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Imagine the most decadent recipe for brioche dough rolled with cinnamon sugar and pecans and baked with even more butter, sugar and nuts to form sticky buns. The recipe states, “these bear no resemblance to anything store-bought.” Probably not, because this was a a three day project for me: making the brioche dough, rolling and filling the dough, and slicing, rising and baking the buns. It was a lot of steps with a scary amount of butter. The end result is fabulous! Everyone in my family loved these pecan sticky buns.
You can find the recipe at these TWD hosts: Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Cookies on Friday. This recipe makes two filled rolls that slice to 7 sticky buns each. I baked one roll and have the other saved in my freezer.
DAY ONE
If you are not familiar with brioche it is a buttery and flaky bread that reminds me of a croissant. Although most accounts I have read state Marie Antoinette never said this, the famous phrase attributed to her “let them eat cake” actually refers to brioche. Brioche is seriously good enough to be compared to cake. It takes A LOT of mixing. I was a little worried that my stand mixer was not up to the task. I was also not confident enough to do this all by hand.
So I spent the first day of this little project with my fingers crossed that my Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer would survive. It heated up quite a bit and tried to take a walk across my counter. But it made it though about 20 minutes of mixing. I ended up with a lovely dough that I let rise on my counter until it doubled and then I placed it to chill overnight in the refrigerator.
DAY TWO:
The next day I began rolling and “laminating” the dough. This involves rolling the dough out, dotting the surface with butter, folding the dough like a business letter, and rolling it out again. I don’t think I’ve ever used this much butter before!
Incorporating butter this way gives the finished bread those flaky layers like puff pastry. Rolling dough is still a little tricky for me but I made it work and placed the dough back in the fridge so it could relax for a half-hour.
Then out again with the dough, roll it out again, and brush the surface with a lightly beaten egg.
This egg is the “glue” for the filling of cinnamon sugar and chopped pecans, which are sprinkled on next, leaving the top quarter of the dough bare. You gently press the filling with your rolling pin and roll the dough up into a log.
Off to the freezer. You could wait about an hour and continue, but I double-wrapped my rolls and let them hang out in the freezer overnight.
DAY THREE:
I pulled one of the filled logs out of the freezer and let it rest on my counter for about 20 minutes. While I was waiting I prepared my pan by smearing it with an entire stick of butter (gasp!) and a half-cup of light brown sugar.
Then I sliced the rolls into 1 1/2 inch slices.
I pressed three pecans into each one. I placed the slices into the prepared pan and let them rise uncovered at room temperature until the slices grew to touch each other. This took about 4 1/2 hours for me, longer than the recipe states.
I placed the pan into a 350 degrees oven and baked them for about 35 minutes. Immediately after removing the buns from the oven I inverted them onto a serving dish. I think next time I might cover the pan with foil to prevent overbrowning on that side and bake for a few more minutes to deepen the color of the top.
The finished sticky buns are divine! My son was literally licking his dish after he ate his! I enjoyed pulling the flaky layers of the bun apart as I devoured mine. Yum!
Although there was a lot of steps none of them are that difficult. This recipe just takes lots of planning ahead. Would I make these again? Absolutely! I think I need a more powerful stand mixer if I want to make brioche a regular part of my baking. I have a Kitchen Aid Artisan with a max 325 Watts. I’m also eyeing some bread machine recipes for brioche like this one from King Arthur’s Flour.
What kind of mixer is powering your baking? What model should I put on my wish list? Let me know!
mydearbakes said:
wow, you have a lovely recipe, thanks for sharing! =)
Baker on the Rise said:
Thanks for stopping by!
tearoomdelights said:
‘Eek!’ to the amount of work involved, but ‘mmmmmm’ to the end result – delicious!
Baker on the Rise said:
This seems to be more of a special occasion kind of recipe. It is a lot of steps. But really, really, good 🙂
AmySue said:
OMG! That recipe looks divine! Do you think I could throw them in the refrigerator/freezer after they are in pan to hang out overnight and pull out in the morning to thaw and rise?
Baker on the Rise said:
I’m sure you could but I can’t say for sure how long these take to rise. The recipe is stating a much shorter time than what I experienced.
jennrag said:
This is a lot of work! But you make everything look beautiful and sound do-able!
Baker on the Rise said:
Thank you! I am learning as I go!
alwaysaddmorebutter said:
I was scared for my mixer too! I used the big 6qt bowl lift at work so as not to damage Candy. Good to know she probably could have taken it! Your sticky buns look delicious!
