recipe: brew-infused apple sticky buns

I recently scribed a guest post for In Search of Beer, Ryan Hudak's website that details his on-going feat for sampling new beers, all while sharing everything hop-associated, including brew news, event recaps, and even, recipes for cooking and baking with beer. 


Since I too am always on the hunt for the next best beer and strive to incorporate beer in everything possible (talking in dinner, in desserts, and of course, in cocktails), I decided to contribute editorial that tied my love for my PA Dutch culture with my obsession of baking–all of which had to be splashed with beer, of course.


Click here to read up on my time-consuming methods of crafting from-scratch Pennsylvania Dutch Sticky Buns–a recipe I particularly enhanced with fresh apples and extra-special bitter beer. If you can squeeze in the time, for all the glory of dough kneading and dough rising, I promise you that these sweet breads are always a crowd-pleasing hit.

peanut butter eggs, a success of the strausses

There are not enough words to describe the love that the Strausses have for their glue that stuck them ever-so-willingly together, Naomi Strauss. 

 My grandmother & I, circa October 2006.

If you've read any of my posts where I trance back to my days with my beloved grandmother, it's obvious that you know that I possess an undying love for her. This month, it has only been three years that she has passed,  and as the days dwindle by, I always think of her more and more.

My Mammy had a keen eye for crafting the tastiest treats anyone's sweet teeth could ever experience, and I must modestly admit, this is not a biased statement. My family members and I hold these dear recipes as a triumphant trophy and as holidays approach, with appropriate traditional Strauss treats in tune for each, we are sure to gather together to reenact what our dear grandma did best in her comforting kitchen space.

Most recently, my cousins and I, as we like to think we're blessed with the gift that our grandmother possessed so gracefully, gathered to sculpt her chocolate-covered peanut butter eggs — a tradition we've began since her passing.

This year was the first festive occasion for the Strauss family's newest member, Cheyanne Naomi Willman, and as you see below, she too now loves these candies as much as we ever could (and, that is a hell of a lot!).

Here's a photographic step-by-step of our family-sacred, sugary Easter concoctions: