A friend’s daughter was celebrating her 11th birthday at her family farm this weekend and we stopped by for a swim in the pond (the dog did, we declined), a bit of pasta, and whole lot of cake. It was just the most perfect weather and I fell in love with North Carolina all over again as we gathered around the warm campfire glow and let the smoke bathe us in its perfume. I’ve heard that smell is the strongest sense for memory and smoke, for me, carries a mighty many of them in its pungent grasp. The acrid haze of burning trash takes my feet running again on the gravel roads around Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan; JP8 exhaust on a cold morning lets my numb fingers and toes visit the motor pool in Germany where I spent endless days; burning pines on hot, arid days puts a chainsaw in my hands as I worked a fire line in South Dakota, Wyoming, or Colorado. But nothing beats a bonfire, and even as the memories of fires past begin to merge into one another, the memory of the sensation of warmth and comfortable cold, of smiling faces lit from below, of sodden dogs leaning hard and a communal bottle making the rounds, remains a cherished link to easy times. And the friends I got to share the bonfire with this weekend asked only one thing in return for a seat by the hearth: these sticky rolls. So guess what? I obliged, happily. I first came across this recipe three years ago, as I was trying on my new hat as a novice baker (Side note: I’m still wearing that hat). Sticky rolls seemed a little ambitious at the time, but these came together easily enough, despite a couple rise cycles and needing several bowls. I will caution that the recipe calls for five lemons, but I usually make do with four. In fact, the first time I made it with only one lemon and one lime, and they were just as good then as now. One other note: if lemon isn’t your thing, I believe these could be tailored to suit almost any taste. Cinnamon would be the easy choice, but the jar of preserves from my grandmother’s fig tree might lend itself to the next batch. I’ll let you know how they turn out! I’ve also made a buttermilk-orange version of this. It’s pretty simple: substitute buttermilk for the milk in the first step. Use two oranges for zest and juice; add one tablespoon of cinnamon to the roll mixture along with the nutmeg; omit the nutmeg and ginger from the filling and add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon instead. I omitted any zest from the glaze and used all of it (from the two oranges) in the dough and the filling. Use the juice in the glaze. In this version I also used bread flour, just to see what would happen. The recipe, made as above, actually required less flour, about 3 1/2 cups, to come together and made 8 rolls, which I baked for the same amount of time in a 9 inch cake pan. I did think the rolls took longer to rise but we keep our house pretty chilly and my yeast may be on its way out. Let me know what versions you try!
Lemon Sticky Rolls Makes 12 rolls *adapted from Faith Durand’s recipe on The Kitchn For the Rolls 1 envelope active dry yeast (.25 ounces, or 2 1/2 teaspoons)
3/4 cup milk, warmed, but not hot
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 lemons, zested
2 large eggs For the Sticky Lemon Filling
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 lemons, zested and juiced, the juice divided
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, also room temp For the Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup powdered sugar For the rolls: Pour the warm milk into a large bowl, or the bowl of a mixer, then sprinkle the yeast over it and let it bloom for a couple of minutes. Beat in the softened butter, sugar, vanilla and one cup of the flour either with a hand-held mixer, or with the paddle attachment of a standing mixer. Next add the salt, nutmeg and lemon zest, then the eggs and enough of the rest of the flour to make a dough. If using a hand-held mixer, stop mixing once you add a good bit of the flour, and knead with your hands instead. Once the flour has been added, if you’re using a stand mixer switch to the dough hook and have at it for about 5 minutes. If you’re hand kneading, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Depending on your flour and the humidity, you may not need the whole 4 1/2 cups. Stop adding flour when the dough has formed into a nice ball and is easy to work with, but don’t let it become dry. Coat the bowl with cooking spray and return the dough to the bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled. This might take as little as an hour, but mine took about two hours. For the filling: Mix the sugar, nutmeg and ginger together in a small bowl, adding the lemon zest a little at a time to make sure it’s evenly distributed. Start by stirring in the juice of half a lemon in order to make sure that the filling doesn’t get too runny, adding more if you need it. Grease a 9×13″ baking dish and set aside. Return the dough, once risen, to a lightly floured surface and pull and stretch it out until it’s a large rectangle, about 10×15″. Spread the softened butter evenly on top, then pour the lemon-sugar mixture over it. Roll the dough up tightly from a long end, then cut the roll into 12 even pieces. Place the buns cut side up in the baking dish. Cover the dish with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for another hour or two, until the rolls begin to fill most of the space in the pan. It’s OK if they are touching!, until puffy and doubled. If you want to make them ahead, you can cover tightly and refrigerate at this point. The next morning, simply remove them from the fridge and let them warm to room temp and rise for another hour or two before baking. Preheat the oven to 350F, with a rack in the center of the oven. Bake the rolls for 35 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. In the meantime, make the glaze. For the Glaze: With a mixer, cream the cream cheese until it’s fluffy, then add about half of the reserved lemon juice. Add the powdered sugar and continue to blend until creamy. If you want a runnier glaze, add more of the lemon juice. When the rolls come out of the over, pour the glaze over them while they are still hot, being sure to spread it evenly to coat everything. Sprinkle the rest of the zest on top and enjoy!