Baker on the Rise said:
I hope our next recipe gives the mixer a break 🙂
Heather @ SugarDish(Me) said:
King Arthur’s has really great recipes. These sticky buns are gorgeous! You make the process look so simple, though I bet I’d turn my kitchen into a big ‘ol sticky mess. I’ve never tried brioche or sticky buns… lwonder if I could pull it off with no stand mixer?
Baker on the Rise said:
I am sure you could, many people do. I am just not one of them, lol. I am not that brave yet.
Vanessa Chapman said:
Ooh, these do look lovely! A special weekend breakfast treat – I could even kid myself that they are healthly because they have nuts in them.
Baker on the Rise said:
Once your hands are smeared with butter making the dough and topping you won’t be able to kid yourself into thinking they are healthy 🙂 But that’s ok, it a special treat to remember!
thelittleloaf said:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen buns so stickily and delicious looking! These are simply divine 🙂
Baker on the Rise said:
Thank you! Yes they are!
Cloches & Lavender said:
Oh my gosh they look sinfully good. I love sticky buns!!
Cynthia
Baker on the Rise said:
Do you have a favorite recipe?
Cloches & Lavender said:
Cheesecake and a macadamia tart I make from scratch. It is delicious.
Sarvani @ baker in disguise said:
oh i really enjoyed this recipe.. am soo glad i did not gove it a miss.. these turned out so professional. Yours look great!!
Baker on the Rise said:
I enjoyed it too! Thanks!
Ckay said:
I love your perfect rolls.
With this recipe we surely gained experience (and probably weight as well)
I’ve cheated on the butter and the brioche was still yummy (it needs more salt and sugar, though). Unfortunately I did not like the topping: too sticky.
I’ll remake the “modified brioche” for sure.
Baker on the Rise said:
I agree that this is not the “perfect” recipe for sticky buns. But I am getting better at baking with these challenging recipes! I will try not to think about the weight 🙂
Created by Carlene said:
Beautiful sticky buns. I agree with you that while they were very good, I’m not sure I like brioche dough sticky buns. You asked about a mixer–I have a Bosch that I have had for years and I love it for heavy doughs. It’s great for bread. It never overheats! That being said the center drive is not as convenient when making cookies and other batters.
Baker on the Rise said:
Thanks for the Bosch idea. It would be great if I didn’t have to worry with each bread recipe about my mixer.
miki said:
wow those sticky buns look absolutely amazing!!! my mouth is watering.
Baker on the Rise said:
Thank you!
sweetleafsusie said:
These sticky buns look and sound delicious! I’m really into pecans right now, and always into butter and sugar, so I may need to try making these 🙂
Baker on the Rise said:
I am pretty much always into pecans, butter and sugar 🙂 You’ll love them!
Baking is my Zen said:
Great process photos…
~Carmen
TWDBWJ member
http://bakingismyzen.wordpress.com
Baker on the Rise said:
Thanks, I am working on taking better photos!
Chris said:
Your pecan rolls look great — you can see all those flaky layers! And thanks for the link to the King Art recipe for brioche.
Baker on the Rise said:
I think that King Arthur recipe will be my next adventure with brioche!
thetoastedsprinkle said:
I let mine rise for 3 hours and they still hadn’t grown to touch each other but it was so late in the evening I just tossed them in the oven. They didn’t seem to suffer too much, but they’re still nothing like the ones I grew up on. I have the professional series KitchenAid and it had no problem handling making the dough or even really heating up all that much. The dough on the other hand wasn’t as cooperative and remained fairly sticky throughout the entire process for me. Not sure if I feel like trying it again though… Yours look lovely however!
Baker on the Rise said:
I will have to look into the KA Professional. It was a lot of work. I have tried the similar recipe in Dorie’s Baking book and I think for the results and work I like that one better.
eclectic faerie said:
wow that is one ambitious & delicious looking recipe! one day i’d love to give it a try~
i have a kitchenaid but not the artisan ~ it doesn’t tilt back which is a bummer when scraping down the bowl… i’m thinking of buying a viking hand mixer for smaller jobs, more control and easy scrape-downs
beautiful photos by the way
Baker on the Rise said:
Thanks! I like the ambitious recipes because I feel like I getting better at baking by tackling them 🙂
eclectic faerie said:
i agree ~ that’s a good outlook ~
prideinphotos said:
Wow…I have drool coming off my lips!!! Your photography is wonderful. Keep up the great work.
