JBN

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns After all the trouble I was having with the dough last night I just didn't know what to expect, but these were simply marvelous. Because I had no guest eaters today, I cut six slices off the rolled log and wrapped the remainder for the freezer. Since I was baking less than half the number of buns, I made only ¼ of the glaze recipe and put it in the smallest pan I had: an 8 X 8 dark metal one. The recipe says to bake at 375 F for about half an hour. Luckily, I went to check on them at about 15 minutes and half of them were already beginning to burn. I pulled them out of the oven thinking the not-burned ones might be underdone, but they weren’t. I know my oven temp was okay because I checked it with a thermometer. It must have been the small, dark pan (she recommends Pyrex) that threw the timing off so badly. I'm not sure I understand why the author recommends putting pans on parchment (or silicone) on a baking sheet when there's clearly no chance of the contents of the pan bubbling over. Does anyone know what the reason for that might be? Anyway, these were sooooo good. The brioche dough is just wonderful with an extraordinarily light, tender crumb. The filling is rich and cinnamony without being cloying, and the glaze—which is of course very sweet—isn’t overwhelming. I’m embarrassed to admit that I ate three of them almost as soon as they were cool enough to handle—and then polished off the burnt ones soon thereafter. Sticky buns for breakfast; sticky buns for lunch. Only wish I still had some sticky buns left for dinner.

I've been paying careful attention, Ling, to your comments on the Golden Brioche Loaves. My dough is just completing its overnight in the fridge and my plan is to make one loaf for the Bostock option and make the Pecan Honey Sticky Buns with the remaining dough. I, too, had problems with the dough, but mine were entirely different from yours. I think I started off poorly because I began the dough in the early evening and neither the butter nor the eggs were truly at room temp. It took a good deal longer than three minutes after adding the eggs and sugar for the dough to form a ball, even goosing the speed well past the suggested medium. And then I couldn’t get the butter to incorporate. I finally put the butter in a turned off gas oven to warm it up with the pilot light until it was definitely not still “slightly firm.” And here, too, I was using a higher speed than low and regularly stopping and scraping. Incorporating the butter took at least 20 minutes, maybe longer. Then, and I’ve never had this happen before, I set the mixer speed to medium-high and the timer for 10 minutes, got involved in an e-mail, and before the 10 minutes was quite up I heard a loud crash in the kitchen. My Kitchen Aid had "walked" off the counter! Bless the old Hobart mixer. The back end had loosened, but I just unscrewed it, reseated it, screwed it back on, and it seems to be just fine (please, please!). But even though I hadn't mixed it for the full 10 minutes, the dough had indeed come together in a ball and didn't require any additional flour or mixing. Now, onto the loaf and the sticky buns, with your comment noted on the baking time for the loaf. I just hope I'm as pleased with my results as you are with yours.

Last year when I was visiting friends in Guatemala, they decided to make paella for a dinner party one night. I was flabbergasted when I saw them haul a “box” of “paella” out of the pantry. The box contained some Spanish rice, a can of chopped chicken, a can of pimientos, and I’ve forgotten what else. The cook had to add broth and shrimp. Voila! Paella. I hadn’t made paella in decades, and when I had it was in a Le Creuset French oven with Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice, pepperoni, and frozen rock lobsterettes. I decided it was time to buy myself a real paellera start experimenting. I wasn’t looking for “authentic.” I wasn’t going to be serving my friends snails or eels. I wanted a chicken and shellfish paella that would be a wonderfully tasty, one-dish, mostly do-ahead fun meal for company. After four or five tries I ended up with a recipe I’m quite pleased with. It’s based on Penelope Casas, but I’ve decreased the amount of chicken, upped the amount of shrimp, and added squid. The procedure is a bit of Casas, a bit of the new Gourmet, and a bit of “this is what worked for me.” In that latter category, I found that unless I was going to Chinatown to get my shellfish and could buy shrimp with heads and other scraps to make a very hearty fish broth, I was better off using chicken stock. I just couldn’t get enough flavor into the broth using only shrimp shells. I also found that the clams and mussels didn’t always open fully and that if I gave them a bit of help in the microwave they looked better, tasted better, and I could add the juices to the fish broth. Finally, Casas doesn’t explain, Gourmet does, that if you’re using a 15-inch paellera on a regular home burner, you’re going to have to place the pan over two burners and keep rotating it to avoid hotspots. This was really awkward the first couple of times I tried it, but soon enough I just got into a rhythm. I’m new here, and just came across this thread with people saying that they had found very few actual recipes for paella on the board so I thought I'd pass along this one. But it seems from a few posts I’ve read that people put commentary in one place and the actual recipe somewhere else. Is that true? If I’m doing something wrong here, I’d appreciate help, advice, or even initiation rites. Joan To serve 8 to 10 Paella a la Valenciana (adapted from Penelope Casas) 18 small clams 18 small mussels 1 tablespoon of cornmeal 6 cups of very strong chicken broth or fish broth ½ teaspoon of saffron 1 small onion, peeled 1 small chicken, about 2½ to 3 lbs ½ cup olive oil ½ pound chorizo cut into ¼ inch slices 1 large pork chop, boned and diced ¼ pound chunk domestic prosciutto, diced 1 medium onion, chopped 4 scallions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 roasted red peppers chopped or cut into strips 1 to 1½ pounds medium shrimp, shelled ½ pound squid 2 live lobsters, split and divided into tail sections and claws 3 cups Montsia or Calasparra rice 5 tablespoons chopped parsley 2 bay leaves, crumbled ½ cup dry white wine 1 tablespoon lemon juice ¼ pound frozen peas Lemon wedges and parsely for garnish 1. If mussels are uncultivated, put in a bowl of salted water (½ cup salt to 1 cup water), sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of cornmeal, and refrigerate several hours or overnight. If cultivated, just scrub clams and mussels, put in a bowl, and refrigerate, coverered with a damp cloth, until needed. 2. Heat broth with the saffron and whole onion. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove the onion and measure the broth--you need exactly 5½ cups. 3. Cut the chickens into small pieces -- breasts and thighs cut in half, wings into two pieces. Dry well and sprinkle with plenty of salt. 4. Heat the oil in a 15-inch paellera. Fry chicken over high heat until golden and set aside. Add chorizo, pork, and ham to the pan; stir fry about 10 minutes and set aside. Add the shrimp and squid and sauté 3 minutes. Add to reserved chorizo mixture. Add the lobster and sauté 3 minutes until barely red. Remove to the platter with the chicken. Add the chopped onion, scallions, garlic, and peppers and sauté until onion is wilted. Add the rice to the pan and stir to coat it well with the oil. Add 5 tablespoons chopped parsley and the crumbled bay leaves. (Can make 2 to 3 hours in advance up to this point.) 5. Cook clams and mussels in the microwave for about 1½ minutes on high or until just beginning to open and release their liquid. Strain liquid into broth and bring broth to a boil. 6. Add hot broth, wine, lemon juice, and peas to the rice in the paelleria. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, over medium high heat for 10 minutes. Bury the shrimp and the chicken in the rice. Add the clams and the mussels, pushing them into the rice, with the open edge facing up. Arrange lobster pieces on top and then bake, uncovered, at 325 F. for 20 minutes. 7. Remove from the oven, cover tightly with foil, and let sit on top of the stove for about 10 minutes. Decorate with lemon wedges and chopped parsley.