear bells ... tinkling bells . . . me but not Sue.  Sue can’t hear them because she’s got her hair covered.  My hair however being uncovered, short, bouncing along collecting light mist has frozen that light mist and is tinkling with each step.  End of run.  Imagine, we continue to run, the mist keeps collecting on each hair getting heavier and heavier until SNAP, it breaks off and I’m bald!  Now, that would have been insane. 

Now what am I doing up at 4 AM these days.  Sane or Insane?  These days what gets me up at 4 AM, OK so it was more like 3 AM, is to play with my European girl friends.  I always told my boys none of the kids at school could be their best friend if they lived more than 5 miles away.  So what am I doing here with two friends in a nine hour time zone difference!

Good grief girl let’s just get to the

Sticky Buns vs Cinnamon Rolls

This months challenge for the Daring Bakers is brought to us by none other than the charming Marce from Pip In The City where you can get the recipe.  She found the recipe in a book I’ve used many times.  Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

I made the recipe twice.

I’m up early, get the dough together and in my favorite rising bucket with lid and unload the dishwasher which is still very nice and warm.  Remembering how many of the DB’s had said this took forever to rise, I got the bright idea to put my dough rising bucket inside and close the door.  Then I went back to bed.

Two hours later (just like the recipe said) my dough had doubled!  I used a teaspoon and a half and ground up the contents of 3 cardamon seed pods for my spices.  I chose to use blueberries for the fruit (I soaked them in wine, just must have my wine for breakfast you know). 

Now, this sticky part, the recipe goes like this:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature.

2. Cream together for 2 minutes on high speed with the paddle attachment. Add 1/2 cup corn syrup and 1 teaspoon lemon, orange or vanilla extract. Continue to cream for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.

3. Use as much of this as you need to cover the bottom of the pan with a 1/4-inch layer. Refrigerate and save any excess for future use; it will keep for months in a sealed container.

Shaped those little babies. Put them gently on top of all the ooey gooey stuff, covered them and left them to rise for an hour and a half.  And I turned the oven on because I wanted it ready when Gorn & I got back from our walk.  Our walk was only about 50 minutes but when we got back, Dad was up and had put the buns in because he thought they were looking like they would rise too much.  Sooo, I have no real clue how much they’d risen or not.

What I can tell you is they were really really good.  The smell of the lemon zest was incredible!  The blueberries were intoxicatingly lovely.  These were good.

I made the recipe a second time.

Hey girls (Karen from Bake My Day and Ilva from Lucullian Delights)  it’s 3AM here come on in, let’s bake.  I have to get up early to play with these girls and even so Ilva had already got her dough rising. 

Now, I planned enough to get up but I didn’t plan well enough to have set my frozen butter out to soften or my egg to reach room temperature or to have a fresh lemon to use!  The frozen butter, I grated so it softened up fairly quickly and the Kitchen Aid did the rest.  I went with the cold egg.  Not much I could do about the lemon - and I did miss it.  We all three commented that I usually butter my dough before I put the sugar on.  I used brown sugar to mix with my cinnamon for these which I always like better than white.  And more wine soaked blueberries but no walnuts (Gorn requested).

Again I got a great sunrise. 

And lovely Cinnamon Buns. 

So, the verdict from the savory gal:  I liked the sticky buns best.  I thought the cinnamon rolls tended to the dry side and I just don’t like the glaze.  What’s the part of this I’ll keep?  That sticky gooey stuff.  Next time I make my cinnamon rolls with my oatmeal bread recipe, I’ll make some of them into sticky buns with that gooey stuff!

Thanks so much for the lovely sticky buns Marce. 

Check out all the Daring Bakers on the Daring Bakers Blog Roll here.  Thank you to our Founders Ivonne and Lis. 

A word to the wise:  DO NOT click that link to Lis’s blog until you put down any food or drink.  Might be a good idea to use the bathroom also.

Hope you have some sticky gooey goodness to go with your coffee this morning and a glorious sun rise too.