This recipe for Old Fashioned Caramel Sticky Buns navigated two raging rivers in Germany and America, to anchor your breakfast menu. Fueled with enough butter and caramel to sink a diet, you will gladly trade an hour on a rowing machine for a few bites.
Cheryl, my sister-in-law, is an awesome chef and the great-great-great granddaughter of a German baker. Cheryl’s Opa, or Grandpa, joined thousands of Germans in crossing the Rhine River and the Atlantic in a major migration to America, arriving in Cincinnati in the 1870’s. He apprenticed at a Queen City bakery before steering southeast up the Ohio River to open his own bake shop in Pomeroy, Ohio. The foundation of this caramel sticky buns recipe resided among the other German recipes in Grandpa’s cargo chest.
German Old Fashioned Caramel Sticky Buns Recipe
Prep: 40 minutes – Rise: 2 hours – Bake: 35 minutes – 15 buns
3 ½ to 4 cups of all-purpose flour or cake mix
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
2 packages of regular or quick-dry active yeast, (4 ½ teaspoons)
1 cup very warm milk, (1200 to 1300 F)
¼ cup butter or stick butter, (softened)
1 large egg
Caramel Topping
¾ cup of brown sugar, (packed)
½ stick of butter
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
2 beaten eggs
1) Mix 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, salt, and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Add warm milk, a ¼ cup of butter, and the egg. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
2) Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead about 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy. Place dough in large bowl greased with shortening, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place about 1 hour 30 minutes or until double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
3) Grease a 13 x 9 pan and pat dough in. Let rise 30 minutes or until double. Sprinkle ¾ cup of brown sugar packed and one tablespoon of cinnamon over top of dough. Cut ½ stick of butter into small cubes and uniformly press into dough. (Option: spread a half cup of pecan halves across the surface.) Pour two beaten eggs evenly across the surface. Bake at 3500 for 35 minutes.
This delicious cargo of Old Fashioned Caramel Sticky Buns arrived after a long voyage from Germany. Some morning, soon, turn your kitchen into a Bäckerei, and get out the rowing machine. Guten Appetit!
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Written by Mark F. Weber
I am an international business professor in Pittsford, NY who managed a business unit for a German company. My passion is family and friends, plus roaming the countryside on my road bicycle.
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Im looking for German sticky buns my aunt made years ago and lo and behold I found a Mark Weber. My dad came from Esweiler Germany years ago and I, of course, like German food. Just had for dinner sauerbraten with kartoffelklossel. What a trrat.