Tuesday, May 15, 2012

TWD - Pecan Sticky Buns

You've heard of the five stages of grief?  Well, at the risk of sounding a tad bit like a baking drama queen, that's what I went through with these sticky buns.

Denial - "I did not just use 5 sticks of butter to make these sticky buns.  I did not just spend 12 hours making these sticky buns."

Anger - "I used 5 sticks of butter and spent 12 hours making these sticky buns and they are no better than this?!  They have so much butter, it's running down my childrens' faces as they eat the sticky buns.  This is not buttered corn on the cob, these are sticky buns!"

Bargaining - "If I could somehow just suck some of the butter out of these rolls, they would be good. If only I had trusted my instinct that 3-1/2 cups of flour cannot support 5 sticks of butter..."

Depression - "I thought I was a better baker than this; but these aren't any good.  They have an oily taste with all that butter.  I gave some of these buns to my neighbors.  They will think I have jumped the shark with these sticky buns.  My baking life is over."

Acceptance - (next morning when I was really hungry and the butter had soaked into much of the brioche).  "These sticky buns are not that bad. I do love the layers that are reminiscent of puff pastry. I did learn something about laminating and making a sponge.  I bet if I were to try these again and cut out about half of the butter, these would be good. That's why I joined TWD, to learn new stuff and challenge myself."


So far so good.  This was a wonderful brioche dough and I found it easy to work with.

In hindsight (and after watching the BWJ video), this is where my trouble started.  My pieces of butter are too big which caused big chunks of butter to melt into the buns as they baked.

Can you hear the menacing music?  Trouble ahead!  The butter pieces are too big!

Out of the oven.  Little do I know of the trouble that lies in the bottom of the pan - the butter bath!
Ready to eat.  For me these were better the next day, when the butter had a chance to seep into the brioche dough and wasn't as overwhelming.








5 comments:

Sweet and That's it said...

Thanks for making me laugh! Your post is great!
I think that for this recipe I belong to the "bargaining ones".

I've cheated on the butter and luckily the brioche turned out fine (it needs more salt and sugar, though). I did not like the sticky topping, but will remake the modified brioche. With this recipe we surely gained experience (and probably weight!)

Unknown said...

:) I enjoyed your post! Learning is what this project is all about so I think you should claim an absolute success!!!

marilyn said...

a good adaptation for the 5 stages of baking with butter (and a lot of it)!

Anonymous said...

love your 5 stages of grief. I cut down on the butter both in the brioche and in the lamination. I just couldn't do it.

Cher Rockwell said...

As long as there is a lesson learned...

Cute post.