Sticky buns are the American version of pain aux raisins, a favorite French breakfast bread. Here brioche dough is rolled into a square, spread with pastry cream and a layer of our “schmear” a mixture of brown sugar, butter, honey, rum, and vanilla and sprinkled with pecans. The dough is rolled up and sliced into disks, which are put in muffin pans that have been filled with more schmear and pecans. This can bake up fantastically messy, with caramelizing sugar bubbling up and over the buns. The result is a very moist and delicious sticky bun.
Ingredients
Schmear
- 10.33 cups (lightly packed) (255 g) Light brown sugar
- 6 oz (168 g) Unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ tbsp (30 g) Clover honey
- tsp (5 g) Myers's dark rum
- ½ tsp (2.6 g) Vanilla paste
- 2 cups (215 g) Whole pecans
- Brioche Dough for Sticky Buns
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp (140 g) Pastry Cream
- ½ tsp (1.3 g) Ground cinnamon
How to Make It
-
For the schmear
- Place the brown sugar in a bowl and breakup any lumps with a fork.
- Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Turn to medium-low speed and cream the butter, warming the bowl as needed, until the butter is the consistency of mayonnaise and holds a peak when the paddle is lifted. Add the sugar and mix for 3 to 4 minutes, until fluffy. Scrape the bowl again. Add the honey, rum, and vanilla paste and mix on low for 1 minute to combine.
- Place 35 grams/2 tablespoons of the schmear in each muffin cup. Set the pan in the oven for about 1 minute to melt the schmear.
- Sprinkle 15 grams/2 tablespoons of the pecans into each cup. Place on a baking sheet and set aside. To shape and bake the buns
- Run a bowl scraper around the sides and bottom of the bowl of brioche to release the dough and turn it onto a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, flipping and fluffing it, into a 16-inch square.
- Spread the pastry cream in an even layer over the dough, then spread 140 grams/½ cup plus 1 tablespoon of the schmear in an even layer over the pastiy cream. Dust with the cinnamon and sprinkle with the remaining 125 grams/1¼ cups pecans.
- Lift the end nearest you and roll the dough up as tightly as possible. Turn the roll seam side down, trim the ends, and cut into 6 equal portions. Tuck the end of each roll underneath itself to keep it from unraveling as it bakes and set in a muffin cup. Put your index finger in the center of each roll and push the center layers outward, making a small opening in the center. (The opening will close up as the buns proof.) Then gently press the top of each bun so the edges reach the sides of the cup.
- Cover with a plastic tub or a cardboard box and let proof for 1 to ½ hours, or until the buns have expanded to fill the cups and risen about ½ inch above the top of the pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (standard).
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the sticky buns are a rich golden brown and, when tested with a toothpick, there are no undercooked areas in the center. Set a Silpat on the work surface and immediately invert the muffin pan onto the Silpat, letting the melted schmear run down the sides of the sticky buns. Any schmear that pools on the Silpat can quickly be spooned back over the sticky buns. Let cool completely.
- The sticky buns are best the day they are baked, but they can be stored wrapped in a few layers of plastic wrap or in a single layer in a covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 week.
