This week's
Tuesdays With Dorie selection comes courtesy from Madam Chow at
Madam Chow's Kitchen. There is nothing more seductive than a sweet, sticky honey glaze dripping over circles buttery brioche dough. To prepare for this recipe, I had to acknowledge and accept that I will be using almost a POUND of butter! (two seconds pass...tick, tick) Okay, I'm over it... on to the preparation. Aside from the dough technique, I didn't deviate from the original recipe.
The trickiest part of this delicious recipe was the preparation of the brioche dough.
I took a different approach to making brioche dough, and this came courtesy from a pro-baking course I took at my local cooking school. I used the PADDLE attachment, only mixed at a medium speed for only 5 minutes to develop the gluten, and added the butter at the very end mixing at a low/medium speed for 2-3 minutes (until fully incorporated). The resulting dough was soft and pliable, and it didn't require overworking my KA. I will provide more info on this technique in a future post with my brioche pictures.
I am always amazed at how yeast transforms flour, sugar and butter into these puffy gems. I baked only a portion of the rolls, so used a small loaf pan as my baking dish. Even before going in the oven, these babies look scrumptious..
The verdict on this recipe --- absolutely delicious!
I going to stop writing (as I'm getting the luscious honey glaze all over my keyboard) and let the pictures speak for themselves....
If you can't get enough of these gorgeous buns, check out the delicious creations made by my fellow bakers at Tuesdays With Dorie.
Pecan Honey Sticky Buns
Adapted From Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan
Makes 15 buns
Ingredients:
1/2 batch for Golden Brioche Dough (recipe below)
For the Glaze:
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup honey
1-1/2 cups pecans (whole or pieces)
For the Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons (packed) light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
Instructions:
Generously butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan (a Pyrex pan is perfect for this).
To make the glaze: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter, and honey to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to dissovle the sugar. Pour the glaze into the buttered pan, evening it out asbest you can by tilting the pan or spreading the glaze with a heatproof spatula. Sprinkle over the pecans.
To make the filling: Mix the sugars and cinnamon together in a bowl. If necessary, in another
bowl, work the butter with a spatula until it is soft, smooth and spreadable.
To shape the buns: On a flour-dusted work surface, roll the chilled brioche dough into a 16-inch square. Using your fingers or a pastry brush, spread the softened butter over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1-inch strip bare on the side farthest from you. Starting with the side nearest you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can. (At this point, you can wrap the dough airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months . . . . Or, if you want to make just part of the recipe now, you can use as much of the dough as you'd like and freeze the remainder. Reduce the glaze recipe accordingly).
With a chef's knife, using a gentle sawing motion, trim just a tiny bit from the ends of the roll if they're very ragged or not well filled, then cut the log into 1-inch thick buns. (Because you trim the ragged ends of the dough, and you may have lost a little length in the rolling, you will get 15 buns, not 16.) Fit the buns into the pan cut side down, leaving some space between them. Lightly cover the pan with a piece of wax paper and set the pan in a warm place until the buns ahve doubled in volume, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The buns are properly risen when they are puffy, soft, doubled and, in all likelihood, touching one another.
Getting ready to bake: When the buns have almost fully risen , center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the sheet of wax paper and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Bake the sticky buns for about 30 minutes, or until they are puffed and gorgeously golden; the glaze will be bubbling away merrily. Pull the pan from the oven.
The sticky buns must be unmolded minutes after they come out of the oven. If you do not have a rimmed platter large enough to hold them, use a baking sheet lined with a silicone mate or buttered foil. Be careful - the glaze is super-hot and super-sticky.
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Golden Brioche Dough
Ingredients:
2 packets active dry yeast (each packet of yeast contains approx. 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature but still slightly firm.
To Make The Brioche: Put the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the flour and salt, and fit into the mixer with the dough hook, if you have one. Toss a kitchen towel over the mixer, covering the bowl as completely as you can-- this will help keep you, the counter and your kitchen floor from being showered in flour. Turn the mixer on and off a few short pulses, just to dampen the flour (yes, you can peek to see how you're doing), then remove the towel, increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for a minute or two, just until the flour is moistened. At this point, you'll have a fairly dry, shaggy mess.Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs, followed by the sugar. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes, until the dough forms a ball. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2-tablespoon-size chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next. You'll have a dough that is very soft, almost like batter. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes.Transfer the dough to a clean bowl (or wash out the mixer bowl and use it), cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the warmth of your room.Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap to the bowl. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours, then leave the uncovered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight. (After this, you can proceed with the recipe to make the brioche loaves, or make the sticky buns instead, or freeze all or part of the dough for later use.)
With all of the chocolate-centric recipes baked this month, this week's Tuesday's With Dorie selection, Honey-Wheat Cookies, was a welcome change of pace to my baking agenda. With a healthy amount of wheat germ and honey, as well as a touch of lemon zest, you could almost consider these cookies a healthy snack - just ignore the stick of butter that is part of the ingredient list. 
I may be in the minority, but I really enjoy the nutty flavor and crunchy texture of wheat germ. Its a great topping for my morning oatmeal or yogurt, and if I'm feeling particularly health conscious, I'll substitute a portion of flour with wheat germ in my muffin recipes. 
I'm still in detox mode (one more friggin' week to go), so I'll have to defer to all of you on taste. I have some cookie dough sitting in the freezer and I look forward to sampling this once this cleanse chapter comes to a close. 
I also reduced the frosting recipe by half. My only slight issue with the frosting was its intense sweetness (and I didn't even use the full amount of powdered sugar in the recipe). This could have resulted from my substitution of crystalized ginger for fresh. To balance the sweetness, I added more cream cheese. Instead of an icing to drizzle on the cake layers, I ended up with a more traditional cream cheese frosting. The little golden bits you see in the frosting is the chopped crystalized ginger:
