Ina Garten’s Cinnamon Sticky Bun Recipe Is Fall Bliss (& It Has a Sneaky Shortcut)

Ina Garten is arguably most famous for her chocolatey desserts, like Beatty’s chocolate cake and giant crinkled chocolate chip cookies (not to mention fruity ones, like her French apple tart). But this fall, I implore you to make her cinnamon sticky bun recipe instead. Not only is it drool-worthy, but it also has a sneaky shortcut that makes it totally beginner-friendly.

“House guests for the weekend? Treat everyone to Cinnamon Sticky Buns!” Garten wrote in an Instagram post from October 9. “There’s nothing like cinnamon sugar and butter. The buns come together so quickly because I use store-bought puff pastry dough. I also updated the recipe to include a simple maple drizzle. Your friends and family will love you, and the kitchen will smell amazing!”

In the video, you can first see her creaming butter and brown sugar together. She adds dollops to each vessel of a muffin tin. Next, she tops each dollop with chopped pecans. She then rolls out a sheet of puff pastry dough on a floured surface, brushes it with what looks like melted butter, adds a layer of brown sugar and cinnamon, then tops it with raisins. Then, she rolls the filled dough, slices it into rounds, adds them to the butter-filled muffin tin and bakes them. Finally, she drizzles them with a simple two-ingredient maple glaze that’ll make you want to lick the whisk.

The recipe, called “Easy Sticky Buns (updated)” on her website, serves 12 people in one fell swoop. The recipe calls for eight ingredients total, so it doesn’t take much. Of course, my favorite feature is the store-bought dough, since I’m baking-averse and would never want to prepare it from scratch. (Don’t @ me, it’s the truth.) And in case you’re wondering, Garten recommends Pepperidge Farm’s puff pastry, so her go-to brand is surprisingly accessible.

Reading the recipe, I’d say you can easily substitute dried cranberries for raisins (or nix the dried fruit altogether if you have picky kids at brunch), trade pecans for an alternate nut or add additional warm spices to the filling, like ground ginger or nutmeg. The only musts are plenty of butter and that epic maple syrup glaze.

Find the recipe here—I’ll bring the mimosas.