Pecan Sticky Buns

Marilou Guy has joined our School of Cooking Team as Assistant Manager. She loves to bake and is sharing the recipe for one of her favorite sweet breads. The original recipe is from Nancy Silverton, a contributing baker to the classic cookbook, Baking with Julia. Be sure to check out Marilou’s cake deco classes on your Winter-Spring schedule

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Brioche
Brioche is an elegant yeasted dough, a cross between a bread and pastry. It is rich with butter and eggs, and just a little sweet. There is nothing difficult about making this brioche, but you do need time and a heavy-duty mixer.

The Sponge
1/3 cup warm whole milk (100 to 110 °F)
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
1 large egg
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Put the milk, yeast, egg, and 1 cup of flour in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Mix the ingredients together with a rubber spatula. Mixing just until everything is blended. Sprinkle over the remaining cup of flour to cover the sponge. Set the sponge aside to rest uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes. After this resting time, the flour coating will crack, your indication that everything is moving along properly.

The Dough
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

Add the sugar, salt, eggs, and 1 cup of the flour to the sponge. Set the bowl into the mixer, attach the dough hook, and mix on low speed for a minute or two, just until the ingredients look as if they’re about to come together. Still mixing, sprinkle in ½ cup more flour. When the flour is incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat for bout 15 minutes, stopping to scrape down the hook and bowl as needed.

During this mixing period, the dough should come together, wrap itself around the hook, and slap the sides of the bowl. If, after 7 to 10 minutes, you don’t have a cohesive, slapping dough, add up to 3 tablespoons more flour. Continue to beat, giving the dough a full 15 minutes in the mixer – don’t skimp on the time; this is what will give the brioche its distinctive texture.

Be warned – your mixer will become extremely hot. Most heavy duty mixers designed for making bread can handle this long beating, although if you plan to make successive batches of dough, you’ll have to let your machine cool down completely between batches. If you have questions about your mixer’s capacity in this regard, call the manufacturer before you start.

In order to incorporate the butter into the dough, you must work the butter until it is the same consistency as the dough. You can bash the butter into submission with rolling pin or give it a kinder and gentler handling by using a dough scarper to smear it but by bit across a work surface. When it’s ready, the butter will be smooth, soft, and still cool – not warm, oily, or greasy.

With the mixer on medium-low, add the butter a few tablespoons at a time. This is the point at which you’ll think you’ve made a huge mistake, because the dough that you worked so hard to make smooth will fall apart – carry on. When all of the butter has been added, raise the mixer speed to medium-high for 5 minutes, or until you once again hear the dough slapping against the sides of the bowl. Clean the sides of the bowl frequently as you work; if it looks as thought the dough is not coming together after 2 to 3 minutes, add up to 1 tablespoon more flour. When you’re finished, the dough should still feel somewhat cool. It will be soft and still sticky and may cling slightly to the sides and bottom of the bowl.

First Rise
Transfer the dough to a very large buttered bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise a room temperature until doubled in bulk, 2 to 2 ½ hours.

Second Rise and Chilling
Deflate the dough by placing your fingers under it, lifting a section of dough, and then letting it fall back into the bowl. Work your way around the circumference of the dough, lifting and releasing. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough overnight, or for at least 4 to 6 hours, during which time it will continue to rise and may double in size again.

After this long chill, the dough is ready to use in any brioche recipe.

Storing
I f you are not going to use the dough after the second rise, deflate it, wrap it airtight, and store it in the freezer. The dough can remain frozen for up to 1 month. Thaw the dough, still wrapped, in the refrigerator overnight and use it directly from the refrigerator.

Makes about 2 ½ pounds.

Pecan Sticky Buns

The Dough
1 recipe Brioche dough, chilled
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

Divide the dough in half and keep one half covered in the refrigerator while you work with the other.

On a lightly floured work surface (cool marble is ideal), roll the dough into a rectangle that’s 11 inches wide, 13 inches long, and ¼ inch thick. Try to work quickly, because the dough is so active that even the warmth of your hands may be enough to get it rising again. Dot the surface of the dough evenly with half of the softened butter and fold the dough in thirds, as though you were folding a business letter. Turn the dough so that the closed fold is to your left and then roll it out again, taking care not to roll over the edges – you don’t want to crush the layers you’re creating by folding and rolling.

Chilling the Dough
Fold the dough in thirds again, wrap well in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes so that it can relax. Repeat the rolling, folding, and chilling with the second piece of dough and the remaining butter.

The Filling
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and keep it close at hand.

Remove the first piece of dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured work surface, roll it into a rectangle 11 inches wide, 13 inches long, and ¼ inch thick, just as you did at the start. Using a pastry brush, paint the surface of the dough with the beaten egg. Leaving the top quarter of the dough bare, sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar and half of the chopped pecans; spread everything around with your finger so that the filling is evenly distributed. Very lightly roll the rolling pin over the dough to press in the filling. Starting from the base of the rectangle, roll the dough up into a log.

Chilling the Logs
Wrap the log in plastic and freeze until firm, 45 minutes to and hour, so that it will be easy to cut. Repeat with the second piece of dough. The sticky bun logs can now be double-wrapped and kept in the freezer for up to a month. If left to freeze solid, the rolls should be allowed to rest at room temperature for 15 minutes before you continue with the recipe.

The Topping
16 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
42 pecan halves

While the logs are chilling, prepare the pans. You’ll need two 9-inch round cake pans with high sides. Using your fingers, press 8 tablespoons of butter evenly over the bottom of each pan; sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the butter.

Shaping the Buns
Remove a log of dough from the freezer and, if the ends are ragged, trim them. Using a long sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice the log into seven or eight 1 ½-inch –wide slices. Lay each slice on one of its flat sides, press the slice down with the palm of your hand to flatten it slightly, and then, with cupped hands, turn the slice around on the work surface two or three times to reestablish its round shape. Press 3 pecans, flat side up, into the top of each slice so that the nuts form a triangle. Holding on to the nuts as best as you can, turn the slices over into a prepared pan , placing the buns in a circle and putting the last slice in the center; the seams of the buns should face the outside of the pan. Repeat with the second log of dough.

Allow the pans of sticky buns to rest, uncovered, at room temperature for 1 ½ to 2 hours, or until the slices rise and grow to touch one another.

Baking the Buns
Arrange the oven racks so that one rack is in the middle of the oven and the other is just below it and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put the pans of sticky buns on the middle rack and slip a foil or parchment lined jelly roll pan onto the lower rack, at the ready to catch any drips. Bake the buns 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. As soon as you remove the sticky buns from the oven, invert them onto a serving dish. If you leave the buns in the pan for a few minutes, the sugar may harden and they’ll be difficult to unmold. It this happens, soften the sugar by putting the pan over a flame or in a pan of hot water. Serve the sticky buns a room temperature or just slightly warm – never serve them straight from the oven because of the caramelized topping is dangerously hot.

Storing
Sticky Buns should be served the day they are made.

Makes 14 to 16 sticky buns