Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Pecan sticky buns (TWD: BwJ)


Our second May recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is pecan sticky buns. I just knew these would be a hit in my family, and the recipe was perfectly timed for Mother's Day.

Unlike my usual cinnamon bun recipes which start with a sweet dough, these are made with brioche, an incredibly rich dough made with five eggs and a stick and a half of butter. The dough is mixed before the butter is added and it took forever for my butter to incorporate. But finally, using my mixer and a bit of hand kneading, the dough was ready to rise and then chill.

The next day, the dough is laminated, with another stick and a half of butter folded in. I actually only laminated half of the dough. I knew my kids wouldn't like the pecan sticky buns ("no nuts!"), so I used a quarter of the brioche dough to make plain ol' cinnamon buns for them (the other quarter is in the freezer to be used later).


The dough was really easy to handle. Once it was chilled, I rolled it out and then topped it with sugar, cinnamon, brushed egg, and pecans. I used a little less butter than called for (there was so much!!) and a little extra cinnamon and sugar. Then I rolled up the dough into a jelly roll. The recipe says to freeze it before cutting, but my dough was still quite cool from the fridge, so I just used my normal dental floss technique to cut it and it worked just fine.

My buns did not bake for as long as the recipe called for: the cinnamon buns were finished in 26 minutes and the sticky buns were finished in 30. I loved the look of the layers in the finished buns before I flipped them!


The texture of these was incredible: so light and fluffy. They weren't as sweet as our usual dough, and hubby and I didn't like them quite as much. Which is really quite a good thing, as they were a whole lot more work! Still, a delicious Mother's Day treat, enjoyed by all! :)


Check out the other TWDers' sticky buns here and check out the recipe in Baking with Julia, or on our hosts' blogs: Lynn of Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Nicole of Cookies on Friday .

8 comments:

  1. Yum! Love the sound of your regular cinnamon buns - I bet both variations were amazing. :)

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  2. B&G would agree on the "no nuts!" =) I like pecans, but to be honest I prefer cinnamon buns myself. The idea of laminating the brioche is intriguing, but the amount of butter does scare me a little. You're right, the layers do look cool!

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  3. These were fabulous. I want to lick the picture.

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  4. They look just terrific. I agree that they are very time consuming!

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  5. These look just gorgeous and so tasty! I didn't make them for that reason...that and the 5 sticks of butter I would have eaten in them as I can not be trusted with things like this at home...I would nibble a little here and there until most of them were consumed, by me!! It's swim season, my pool is open, and I decided I would just come around and ooh and ahh over everyone else's. That said, I wish I would have made them, they look soooooo good!

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  6. Very lovely - I think my favorite view of these is while they are still in the pan and you can see all those layers.

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