On a cold and snowy weekend, there’s nothing more comforting and delightful as a sticky, sweet treat. And I reckon these fit the bill nicely. Indulgently sticky and gorgeously syrupy, these little buns may make even Willy Wonka himself wince! They are a luxury treat, but ever so simple to make. One piece of important advice – eat them warm! A good excuse to munch them straight from the oven… They’re just SO good!
Maple Pecan Sticky Buns
Makes 12
Ingredients
350g plain flour (use strong flour if you have it, but normal plain flour’s fine too)
50g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
50g melted butter
1 egg, beaten
150ml warm milk
Filling
100g unsalted butter, softened
50g dark brown soft sugar
50g maple syrup
50g chopped pecans
Method
- Start with two bowls. Into one pop the flour, sugar, salt and yeast and give it a mix.
- Into the other, mix the melted butter, beaten egg and milk. Then add this to the flour mix and combine until the ingredients form a dough. You can start mixing with a spoon, but I usually do this with my hands; squidge it and squodge it until it all comes together in a nice ball.
- Once it looks dough-like, it needs to be kneaded! You can do this in your mixer with a dough hook, or manually! You’ll need a clean, floured surface to work on if you do it wth your hands. Knead for 5-10 minutes until it’s nice and smooth.
- If you use a stand mixer, use the time to make your butter filling.
- Simply beat all the ingredients together in a bowl and set to one side util the dough’s rolled out.
- When the dough’s smooth and springy, grab a rolling pin, scatter some flour on a surface and roll out your dough into a rectangle, about 25 x 35cm. It needs to be no more than a few millimetres fat – but not too skinny!! (5mm is absolute max.)
- Spread your maple butter filling over the dough, leaving a small space along one of the long edges.
- Sprinkle over the chopped pecans.
- Brush a bit of water down the gap and roll your dough into a sausage.
- Trim off either end, then cut into 12 equal pieces.
- Line a square 8 or 9 inch pan with baking paper and pop in your buns, swirl side up so you can see the mapley pattern. You should have four rows of three buns.
- Cover with a damp tea towel and put in a warm place to prove for about an hour. Have a little check on them after about 30 minutes and see how they’re getting on. I like to preheat my oven now and put them close by to take advantage of the heat!
- Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6.
- When the buns are ready, they should have grown by at least a mother half, but may not have doubled in size. Leave them a bit longer if you’re not happy with them!
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, but keep an eye on them, they may well need less time.
- Take them out of the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
- As the filling is butter, it will have melted gorgeously – this gives the buns their stickiness, so wait a few minutes for this to become less volcanic before tearing apart and sharing with your family or friends. Add a drizzle of maple syrup if you’re feeling especially decadent!
- If there’s any left the following day, they reheat beautifully in the oven for a few minutes.
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