The Pauley Principle: Sticky Maple Buns

Welcome to The Pauley Principle!

The Pauli Principle, named for Wolfgang Pauli, deals with atoms and electron-sharing that results in new, stronger bonds. Think 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, a shared delectable (!) electron and VOILA! Water!

Similarly, when you prepare whole food to share with family and friends, especially foods you've grown, something amazing happens. Meals become tastier and healthier. Your soul, not just your stomach, becomes fulfilled. You live life more abundantly as a result. During a shared meal, the bonds that people create grow stronger and become something new: GREATER than the sum of the parts! I give you The Pauley Principle.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Sticky Maple Buns

Around the Pauley Plantation (tongue in cheek, but we do have maple trees), it's about time to begin harvesting sap. It's a process that is labor intensive for at least a week but SO FUN! You have to bulk up to have the energy for it (LOL, any excuse works!), so this week I had warm sticky maple buns fresh from the oven, a great reward for the hard work of gathering, reducing and canning last year's sap. A friend of mine asked me to post my recipe. Get yourself some syrup, locally made if available, and give this recipe a try!

Begin with a basic sweet roll recipe. Here's the one I use, modified from Better Homes and Gardens:
4 to 4 1/2 cups flour
1 pkt active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
Combine half the flour with the yeast. Heat the milk, sugar, butter, and salt to 115-120 degrees F. Add to the flour mixture. Use a mixer on low speed for one minute. Then add the eggs. Mix on high until silky smooth. Then stir in more flour and continue stirring in flour until you have a gooey ball. Begin kneading more flour into the dough until it's smooth and firm. Place into a greased bowl. Turn the ball over. Cover for about an hour or until double in size. After that, the fun part. Punch it down. Divide in half and allow it to rest for a few minutes.
Sticky maple buns:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Roll out dough into two 8"X12" rectangles. Spread each rectangle with butter. Mix cinnamon and sugar together and sprinkle half on each rectangle. Roll up from the long side and cut into 1" rounds. Turn oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare two round baking pans with butter. Pour half the maple syrup into each pan. Sprinkle with walnuts. Place the rounds over the maple/walnut mixture. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Serve warm. YUM!!!

2 comments:

JessiJanuary 24, 2011 at 4:40 PM
Do they work well simply substituting a gluten free flour? Does it require xanthan gum? And are you harvesting more sap this year? I know a couple young ladies that would happily increase their intake of maple syrup - if you need the help, of course.
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UnknownJanuary 24, 2011 at 11:56 PM
Xanthum gum should make the dough easier to knead and roll out, so YES! That would be a good GF addition.

Whether we make maple syrup this year depends on both the weather and the demand, and I think I know the friends. Tell them they're welcome to come help!
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Give Yourself the Fast Food Alternative: 1, 2, 3 makes 4 and More

For many people, late night ballgames, church, work and other events make fast food too convenient to resist, but what's in that stuff? I can't begin to answer. Big franchises such as Taco Bell say the 63% or so that isn't beef is made up of "the secret ingredient". If we consume their food, don't we have a right to know what that secret is? And more importantly, what's it doing to our bodies? My plan is worth the effort since meals eaten at home with the family benefit our physical and mental health.

Here's an alternative and my answer to Rachael Ray's A Week in a Day. I call it 1,2, 3 Makes 4 and More. On the fifth day, Friday, make a quick and easy pizza.
In one day, you can make a roast, a hearty soup, and a one-dish casserole to get you through most of the work week.
Meal 1: the roast with salad and a veggie.
Meal 2: the soup served with warm bread or in a bread bowl.
Meal 3: the casserole with a salad.
Meal 4: soup from Meal 2 served with sandwiches using the roast, Meal 1.
Meal 5: homemade pizza.

Plan meals and shop for it. Then take a few hours to prepare the entrees ahead. Start with a roast seasoned to taste. I'm talking real meat. While that's slow cooking, start chopping veggies and meat for a good, hearty soup, one that will be a meal in itself. Get it started and simmering away and then begin a one-pot meal that takes a little more attention.

This week my plan is Day 1, a slow roasted ham with salad and mashed potatoes; Day 2, minestrone; and Day 3, shepherd's pie. I'm making mashed potatoes for two days (meals 1 and 3) at one time on my cooking day. The fourth meal will be ham sandwiches with minestrone. Salads and breads round out the meals for the week. Fruits with cheese make a quick and good-for-you dessert. A truly delicious recipe for shepherd's pie is in my blog.

Be good to you. Be good to others. On days 6 and 7, change it up by going out, having a pot luck with friends and family or grilling out. Remember, live your life abundantly.

About Venison

Venison should taste really delicious! No kidding. It is my favorite meat, except for crab.

Some things to consider though:
*If you wouldn't think of eating a bull, then don't eat a deer that had huge antlers or was in rut. I don't. It affects the flavor and tenderness of the meat.
*Replace the deer fat with beef fat for your ground meat for an 80/20 ratio. Deer fat tends to be slightly bitter and leaves that thick coating in your mouth that, although edible, is not palatable.
*For roasts, sear with butter and olive oil. These impart a wonderful flavor.
*For sausage, use pork shoulder, at a ration of about 3 parts ground venison with 1 part ground pork shoulder.
*Venison by nature is a lean red meat. A good young deer processed properly will give you many delicious meals.
*Anything you would do with beef, except ribs, you can do with venison. Look for my recipe for Shepherd's Pie. Use either beef or venison. Enjoy, share, and live abundantly.

Plan Now for Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is cooked down from sap that you gather from sugar maple trees. There are no other ingredients, not even water. And it's incredibly good. On the market, maple syrups will often have corn syrup, gluten, color and other additives which can stretch profitability and decrease the steaming time required. Since it takes 35-45 gallons of the thin slightly sweet sap to make a gallon of pure maple syrup, doing it the old-fashioned way takes time but the result is pure YUM!

If you have the opportunity to tap into maple trees and decide you'd like to give this a try, plan ahead. If you steam off the sap inside your kitchen, it can strip your wall-paper! Been there, done that, at our old farmhouse. If you cook it down outside with a gas turkey fryer, the cost can end up being around $8 a pint. We began cooking over a wood fire a few years ago, using a tripod and kettle. Oh, and a large firewood supply. Whatever method you choose, proceed slowly and with caution.

Gather your supplies. We use food safe plastic jugs, buckets, and little water line spouts. Maple syrup production houses will collect into stainless steel vats using long water lines but we simply gather the jugs, pour into buckets and bring it to the kettle twice daily. I buy little pint jugs to store it in. Very fresh, very pure. Start tapping the trees when daytime temperatures are going to be above freezing but nights are still very cold. In Ohio, the sap will be running fast sometime in February.

Try my cousin Stephanie Krupla's recipe for Sticky Bun Tea Ring and you'll want to search for maple trees you can tap into yourself!