Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Pecan Sticky Buns
May 15, 2012 at 12:01 am | Posted in breakfast things, BWJ, groups, sweet things, sweet yeast breads, tuesdays with dorie | 31 CommentsTags: baking, bread, breakfast
I’ve been getting a lot of practice making breakfast pastries lately. A couple of months ago, the owners of the shop I work for decided that we should open three hours earlier and have a menu of morning baked stuff. I now have to wake up basically in the middle of the night to walk to work and make this happen. I’m thinking about quitting soon….but you didn’t hear me say that, and you certainly didn’t come here for banal griping. You came for Nancy Silverton’s Pecan Sticky Buns!
It’s pretty much a given that sticky buns have a lot of butter in them, but this recipe uses a sh*t-ton of butter. There’s brioche dough..no, make that laminated brioche dough (unlike the other sticky buns we did about–yikes– four years ago)…and then there’s the sticky top part. The only component without butter is the pecan-cinnamon swirl inside. When everything’s tallied up, it comes to five sticks for a whole recipe!! My mind immediately went to work wondering where I could shave off a few tablespoons. First off, a whole recipe makes two 9-inch pans, or 14 buns, and I certainly didn’t need that many for the two of us. A quarter of a recipe would be fine…I knew I could squeeze four slightly smaller buns out of that and bake them in a 6-inch pan. I ultimately decided on making a half recipe of brioche dough, and only taking half of that to make buns with (I’m saving the other half for another project). I kept the full amount of butter in the dough itself. Best not to mess around with that. I used about two-thirds the butter called for in the laminating step and half for the topping. I don’t think I missed out too much…my buns were sweet and soft and flaky. I plan to experiment more with this laminated brioche thing later on…it’s a cool technique.
By the way brioche is a lovely dough to work with…if you can keep it cool enough while you shape it, that is. It’s so soft and nice to touch. And it rises beautifully.
It took me like an hour to figure out how to put two pics side-by-side in Photoshop, btw…wow.
I made my base dough on day one, parked it in the fridge overnight after its first rise, and finished off the laminating and rolling the next day. I did my dough in my stand mixer. Since I just made a half a batch, my KA had no problem cranking it out. It was really such a small about of dough, though, that I think even the whole recipe would have been just fine. Despite my earlier talk about breakfast pastries, my husband and I actually ate two of these sticky buns for dessert. After getting up so early for work now everyday, I can’t manage to get up early enough on the weekends to have buns proofed, baked and cooled before brekkie. The other two baked buns were wrapped up tight and stuck the freezer, to be defrosted and enjoyed properly one weekend morning with a cup of coffee.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan or read Lynn’s Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Nicole’s Cookies on Friday. There’s also a video of Nancy and Julia making the buns together. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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a whisk and a spoon 
Wow, Love your bakes, lovely! =)
Comment by mydearbakes— May 15, 2012 #
They look fabulous! I’ve always wanted to make buns like that at home, better get on it! 🙂
Comment by Sarah— May 15, 2012 #
They look great!
I did mess around with the butter and luckily the dough was still good (apart from the salt and sugar – I need to increase them in the brioche dough).
Did not like the sticky topping, though
Comment by Ckay— May 15, 2012 #
your first pic is fabulous!!! i thoroughly enjoyed the recipe despite the effort!! would have enjoyed it more if someone else made them for me!! 🙂
Comment by baker in disguise— May 15, 2012 #
beautiful sticky buns. i cut the butter down in mine too. Only one stick went into the brioche, and I probably only used 2T to laminate each roll of dough. I just couldn’t use the full amount.
Comment by Amy— May 15, 2012 #
Love your side by side photo. (the buns look delicious too.)
Comment by Judy— May 15, 2012 #
Gorgeous shots…
~Carmen
TWDBWJ member
http://bakingismyzen.wordpress.com
Comment by Baking is my Zen— May 15, 2012 #
I love your photos – and your buns look great. Everytime I try to line up pictures in photoshop it takes me forever!
Comment by Lynn— May 15, 2012 #
Your buns look great!
Comment by Wendy— May 15, 2012 #
Oh yours look so fabulous after that last rising. Mine didn’t even come close to that, though thankfully they baked up just fine. I too was terrified by the amount of butter in this recipe, BA has a recipe in the latest issue that looks less time consuming, I might try that one next time. Beautiful buns 😉 haha
Comment by thetoastedsprinkle— May 15, 2012 #
Yummy they look sooo good ! The results were definitely worth the effort
Comment by Sandy— May 15, 2012 #
Great pictures, as usual!
Comment by Paula @ Vintage Kitchen Notes— May 15, 2012 #
your butter reductions look spot on. beautiful buns!
Comment by Piebird— May 15, 2012 #
Nice photos. It is a sinful amount of butter. If I make these again I may try playing around with reducing it where I can as well.
Comment by Baker on the Rise— May 15, 2012 #
Gorgeous photos!
Comment by Teresa— May 15, 2012 #
yum..they look great! I love how big and fat yours turned out:)
Comment by michelle— May 15, 2012 #
Such beautiful looking sticky buns…absolutely perfect! Nice job!
Comment by Kathy— May 15, 2012 #
Your stick buns look drippingly good. I cut down on the butter for the topping so I didn’t get the coating, but looks like yours turned out great!
Comment by smarkies— May 15, 2012 #
Yours look GREAT!
Comment by Anna— May 15, 2012 #
Photoshop and I are still learning to be friends with each other…
Lovely job!
Comment by Cher— May 15, 2012 #
Your sticky buns look awesome! Sorry to hear about the middle of the night wake up calls. But I am jealous that you get to walk to work. That must be nice.
Comment by The Double Trouble Kitchen— May 15, 2012 #
Beautiful buns! great photography too.
Comment by Miette— May 15, 2012 #
Gorgeous!
Comment by beansylovescake— May 15, 2012 #
These look delicious! I admire your dedication at cooking at home when you work so early. Very beautiful.
Comment by onedomesticgoddess— May 15, 2012 #
They look so good! Mine look so tiny compared to yours – I had 5 in my 6″ ring and there was still space around each bun…
Comment by guineapigfood— May 16, 2012 #
The buns with the dripping caramel picture is cool! Getting up so early to go and bake sounds very tiresome…
Comment by oven chaos— May 16, 2012 #
I did the early shift at a bakery in college and it was rough. Sleeping in on days off is needed! I think these buns certainly qualify as dessert with all the butter
Comment by spike— May 16, 2012 #
Your buns turned out beautiful..yum 🙂
Comment by isthisakeeper— May 18, 2012 #
Absolutely stunning pictures of your Pecan Sticky Buns – your blog is terrific and the photos are just soo pretty! I am glad that I got to comment, I will make sure to follow your posts in the future – thank you also for your kind comment!
Comment by thekitchenlioness— May 20, 2012 #
Yeah, well that “sh*t-ton of butter” you describe is the reason I sat this one out. Now that The Swimmer has exited the building, taking his appetite to college with him, not to mention all those swimmer buddies of his that dropped by for sampling/eating/cleaning up all food hanging around, I figure I don’t need this sort of temptation anywhere near me…my pool is open and swimsuit season has arrived. Excuses, excuses, I know. I figured I would just come out and drool over the ones you made. Drool-worthy indeed. And, btw, now I not only have to compete with your photos each post…I have to compete with side by sides???!! That bar just keeps getting raised higher and higher.
Comment by Kayte— May 21, 2012 #
look delicious!
Comment by warmthecocklesofyourheart— June 4, 2012 #