| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 3 hr 40 min |
| Prep: | 1 hr |
| Inactive: | 2 hr |
| Cook: | 40 min |
| Yield: | 8 buns |
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 170 grams, 6 ounces) unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups (345 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (110 grams) honey
- 1/3 cup (80 grams) heavy cream
- 1/3 cup (80 grams) water
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- Basic Brioche Dough, recipe follows
- 1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup (100 grams) pecan halves, toasted and chopped
- 2 3/4 sticks (310 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 10 to 12 pieces
- 2 1/2 cups (350 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
- 2 1/4 cups (340 grams) bread flour
- 1 1/2 packages (3 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast or 1-ounce (28 grams) fresh cake yeast
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (82 grams) sugar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 6 eggs
Instructions
- First, make the goo. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the brown sugar and cook, stirring, to combine (it may look separated, that’s ok). Remove from the heat and whisk in the honey, cream, water, and salt. Strain to remove any undissolved lumps of brown sugar. Let cool for about 30 minutes, or until cooled to room temperature. You should have about 3 cups. (The mixture can be made up to 2 weeks in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.)
- Divide the dough in half. Use half for this recipe and reserve the other half for another use.
- On a floured work surface, roll out the brioche into rectangle about 12 by 16 inches and 1/4-inch thick. It will have the consistency of cold, damp Play-Doh and should be fairly easy to roll. Position the rectangle so a short side is facing you.
- In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and half of the pecans. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the entire surface of the dough. Starting from the short side farthest from you and working your way down, roll up the rectangle like a jelly roll. Try to roll tightly, so you have a nice round spiral. Trim off about 1/4- inch from each end of the roll to make them even.
- Use a bench scraper or a chef’s knife to cut the roll into 8 equal pieces, each about 1 1/2-inches wide. (At this point, the unbaked buns can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 1 week. When ready to bake, thaw them, still wrapped, in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, then proceed as directed.)
- Pour the goo into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish, covering the bottom evenly. Sprinkle the remaining pecans evenly over the surface. Arrange the buns, evenly spaced, in the baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm spot to proof until the dough is puffy, pillowy, and soft and the buns are touching-almost tripled in size, about 2 hours.
- Position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 350 degrees F.
- Bake until golden brown, about 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool in the dish on a wire rack for 20 to 30 minutes. One at a time, invert the buns onto a serving platter, and spoon any extra goo and pecans from the bottom of the dish over the top.
- The buns are best served warm or within 4 hours of baking. They can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day, and then warmed in a 325 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes before serving.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the all-purpose flour, bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water, and 5 of the eggs. Beat on low speed for 3 to 4 minutes, or until all the ingredients are combined. Stop the mixer, as needed, to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure all the flour is incorporated into the wet ingredients. Once the dough has come together, beat on low speed for another 3 to 4 minutes. The dough will be very stiff and seem quite dry.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the butter, 1 piece at a time, mixing after each addition until it disappears into the dough. Continue mixing on low speed for about 10 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. It is important for all the butter to be thoroughly mixed into the dough. If necessary, stop the mixer occasionally and break up the dough with your hands to help mix in the butter.
- Once the butter is completely incorporated, turn up the speed to medium and beat until the dough becomes sticky, soft, and somewhat shiny, another 15 minutes. It will take some time to come together. It will look shaggy and questionable at the start and then eventually it will turn smooth and silky. Turn the speed to medium-high and beat for about 1 minute. You should hear the dough make a slap-slap-slap sound as it hits the sides of the bowl. Test the dough by pulling at it; it should stretch a bit and have a little give. If it seems wet and loose and more like a batter than a dough, add a few tablespoons of flour and mix until it comes together. If it breaks off into pieces when you pull at it, continue to mix on medium speed for another 2 to 3 minutes, or until it develops more strength and stretches when you grab it. It is ready when you can gather it all together and pick it up in 1 piece.
- Put the dough in a large bowl or plastic container and cover it with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap directly onto the surface of the dough. Let the dough proof (that is, grow and develop flavor) in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or up to overnight At this point you can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 1166 |
| Total Fat | 57 g |
| Saturated Fat | 29 g |
| Carbohydrates | 152 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 86 g |
| Protein | 16 g |
| Cholesterol | 237 mg |
| Sodium | 710 mg |
Reviews
These were so good! The goo seems like way too much, like buns are floating in it but it cooks into the buns and the flavor is amazing! Brioche buns are soft & buttery. This recipe is a keeper! Use 5 eggs like the recipe directions say. The 6th egg is for an egg wash that you don’t use in the sticky bun recipe but for the other half of brioche project. Use all the goo, cut brioche recipe in half to use for something else. These took all of 45 minutes plus another couple minutes to get a darker brown like brioche turns. If they end up soggy maybe they weren’t baked long enough. They are great hot, they are great later that night, and they are great 2 days later for breakfast. Yum!
This helped save my COVID ruined 2022 Christmas.I had all the ingredients to make them and bring them to my neice Christmas morning but we were grounded by COVID. I had a burst of energy on Saturday and decide to try to make them but I was not at home and only had a good hand mixer. I decide to forge ahead and it worked. The mixer got the dough all incorporated and I found a big plastic container and I kneaded it by hand in the container for about 15 minutes.
I assembled them on Christmas morning to cheer me and my husband up.It worked. They were delicious .
Can you proof the dough, then put the buns together and proof overnight in the fridge so they are ready to go in the am?
First I could not determine where the 6th egg was used. Other than that, this is quite an in-depth receipe and I can’t wait to try it. Thank you fir sharing.
Recipe does take time – but results are well worth it. I swapped out honey for Baldwin’s table syrup which is made in West Stockbridge, Ma. It was what my mother used in her pecan roll recipe from more than 60 years ago. It is a combo of maple syrup and cane sugar syrup – which is also amazing on pancakes! It gives an added dimension to the flavors from nuts, cinnamon and buttery roll. Not just sweet from honey. Also, don’t freak like I did when you put dough in fridge to chill- and come back and it has not risen. I thought my yeast was bad – I spent a bit of time in panic mode. But it is for making dough easier to manage to assemble rolls. (Among other things) I don’t make rolls often – so it was my inexperience-
These are so, so good! They are soft, buttery, and very moist. The “goo” reminded me of pecan pie filling. I never liked cinnamon rolls or sticky buns until now- that is, I made this one.
The recipe indicates these are best eaten the same day, but I had some leftover I ate the next day which was still soft and moist.
I cheated as I did not have the time to make the bread. I used a can of jumbo cinnamon rolls from pillsbury. The goo though, you can not cheat. Great for a quick dessert or breakfast when you don’t have time. So yummy! I could eat goo on a shoe!!!
Not sure if it’s my format or the actual directions,, but; the order of these directions is insane. Also, it would’ve been helpful to have ALL the ingredients on the first page. Also, I cannot understand why you don’t check the life of your yeast. What are you suppose to do after you’ve added all the flour and butter and your yeast isn’t active? Quite frankly that’s a lot of money you’ll have to throw out. Someone please rewrite these instructions.
LOVE the topping!! added 1/2 cup extra pecans. very good.
This is my favorite sticky bun recipe-the brioche dough recipe is a bit intense getting the butter to absorb but if you follow the directions as written it comes together. I increased the cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon and its perfect. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.