Brioche Sticky Buns

I remember the first time I ever heard the word brioche, I was watching Food Network and someone was making sticky buns. She referred to the dough as brioche, the word caught my ear and I remember thinking….brioche???   To Read More, Click On The Recipe Title.

That’s dough why is she calling it brioche. I went off on a mad google search to find out more about brioche. And in the process I fell in love with it from a far. Yes a far, promising myself that I would make it….someday. Let’s face it , it’s kinda scary, well for me anyway. In my mind only pastry chef’s made brioche. It’s taken me a year to get myself ready for this challenge, but I didn’t do it alone. Gayle from pastry studio blog talked me through it. I saw a brioche creation of hers on her blog, asked her if the recipe could be used to make sticky buns and she emailed me back. I don’t think I could have done it if she wasn’t with me on this. Unfortunately she wasn’t standing next to me, but I was reassured by the fact that if I had a question she was there. And BOY did I have questions!!! LOL!!! But she was kind enough to share her knowledge with me and for that I am very grateful. Go visit her and look at her beautiful blog , her pictures look like they came from a magazine!! The journey started with the recipe I got from Gayle which I made last night at 9pm. This wasn’t as scary as I made it out to be. The recipe Gayle gave me said to mix the yeast and water together, which was the first thing I screwed up on by the way! I was so excited that I through the yeast along with all the other ingredients ( except the butter) into the KA bowl and started mixing. But my mistake didn’t ruin the dough, Baking Banter, King Arthur’s baking blog has a brioche recipe that Gayle kindly sent me the link to and that’s the way they made they’res. The dough is very sticky and loose.

Gayle told me the trick to brioche is incorporating all the butter into the dough. She makes brioche by hand, she’s never used a stand mixer!! Yes she’s that good!! While the mixer is running on medium speed with all the ingredients except the butter mixing you add the butter one ounce at a time until it’s all gone. Here’s the important part, keep mixing the dough for about 10 minutes, you shouldn’t see any butter at all on the dough, if you do KEEP MIXING!! Here’s the link Gayle sent me to Baking Banters post about making brioche in a stand mixer, it’s very helpful! After the butter was all incorporated Gayle said to cover it and put it into the fridge, and there it stayed until this morning. Her recipe didn’t require the dough to rise first then deflate and refrigerate. Just mix and put in the fridge overnight. I got the dough out this morning and let it come to room temperature, all that butter in the dough makes it solid, it didn’t take very long for it to come to room temp, while I was waiting I made Carol’s cinnamon roll filling and the Caramel topping. I wanted to be ready and not let the dough get to soft. When it came to room temp it had a different texture than before it was refrigerated and was very easy to work with, yes Gayle it was a DREAM!!

I rolled it out on a lightly floured surface.

I put the filling on within an inch of all the sides.

I rolled it up jelly roll style from the long end.

Then I cut my dough into pieces with a serrated knife, I kept flouring the knife as I cut.

Look at them!!! They’re adorable!! After they were cut I put them in a 9×9 buttered pan with the caramel sauce on the bottom ( this recipe made to 9×9 pans of rolls). I covered them and let them rise.

They rose up and got puffy, I took a beaten egg and brushed the tops and sides of the rolls and into the oven they went!

You don’t even know how excited I was to taste these!!! Flip them out of the pans onto a platter. take any goo left in the pans and slather onto the buns, if you can stand to wait till they’re cooled off ( which you know I didn’t ) eat one…or two!!

It took me all of 2 seconds to get one of these into my hand and in my mouth! These are the best sticky buns I’ve ever made!! They would have looked prettier with nuts on them but hubby doesn’t like them. I didn’t miss them, the dough was sooooo soft, the texture is amazing! I ate 2, Amanda ate 2, her girlfriend’s ate….there’s only 1/2 a pan of sticky buns left and Sam hasn’t even had any yet, what does that tell you!!

This is whats left of my second sticky bun. Look at the inside of that bun, just look at it!! THANK YOU GAYLE for helping me to over come my brioche fear your the BEST!!!

Wanna print just the recipe, click here!

Brioche Recipe
pastry studio
Brioche recipe

These instructions are from the email Gayle sent me in her words.

1 T dry yeast
1/4 C lukewarm water
4 C flour (1 lb, 4 oz)
2 t salt
3 T sugar (1 1/2 oz)
6 eggs
12 oz butter, softened

Dissolve the yeast into the lukewarm water.
Put everything together in a bowl except the butter and mix. As I’ve said, I’ve never done this by machine, but there are enough recipes out there that you can see that the kneading by machine should take several minutes to establish that it’s smooth and elastic. You can also probably do this with a paddle if you don’t have a hook because there’s a lot of butter and it’s a crazy soft, sticky dough. [To mix by hand, it’s more of a pinching of the dough between the thumb and forefinger of each hand, then incorporating the portions removed into the other end of the dough. That gets done for about 5 – 7 times until it comes together. Then you begin kneading the dough, which is accomplished by using your hands to reach out to the far side of the dough, get underneath the dough, scooping it up from the bottom and bringing it toward you so that the dough flips around and slaps down on the work surface. Do this for 5 to 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic – wish we could all be together so I could show you this!]
Then you start adding the butter, about an ounce at a time and let it become fully incorporated. Keep adding the butter and beating on medium speed. At some point, it will look like it’s breaking. Don’t panic. It will work through this and become a nice satiny dough. [By hand, the butter is incorporated using the same process as above, pinching the dough, then lifting it from below, scooping it up from the bottom and bringing it toward you so that the dough flips around and slaps down on the work surface. Do this just until the butter is mixed in. You will see and feel this when it comes together.]
Once you see that the butter is completely mixed in, stop mixing and place in a covered bowl or bag and refrigerate overnight. Your dough will then be ready to shape. Let rise at room temperature and always glaze with egg wash

Caramel Topping
Nook & Pantry Blog

Caramel Glaze

5 Tbsp butter
1/2 C brown sugar
3 Tbsp honey
1.5 Tbsp milk
Pinch salt

Sticky Bun Filling
Carol’s Recipe

FILLING:
3/4 c. packed dark brown sugar
3/4 c. butter, at room temperature
2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon ( I only used 2 tsps of cinnamon for the sticky buns)
1 egg white
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix altogether with a mixer and slather on brioche.