Honey Buns, revised

While perusing one of my sister in law's Martha Stewart Living magazines last summer, I happened upon this recipe for Honey Buns and had to scribble it down. It took me almost a year to attempt it, with so many steps and different ingredients, but I'm glad I did. They are sticky-sweet and smell heavenly baking in the oven. The fabulous thing about the recipe is that you make three batches of dough, one to use immediately and two to freeze for later. Well, I pulled one from the freezer yesterday and decided to make more honey buns.

Now, before you go away, gasping in horror at the next part, hear me out on this. I know that, to many, altering Martha's concoctions is NOT a good thing, but I have two items to weigh in for my defense. It is summer, and there are beautiful berries aplenty in the stores now, and I had some perfect raspberries sitting in my fridge practically begging me to use them. Best defense of all, Martha herself, has suggested tucking berries into her cinnamon rolls as a pleasing variation. There, I feel justified.

Here's how I turned honey buns into raspberry buns: I slathered the honey dough in butter after rolling it out. Then I sprinkled generously with sugar and cinnamon. I placed one container of berries on top and drizzled the whole thing with honey. I rolled them up, cut into 9 sections, placed in a 9x9 pan and let them rise until doubled. The original recipe said to bake approximately one hour, but I found that only 30 minutes was all it needed. (Perhaps because you don't add the honey mixture on the bottom of the pan?) Then, I pulled them out of the oven, cooled slightly and frosted them with a canned cream cheese frosting. (I know Martha would prefer a homemade cream cheese frosting, so if it makes you feel better, mix away...)


Seriously, heavenly and summery. We think this variation might be even better than the original. Shh... don't tell Martha.

Happiness is trying a new twist on a great recipe and having it turn out a success. Happy baking, my friends!