Apple Butter and Walnut Sticky Buns
Ingredients
Sticky Bun Dough
The dough for these sticky buns exactly follows Sally’s Baking Addiction Easy Cinnamon Rolls [from scratch] recipe. For Sally’s Baking Addiction dough recipe, click here!
Apple Butter
*If you will be making my homemade apple butter recipe for these sticky buns, you must make it the day before you bake the sticky buns.
9 honey crisp apples [or apple of your choice - my suggestion would be to stay close to the texture & taste of a honey crisp]
1 cup apple juice
3 cups dark brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground all spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
Sticky Walnut Caramel Topping
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 & 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Pinch of cinnamon
Prep time: 1 hour & 40 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Total time: about 2 hours
Servings: 11-12 sticky buns, about 20 ounces apple butter
To store sticky buns, place them covered on the counter for 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. Best eaten re-heated because the caramel topping with harden.
Steps
Apple Butter Steps
Wash, core & peel all apples. Cut peeled & cored apples in quarters.
In a large pot, mix together quartered apples, all of your spices & apple juice. Let simmer on medium-low for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, remove cinnamon stick & transfer contents in batches into a blender or food processor. Using a stand blender or a hand blender, blend apple mixture together until a thick yet smooth puree forms.
Return puree to pot & cook on low for another hour.
After second hour, transfer apple butter to glass jars & let completely cool on counter top uncovered.
After completely cooled, store apple butter in fridge. Apple butter will last up to a month in the fridge.
Sticky Buns Steps
Follow steps for making the sticky bun dough by Sally’s Baking Addiction.
While dough rests, in a sauce pan, melt butter, brown sugar & honey in a pot on low heat until a caramel begins to form. Add in chopped walnuts & cinnamon & mix until combined. While still hot, layer the bottom of a pre-greased springform pan with sticky walnut caramel topping.
After 10 minutes, roll dough out in a 14x8 rectangle. Spread 1 tablespoon softened butter on top. Layer 3 very large spoonful’s of apple butter to the edges of the dough. Roll dough tightly, cut into 11-12 even buns & arrange on your pre-greased springform pan that already has a layer of the sticky walnut caramel topping.
Tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil & let rise in the oven or another warm place until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.
Once buns have doubled in size, remove from oven & remove aluminum foil. Pre-heat oven to 375 [F] degrees & bake buns for 25 minutes or until lightly browned on top & you can hear the caramel topping bubbling. Make sure to put the springform pan on a baking sheet in the event any caramel sauce seeps out of the bottom while baking.
Let buns cool on the counter for about 5 minutes, then put the baking sheet you used on top of the springform pan & slowly & carefully invert the springform pan.
Slowly remove the springform pan so that the sticky buns are still intact & the sticky walnut caramel topping is now on the top of the buns.
Serve immediately.