Baker on the Rise said:
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Christine said:
I’ve been seeing all the dark caramel buns posted and wondering why mine looked so pale. Looks like yours came out the same color as mine. Still yum!
Baker on the Rise said:
Agreed–I feel they were perfectly baked and tasted great. I have two theories: I could have put foil on the pan and let them cook for 5 minutes more, and I have noticed people added other things like maple syrup to their glaze. This might have given a darker crust too. Anyone else out there with thoughts on this?
dessertduches819 said:
Great post, and my mouth is literally watering from looking at the photos.
Baker on the Rise said:
Thank you 🙂
loavesandstitches said:
The flaky layers were my favorite part! These are certainly worth the time and effort.
Baker on the Rise said:
Agreed. I feel so accomplished to have made this bread with such flaky layers!
claudiagiulia said:
One week-end I decided to treat my family to home made cinnamon buns. As a professional chef, I only cook at home a couple of nights a week. As you very nicely illustrated, I start the dough early. I get up super early on Sunday morning to bake them. The house smells divine. I lovingly make the glaze, decorate them and serve.
“They are very good but they don’t taste like the ones you get at the store”. My murder insticts nearly took over….
Baker on the Rise said:
Tending to the dough is a fun part of the process 🙂
yummychunklet said:
Your dough turned out perfect. So pillowy and soft looking!
Baker on the Rise said:
Thank you! I think it came out well 🙂
Kathy said:
Perfectly beautiful! We loved these but, what’s not to love! I took three days to do mine, too!
Baker on the Rise said:
A fun project but I will welcome a slightly less involved one for our next TWD!
girlinafoodfrenzy said:
Definite labour of love and you should be commended for the skill in manipulating all that butter! They look exactly as you describe them, flaky layers, sticky buns and definitely moreish!
Baker on the Rise said:
Thank you! It was a fun project!
breaddivas said:
What a great post! I can almost taste the buttery goodness from your beautiful photos. I’ll be curious to hear if you find a new mixer that is up to the challenge of this brioche dough.
Baker on the Rise said:
I am sure with the recommendations I could find one, but budget wise it is more of a “wish list” item at this time.
beansylovescake said:
Great job! This recipe was amazing, if not a lot of work. I use a KitchenAid Pro stand mixer. It’s a monster, but I’m always glad to have the extra big mixing bowl.
Baker on the Rise said:
I would welcome that monster in my kitchen anyday 🙂
guineapigfood said:
They look great! Mine took three days as well, but at least I have another log-and-a-half in the freezer to make it worthwhile 🙂
Baker on the Rise said:
I know, I am looking forward to baking the second batch!
Teresa said:
All the bread-making we’ve been doing over the past few months for BwJ and FFwD is certainly justification enough for a dedicated bread-making stand mixer! Your sticky buns look lovely.
Baker on the Rise said:
Thanks!
smarkies said:
great post! they look divine and absolutely delicious! 🙂
Baker on the Rise said:
I certainly think they are!
Melissa said:
Beautiful photos of the process and finished product. I agree it’s not a difficult recipe just rather daunting because of all the steps involved. But totally worth it in the end.
Baker on the Rise said:
I had to read through it several times and I also watched the youtube clips. Next time it won’t seem so intimidating.
hollyeatsinfrance said:
These look awesome, that first photo made me drool.
I’m just wondering who originally called this dough brioche? It’s more of a croissant dough, like you said, and the two are pretty different in texture and end result.
Baker on the Rise said:
Good question. I am not sure of the answer to that one.
thingsmybellylikes said:
I do a lot of baking but somehow don’t own a mixer. Moved to a new place about 2 years ago and I’m still trying to stock the kitchen properly! That said, these are delicious and may be the best incentive yet to go out and get a good mixing machine!
Your photos are gorgeous btw – hungry now!
Baker on the Rise said:
I remember when I first got my mixer and I wasn’t sure what to make with it. Now I can’t live without it!
oven chaos said:
Love your picture with the ruler – this is what I call a dedicated baker 🙂 When I bake brioche dough, I always end up using aluminum foil for the last 5-10 min of baking.
Cher said:
Very lovely – this was definitely a project, but I think that’s what helped make it a “treat”.
My KA Artisan didn’t struggle at all with this one – but it sure does get upset with me with some pumpernickel recipes 🙂
NickkiT said:
Amazing!! I just did a spinning class and I could devour one of those right now!
Rock Salt said:
Phew, a lot of work but what a result!
Rhonda Sittig said:
These are my weakness!! Thanks for the recipe.
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