Love it: Banana Sticky Buns

When I was growing up I used to like to take things off the shelf that I already knew front to back and examine them again. One of those things was my Mum's Betty Crocker recipe card box. I would take it out, remove all the cards and them put them back one by one, pausing with each to read through the recipe, study the picture and try to imagine what it would actually taste like.

I recall a number of things that would never, ever get made (really, a baked alaskan?), but there were a few that were made over and over again - and one of those was for Banana Sticky Buns.

So simple, yet so awesome.

• Measure out 2 cups of Bisquick into a mixing bowl. If you don't have Bisquick, first of all you should (it's really useful), but you can substitute with 2 cups flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbsp shortening.
  
• Add to that 3/4 cups of mashed banana, roughly 1-1/2 bananas (which is nice because you can make a smoothie with the other half banana). Mash it together with a fork until you have a rough dough.
  
• Use some more Bisquick to dust your working surface and turn the dough out onto it. Then get sticky - knead it about 10 times (not too much!). Stop to obsessively rub the dough off your hands a few times with some paper towel. Don't worry about all the powder all over your black clothes that you forgot to cover with an apron.
  
• Roll it flat! Re-dust your surface with Bisquick and use either a rolling pin or just your hands (you're already sticky, right?) to get it evenly rolled out to a rectangle roughly 16"x7".
  
• Fill it! Spread 2 tablespoons of softened butter over the whole thing, getting it everywhere (especially right to the short side edges), then evenly sprinkle it with 1/4 cup of brown sugar. This is already making my mouth water.
  
• Time to roll it - starting from the far long edge, start rolling it towards you, I usually try to do it relatively tightly so there's no huge gaps between the layers. When you've got it all rolled up, seal up the edge as best you can, use water or maybe some of the butter, whatever works to keep it from unrolling.
  
• Now you're going to eyeball this - you need to cut this into 12 slices! If your rectangle was 16" wide, each slice will be about 1-1/3" thick. I use a serrated knife to cut these, less chance of simply flattening and mushing the rolls.
  
• You're going to bake these in a muffin tin - if you've got a no-stick one, fantastic, but if not you'll need to grease the cups. Then into each cup goes 2 teaspoons of melted butter (just soft is okay though), 2 teaspoons of brown sugar and 3 pecan halves (I try to arrange them like a trefoil), and then put one of the cut rolls overtop, sliced side down.
  
• Pop them into the oven at 450°F for 10 minutes - when done, immediately turn the muffin tin over onto a baking pan and leave it for a minute or two while the butterscotch slowly drips down onto the rolls, then remove the muffin pan.
  

Try not to eat all 12 of them at once. Man, now my mouth is watering. Do I have any pecans? Gotta make them again this week...

Banana Sticky Buns, another thing I love. How about you?