It was the name of this recipe that seduced me. Coconut is one of those ingredients that makes me weak in the knees; toasted is even better. Compound that with any variety of nut and a cinnamon-roll like confection... you have my attention. It was described as tasting like a slice of Hawaii which is where the hubby was born. I took that as a sign that it was meant to be made in our kitchen.
I set out making these on a Sunday morning with good intentions to hand deliver them to the in-laws as a sweet end to the weekend. Northern VA made sure to shut down those plans with maddening traffic. It was up to Mike and I to taste test.
I've never made sticky buns and as it turns out (at least with this version) they're a hybrid of the pineapple-upside down cake method and a regular cinnamon roll. As with a regular cinnamon roll, you make the yeast dough, roll it out, sprinkle in the filling, roll it into a log, and slice it said log into individual rolls.
Here's where the pineapple-upside down aspects comes into play. Rather than bake the rolls in one big sheet pan all cozies up together- you place the rolls into individual cupcake tins that are coated in butter and brown sugar. This creates that same warm, gooey, caramel effect! Slick.
The end result was this baked, golden beauty. The dough stays moist and that signature cinnamon-bun tear-into goodness. I freaking loved the filling because of the coconut and chopped macadamia nuts. The only aspect I was not crazy about was how the butt of the bun was left exposed so it was a touch drier than the side baked in butter. It's delicious, but part of me fantasized about making these again and baking them as regular cinnamon-rolls with a brown-sugar and butter frosting/glaze instead.
Maybe next round. In the interim... they are mighty tasty as is.
Oh, and as for rekindling my love's nostalgia for Hawaii, they weren't quite there. It's got the right theme going on with the macadamia nuts. Real island folk though jump straight to plate lunches and drinking Hawaiian Sun. I'll have to be the judge of this when we visit in a couple of years!
Check out the recipe for these Macadamia and Toasted Coconut Sticky Buns over at Foodness Gracious!
