Look At These Pretty Buns

I have never made cinnamon or sticky buns before, and I have never been a Daring Baker before. Put the two together and what do you get? My first ever Daring Baker challenge for the month of September, of course! I was pleased, honored, and excited when I became a member of the Daring Bakers for I knew that I would be joining a rather talented bunch of people who month after month have been creating many mouth-watering, tantalizing treats that I admired. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous and a lot excited when I found out that this month's recipe was for cinnamon and/or sticky buns. I love to eat both of these sweet treats (who doesn't like Cinnabon, right), and I decided that I wanted to try my hand at baking both. This month's challenge was hosted by Marce of Pip In The City. Looking at the recipe, I found it to be pretty easy to read and follow, and I even had most of the ingredients on hand already. As expected for yeast-bread recipes, this one takes a long time because of the two fermentation processes (the first one being about 2 hours and the second one close to 90 minutes). Otherwise, the actual dough-making, the dough-rolling, and the prepping of the caramel for the sticky buns and fondant glaze for the cinnamon buns was not very time consuming at all. I think I worried a little when it looked like my dough was not doubling up in size during the two hour rising process. I wondered if maybe my house was a little too cool on this particular evening? By the time the two hours rolled around however, the dough had risen but still not sure if it was actually "double" like the recipe stated. I kept my fingers crossed and proceeded on anyways, hoping that everything would work out in the end. And pretty much it did! The baking time for the sticky buns may have been a little too long for my oven (I baked them for 33 minutes), because the raisins looked a little burnt but otherwise, the buns looked and tasted great. My boyfriend was partial to the cinnamon buns and my brother liked the sticky buns. Me? Well, I liked both and am quite relieved I made it through my first challenge!