The great debate – cinnamon rolls or sticky buns. My choice had always been cinnamon rolls. Especially, my friend Barb’s recipe that creates cinnamon rolls with soft, rich melt in your mouth goodness. She always said the mixer practically made them for you.

In my late twenties I started traveling to Pennsylvania to visit family, which continued over the years especially when Stefanie decided to attend Penn State. On one of my first trips, I tasted and fell in love with sticky buns, particularly grilled stickies. Instead of toast or pancakes with your eggs, diners and Mom and Pop restaurants in PA give you sticky buns. And the best ones of all come from Ye Olde College Diner in State College. After football, they are Penn State’s claim to fame. Some nights you dream of them, grilled till the edges caramelize.

The diner ships them but I realized my cinnamon rolls recipe (actually Barb’s cinnamon roll recipe) translates into stickies that when grilled are almost as good. The best part of all, cook up a batch, split them up and wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them. Defrost, grill them in a cast iron pan and you have heaven on a dish.

This recipe has egg and milk in it but I have also developed an eggless, milk-less recipe that uses vegetable shortening, if you want it please email us and we’ll send you that one.

Mix the yeast with 1 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar and a teaspoon of salt. I like to add the warm milk, butter and egg  to this mixture and then put it in my mixer with a dough hook before I add the rest of the ingredients.

The dough has a soft consistency. After turning it our of your mixer, knead the dough five to ten minutes.

Roll the dough out.

Brush with softened butter.

Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and then sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

Lightly smooth the top to get an even coating. Roll the log and cut it into 12 pieces, approximately 1 inch wide.

Make a glaze with butter, brown and white sugar. Brush the parchment lined pan lightly with the glaze.

I wanted my grilled stickies to look like ye olde college diner’s. With that thought in mind I elongated them as I put them into the pan.

Drizzle the glaze over the top, cover with foil and put into a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, uncover and cook for about 10 more.Sticky Buns just out of the oven.

Melt a little butter in a cast iron pan. Grill the stickies on each side just till it caramelizes.

Grilled Stickies Recipe

Dough

3 1/2 cups flour
1 package yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 egg

Filling

3 tablespoon softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
cinnamon to taste, approx. 1 teaspoon

Glaze

5 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar

Heat milk and add butter. Stir until melted and let cool until you can put your finger into it. In a small bowl stir 1 cup of flour with your yeast, 1/4 cup of sugar and salt. Stir in milk and add an egg. Put in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the rest of your flour a half cup at a time. The dough should be soft but pull together. Knead the dough in the machine and then turn it out and knead it by hand. It should be very soft but hold it’s shape. Let it rise to double in a cool place.Punch down. Roll out the dough into roughly 15″ x 12″. Brush with softened butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and sprinkle cinnamon,  on top. Lightly smooth the mixture to coat the dough evenly. Roll up and cup into 12 pieces about 1 to 1-1/2 inch. Melt butter in a small pan and add sugar until it dissolves. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Lightly brush the bottom with the glaze. Put your rolls on top making them slightly oval instead of round. Drizzle the top with glaze. You may have some left over. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Let the rolls rise until a finger pressed on the dough leaves an impression. Loosely cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. uncover and bake for 5 to 10 minutes more. Before serving heat a cast iron pan and melt a dab of butter, put the stickies on top and grill until lightly caramelized.