mix, mix… stir, stir

It seems that if it weren’t for my weekly baking assignment with Tuesdays with Dorie, I would have a rather empty blog. I have been working on other topics to post and they will be showing up soon, but now it’s time to talk about sticky buns, which was Madam Chow’s baking selection this week.

As if sticky buns aren’t indulgent enough, these are made with brioche dough! I will admit that my high marks for this recipe could be rooted in the fact that this was the first time I have made brioche that was really good, but the finished buns were truly a sticky gooey delight - the second time around.

The reason for the second batch comes later in the story, the first step is making the brioche which worked beautifully once I got over the fact that I was putting three sticks of butter in the mixer. A near disaster was averted when I turned around just in the nick of time to prevent my Kitchen Aid mixer from walking off the counter during the final kneading, whew. The brioche recipe set me up for an easy recovery when I realized I needed to re-make the buns because it makes double what is needed for the sticky buns. With back-up dough just standing by in the refrigerator, I simply announced we would be having sticky buns for lunch rather than breakfast and got back to work.

My downfall was placing my baking dish on a baking sheet lined with a silpat as the recipe suggests. It sounds harmless, but this is a suggestion I usually ignore in recipes and for some reason I used the extra pan this time. The problem is the pan created too much insulation and the bottom of the buns were very undercooked while the tops nearly burned. Additionally, I think it was the top and bottom temperature differential that caused the buns to spiral up like growing volcanoes. Of course I didn’t realize the bottom was still so doughy before I turned them out of the pan and by that time it was too late. Happily, I was able to reuse the pecans and in picking at the cooked parts came up with a few additional adjustments for the next batch.

Take-two started with taking advantage of the opportunity to add some flavor to the sticky part. Anytime I can play in the spice drawer I will so I tossed a beautiful cinnamon stick in to cook with the sugar, butter, and honey and I added about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. The glaze is essentially a caramel and nothing goes better with caramel than a touch of salt. I might even bump this up a bit next time. If I had an orange on hand I would have also tossed in a nice slice of the peel to infuse along with the cinnamon stick. Subtle changes that were very pleasing. If I weren’t reusing the pecans, I would have toasted them first as well. I also added an extra 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon to the filling which I don’t think is necessary, but I liked the stronger flavor. This time I baked them without the extra pan liner and they were beautiful. It pays to know your own oven and follow your instincts.

Honey is cooked with a cup of brown sugar and a stick of butter to make the glaze and I think honey is the key to achieving such a nice caramel sticky coating on the buns. These really do live up to their name and with the built in back-up dough for a second take, how can you not give it a shot? It’s also important to remember that sticky buns are just as good at lunch as they are at breakfast! You can find all the Tuesday with Dorie recipes in Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. It is worthy of space on your bookshelf.