Are Your Buns Sticky?
I got a lesson about morning pastries while driving from Wyoming to Alaska.My lesson began at Tom's Main Street Diner in Buffalo, Wyoming, a small town (pop: 3900) nestled in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains on the Northeast corner of the state.
"Are those sticky buns," I asked the cook/owner Tom, pointing to a tray of, well, sticky buns.
"The only sticky buns around here are when a cowboy has been riding his horse for days and hasn't had a bath!" Tom exclaimed loudly for all the diner patrons to hear. "These are sweet rolls."
Hmmm...they looked like sticky buns to me.
The next day, at the Home Cafe in Conrad, Montana (pop: 2753), I saw a tray of breakfast pastries on our way out.
"What do you call those?" I asked the waitress, pointing to the tray.
"Maple cinnamon breakfast rolls," was the reply.
"Don't you call them sticky buns?" I asked.
"No!" the waitress exclaimed, horrified as if I asked her if her buns were sticky. "I don't even know what those are!"
What was it with these towns in the West? I swore there was a breakfast pastry called a Sticky Bun but according to the experts I was meeting along my drive to Alaska, the idea was an almost pornographic figment of my imagination.
Once we crossed the border into Canada, I wondered if my Sticky Bun experience would be any different. As we approached Ft. Nelson, British Columbia (pop: 4578), I found a new clue in my quest.
Along the side of the highway, I spotted a handmade paper sign that read "Cinnamon Bun Center of the Galactic Cluster."
"Did that just say 'Cinnamon Bun Center of the Galactic Cluster?'" I asked my husband, then turned into the Tetsa River Services campground because I just had to know.
"Yes, we have cinnamon buns here ready," said a blonde woman with a thick German accent.
"What is the Galactic Cluster?" I asked but she turned away and went to heat up the bun.
She returned with a hot sticky bun (my words, not hers) and advised that we spread butter on it. She offered us a coffee, and it was good and strong like Europeans like to drink it.
I was too busy getting a sugar high and caffeine fix to remember to take a photo of the Cinnamon Bun of the Galactic Cluster. Too bad. And I never did find out the origin of the bun's name. Still, it wasn't a Sticky Bun.
My sister had been following my sticky bun quandry and sent some proof of the existence of sticky buns including a definition:
Noun
1. sticky bun - rolled dough spread with sugar and nuts then sliced and baked in muffin tins with honey or sugar and butter in the bottom; caramel bun, honey bun, schnecken, coffee roll, sweet roll - any of numerous yeast-raised sweet rolls with our without raisins or nuts or spices or a glaze.
and then there was sticky buns in the news...
16/05/2005. ABC News Online
Nerves of steel needed for sticky bun fight - A dozen people in Hong Kong have scrambled up a steel tower covered in buns reviving a religious ritual banned 26 years ago when the former British colonial government declared it too dangerous...
The mystery of the sticky buns was finally solved!
Post Script: I finally did find physical Proof of Sticky Buns, believe it or not!
I found it in the bakery section of Carr's (Alaska's version of Safeway). Right before my eyes was a box of Sticky Buns - it even said so on the label. Yes, I had to come all the way up to Alaska to find my Sticky Buns.
posted by Aliza @ 2:31 PM
3 Comments:
Need to go to El Chorro Lodge, in Paradise Valley.
It's known for its sticky buns. Pretty much the real reason to go there.
Sounds like "sticky buns" is a generic term for anything that resembles a "sweet roll" and has lots of caramelized sugar, making it "sticky". Now, what the hell is a "sweet roll"?
if you want a perfect sticky bun, make the recipe from Americas Test Kitchen. They are sticky bun heaven!! (and called sticky buns)
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