Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

Time for another Tuesdays with Dorie recipe! This week's recipe was Dorie Greenspan's Pecan Honey Sticky Buns, using brioche as the dough.

The making of the brioche did scare me a bit. Even with a professional KitchenAid stand mixer, I could hear that it was struggling to get everything kneaded together nicely. I'll take the advice of some of the other bakers and make the brioche by hand next time - I'll just sit down in front of the TV with a pound of butter next to me and slowly work it together (that sounds so fatty). The recipe for the Pecan Honey Sticky Buns calls for half of Dorie's brioche recipe, so I had to figure out something else to do with the other half. Earlier last week, I took half the dough that I had made and decided to play catch-up with the group, making some Brioche Raisin Snails.

After rolling out the dough, layering on the butter and cinnamon-sugar mix, rolling it all up and slicing it, my buns looked tiny. I was hopeful that they'd rise up and spread, but my baking tray was larger than suggested so I knew they wouldn't fill the pan. After warming them up a bit in the oven to get a quick rise out of them, I was a little more hopeful, but they still looked smaller than I was expecting.

Fast forward a half an hour of baking, and voila, sticky buns. As mentioned, my pan was larger than suggested, so not only did my buns not spread into each other, but the glaze didn't bubble up through everything.

As can be seen in the picture above, the glaze really did try to make an attempt at getting up...it tried bubbling its way, but just couldn't make it. Still, it didn't affect the buns too badly - they still came out nicely on the inside, pleasantly moist. I let the mass cool for about a minute before putting a piece of parchment paper on top, followed by a half-sized sheet pan, and inverting it all so the pecans would fall on top. Or rather, that was the idea. Since everything was loosely packed together (again, because the pan was too large), everything sort of fell all over the place, and the pecans all fell back underneath the buns. Simple solution is that I just spoon on some of the pecans when I'm serving it.

This is one I'll have to make next time I have a reason to put together a fancy breakfast. I'll either force myself to go out and get the right sized pan, or multiply the recipe by one and a half so I fill up the pan that I already have.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan, pp. 51 - 53.

21 comments:

noskos said...

yummy looking buns!

ostwestwind said...

Your buns look delicious!

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

LyB said...

They look just delicious, well done!

Christine said...

Great job these buns look delicous!

Anonymous said...

You could try scooting them over to one side of the pan, and using some folded tin foil as a barrier to keep the sticky sugar from spreading out over the whole pan? Yours look so good!

Bumblebutton said...

Yes, all that butter does sound 'fatty', but that is the lot of a Dorie fan! Nice job!

Katrina said...

oooh, those are great looking!

April said...

They look great!

kimberly salem said...

they look perfect! personally... i'd opt for making more rather than getting the smaller pan ;)

Renee said...

Those buns look yummy!! I can't wait to make them myself. Your photos are awesome as well.

Madam Chow said...

Garrett, these look really good! Another option is splitting the buns up between two smaller pans.
Madam Chow
http://www.mzkitchen.com

Anonymous said...

wow. They look so gooey and great.

Heather B said...

Love your buns! They look delicious! Great job!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

these look pretty good to me!!

mimi said...

don't worry about your buns being tiny, they came out looking great!

PheMom said...

They still look great - besides, taste is what matters!

CB said...

I personally love that they are perfectly round. Great job!
Clara @ I♥food4thought

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

They look perfect!
Shari@Whisk: a food blog

The Kitchen Vixen said...

It isnt true what they say...size doesnt matter:P They look wonderful;)

Linda said...

perfect spirals...great job!

Jacque said...

They look fantastic! Nice photos.