--- Join Ainsley Harriott in Ainsley's Mediterranean Cookbook, Sundays 8.30pm on SBS Food or stream it on . Catch him as he gets sticky-fingered with a rum-soaked Spanish pastry in episode 8, Sunday 11 October ---
Whether it's the honey-drizzled delight of loukoumades or the stickiness of a cinnamon scroll, there's a simple and sensational joy in recipes that involve licking sweet syrupy fingers.
Here are some of our favourites.
The name says it all! This American-style caramel and pecan-laced sticky bun wraps a yeasted dough around a filling of butter, sugar and spice filling, the buns are then baked creating a sticky caramel sauce. Drizzles of icing (added after the buns have cooled - hold onto your will power and wait!) finish it all off. If you need a gluten-free version, try from Loving Gluten Free host Helen Tzouganatos.
Sticky buns Source: Derek Swalwell
If waiting for buns to cool just seems too cruel (as in the iced number above), then make this nutty number instead!
"Serve these deliciously sticky, spicy and nutty scrolls straight from the oven. They are best eaten the day they are made – but leftovers aren’t generally an issue," says Anneka Manning of her recipe for scrolls. These do use a yeasted dough so you'll need to plan ahead, but once they are out of the oven, you're good to go! (You might want to wait a few minutes so they aren't too molten-hot.) The buns have cinnamon, butter, pecan and sugar filling, and are baked in a sweet maple-syrup, sugar and butter sauce, creating sticky-finger heaven.
Sticky cinnamon pecan scrolls Source: Alan Benson
A sweet syrup soaks into these golden buttery biscuits, shared with us by SBS Food's managing editor, Farah Celjo. There's much to love about these biscuits, including the fact that they will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 weeks, with the syrup spooned over. Serve straight from the fridge or at room temperature. Sweetness on demand!
Bosnian syrup biscuits
Pieces of yeasted dough are pulled into ring shapes and fried until crisp and golden, pierced with a skewer several times (for increased uptake!) and then soaked in a lemon, honey and orange blossom syrup.
Tunisian doughnuts Source: Feast / John Laurie
A buttery yeasted dough baked with a sugar, butter and cinnamon topping, then drowned in a salted pecan caramel sauce? It's crying out to be torn apart and devoured!
Monkey bread Source: Chris Chen
It's easy to see why these balls of puffy yeasted dough, fried until golden then drizzled with honey, are so popular. Try , or spice things up with , where the doughnuts are generously drizzled with a honey and spice-infused syrup.
Loukoumades with honey and cinnamon Source: Supplied
"Swedes just can’t get enough of buns, and neither can I," says Rachel Khoo of these gloriously messy, twisty buns. Made with a rich honey-sweetened, buttery spelt pastry, these are filled with jam and chopped chocolate. Best eaten while still warm!
Raspberry jam and chocolate buns Source: Rachel Khoo's raspberry jam and chocolate buns (My Little Swedish Kitchen / Michael Joseph Books )
This cake looks fancy, but it's so easy to rustle up: a brown sugar, butter and golden syrup sauce is poured over the bottom of the loaf tin, then banana slices and then the banana bread batter, before baking.
Upside-down caramel banana bread Source: Alan Benson
“This is a really fab refined sugar-free snack to make for the family – it also makes a great gift. I like to wrap the centres of the bars with a strip of baking paper tied on with kitchen string, so you can pick them up without getting sticky fingers,” says Poh Ling Yeow of her almond, pistachio and sunflower seed bars.
Persian nut bars Source: China Squirrel
Yotam Ottolenghi cooked these Italian ricotta and goat's cheese fritters in his Mediterranean Island Feast series and they . They are also made with baking powder, so are a quicker option than some of the yeasted numbers on this list. Served up with orange syrup and drizzled honey, they're a sweet taste of Italy.
Ricotta fritters with orange and honey Source: Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Island Feast
Pionono
This is the sort of sticky situation a TV host is happy to find themselves in. "Oh, my word! ... the rum’s dripping down my hands. So juicy. Really, really lovely," says Ainsley Harriott as he tucks into a pionono - a sugary, rum-soaked scroll inspired by a pope. "This dessert represents Pope Pius IX, who visited Granada in 1897, and Ceferino Isla González created this dessert in his honour," explains Harriott's local guide, Katya, as the pair tuck into a box of pionono in .
Packed with cinnamon, honey, almonds and rum, the scroll-like shape and sugary crown of the pionono represents the Pope and his 'crown', Katya explains. The recipe remains a closely guarded secret (though you might like to try ) but the basis, Harriot explains when SBS Food chats to him about the highlights of his Granada visit, is a cake of two parts. "You have a thin layer of sponge rolled into a cylinder and soaked in syrup, then a delicious cream, slightly toasted, on top. The ones I tried were pretty heavy on the rum and sweetness - delicious!"
Image of pionono by via .
Pionono from Granada Source: Ajay Suresh via Flickr
