Sticky Pecan Mini-Buns

from tastykitchen.com

Prep Time 1 Hour30 Minutes Cook Time 15 Minutes

Servings 36

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 2 cups Whole Milk
• ½ cups Canola Oil
• ½ cups Sugar
• 2-½ teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
• 4 cups Flour
• ½ cups (additional) Flour
• ½ teaspoons (heaping) Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons (scant) Baking Soda
• 2-½ teaspoons Salt
• 2 sticks Butter
• ¾ cups Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
• 1 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
• ½ cups Light Corn Syrup
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Preparation Instructions

1. To make the dough: heat milk, canola oil, and 1/2 cup of sugar in a large saucepan until just before boiling (but do not boil.) Remove from heat and set aside to cool a bit until warm/lukewarm.
2. Sprinkle yeast over the top of the liquid, then add 4 cups of flour. Stir to combine, then cover pan with a dishtowel and allow to rise for 1 hour.
3. After 1 hour, stir in additional 1/2 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a separate pan, melt 1 stick of butter and add chopped pecans, corn syrup, and vanilla. Stir to combine, then remove from heat and set aside.
5. Melt additional 1 stick of butter. Set aside.
6. To make the rolls, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough into a 30 x 8-inch rectangle. Pour on 1 stick of melted butter, then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface. Starting at the far end, roll the dough into a long roll, rolling toward you. You’ll end up with a 30-inch-long roll of dough. With a sharp knife, cut into thin slices, about 1/2-inch thick.
7. Spoon 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the pecan/butter/syrup mixture into mini-muffin tins. Set sliced rolls into each muffin tin, pressing slightly to secure them to the pecans below.
8. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove pans from oven and allow them to cool in the pan at least 20 minutes. Invert carefully so that rolls turn out and pecans stay stuck to the bottoms (which are now the tops!) If a little pecans stick in the tins, just dig them out with a spoon and reapply them to the rolls.
9. These are divine with coffee in the morning.

Perfect Sunny-Side Up Eggs

from tastykitchen.com

Prep Time 2 Minutes Cook Time 5 Minutes

Servings 3

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 3 whole Eggs
• 4 Tablespoons Canola Oil (more Or Less As Needed For Size Of Skillet)

Preparation Instructions

1. First, heat the canola oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. You don’t want it too, too hot, as you’re going to cook the eggs pretty slowly. You don’t want the oil so hot that the eggs sizzles and turns white the second you crack it in! The whites should remain clear for several seconds before they start to turn white.
2. 1. Once the oil is mildly hot, crack in the eggs (that’s about as many as I can tend to at a time.) The oil should not cover the whites; if anything, it should just come over the edges a tiny bit.
3. 2. Once the eggs begin to turn white, use a small spoon to carefully spoon the hot oil over the whites only. Go from egg to egg, spooning the oil over the whites. This will help the whites cook slowly so that they won’t be slimy. *Important: Don’t spoon oil over the yolks yet.
4. 3. After a minute or two, touch the whites of one of the eggs and make sure they’re set/not jiggly and loose. At that time, you can spoon oil over the yolks to help them set on the surface.
5. *Note: The reason you need to wait before spooning hot oil over the yolks is that immediately after cracking the eggs into the pan, there is still egg white covering the yolk. If you were to spoon the hot oil over the yolk immediately, it would cause the white on the yolk to turn white, which will result in the yolk having a cloudy covering. And that’s a tragic thing! On the other hand, if you wait, the egg will settle into the skillet and the whites will sheet over the sides of the yolk and eventually leave mostly yolk there. So a minute or two into the process, if you spoon the hot oil over the yolk, you won’t get that cloudy appearance.
6. 4. Continue spooning the oil over the egg until it appears to be as done as you’d like. (You can gauge it by lightly jiggling it or poking it with the spoon.)
7. 5. Remove the eggs from the pan with a slotted spatula, then–this is important–drain them briefly on a paper towel before serving. (I fold a paper towel and hold it in my left hand, then place the egg on the towel with my right hand, then I just slide it onto the plate! You can also just keep the egg on the spatula and pat the bottom of the spatula on the paper towel to try to get most of the oil off the egg.)
8. Serve immediately!