Cinnamon and Pecan Morning Buns
Flaky, sticky spirals to start the day
Cinnamon and Pecan Morning Buns
Ingredients
- 500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- 60g caster sugar
- 7g fast-action dried yeast
- 8g fine salt
- 250ml whole milk, warmed
- 2 medium eggs
- 120g unsalted butter, softened, for the dough
- 100g unsalted butter, softened, for the filling
- 150g light brown soft sugar
- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 100g pecans, roughly chopped
- 75g unsalted butter, for browning
- 100g caster sugar, for the caramel base
Method
- Brown the 75g of butter in a small pan over a medium heat until it smells nutty and turns golden, then leave to cool slightly.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine the flour, caster sugar, yeast and salt, then add the warm milk and eggs.
- Mix to a shaggy dough, then knead in the 120g softened butter a little at a time until smooth, soft and elastic, about 10 minutes in a mixer.
- Cover and prove for about 1.5 hours until doubled in size.
- For the caramel base, melt the 100g caster sugar with the browned butter, pour into a deep buttered 12-hole muffin tin or roasting tin, and scatter over half the pecans.
- Knock back the dough and roll out on a floured surface into a large rectangle about 40 by 30cm.
- Spread with the 100g softened butter, then scatter over the brown sugar mixed with the cinnamon and the remaining pecans.
- Roll up tightly from the long edge into a log, then cut into 12 even slices.
- Place the slices cut-side up on the caramel base, cover, and prove for another 45 minutes until puffy.
- Heat the oven to 180C fan and bake for 22 to 25 minutes until deep golden and bubbling.
- Leave for 5 minutes, then carefully invert onto a tray so the sticky caramel runs down over the buns.
- Serve warm, spooning over any caramel left in the tin.
These are the buns you want to wake up to: tender, enriched dough rolled around a thick spiral of cinnamon sugar and pecans, baked over a layer of caramel that turns sticky and burnished as the buns sit upside down to cool. The clever twist is browning the butter for the caramel base, which adds a toasted, almost butterscotch depth that takes them well beyond an ordinary cinnamon roll. They take a leisurely morning to make, but most of that is the dough quietly proving while you get on with other things, and the smell as they bake is reason enough.
1 From Scandinavia to the American bakery
The cinnamon bun is one of those bakes that has travelled and transformed. Its roots reach back to Scandinavia, where the kanelbulle of Sweden, scented with cardamom as much as cinnamon, is so beloved it has its own national day each October. Swedish and German immigrants carried their sweet, spiced doughs across the Atlantic, and in the bakeries of North America the cinnamon roll grew larger, sweeter and more lavishly iced.
The sticky-bottomed version, baked over caramel and nuts and then turned out so the topping runs down the sides, has a particular home in the bakeries of Philadelphia, where it is descended from the German sticky bun, or Schnecken. The trick of inverting the tin after baking gives you all the glory of a caramel glaze without having to make icing, and the nuts toast in the buttery caramel as they cook. Pecans, native to North America, are the traditional choice and bring a rich, slightly maple-ish flavour that suits the spice beautifully.
What unites all these versions is the comfort of an enriched dough: flour softened with butter, eggs, milk and sugar until it bakes up pillowy and rich rather than plain and bready. It is weekend baking at its most generous, the kind of thing made to be shared around a kitchen table while the coffee brews.
2 How they come together
Begin with the browned butter, since it needs time to cool, and let its nutty aroma set the tone for the whole bake. Make a soft enriched dough, kneading in the butter gradually until it is smooth and stretchy, then leave it to prove until doubled. Meanwhile, make the caramel base by melting sugar with the browned butter and pouring it into your buttered tin with a scattering of pecans.
Roll the risen dough into a large rectangle, spread with butter, and cover with cinnamon sugar and more nuts. Roll it up tightly, slice into twelve, and set the spirals cut-side up on the caramel. After a second, shorter prove they go into a hot oven until deep golden and bubbling. The crucial final move is to invert the tin after a few minutes’ rest, so the caramel cascades down over the buns. Do this while still hot, or the caramel sets and clings to the tin.
3 Make-ahead and tips
The best news for a relaxed breakfast is that you can shape the buns the night before. After slicing and arranging them on the caramel, cover and refrigerate overnight; in the morning let them come to room temperature and finish proving, then bake fresh. The cold slows the yeast so they prove gently as you sleep.
Pecans can be swapped for walnuts, and a handful of raisins or chopped dates in the filling is lovely if you like them. For extra richness, a pinch of flaky salt over the caramel base cuts the sweetness nicely. If your dough feels sticky and hard to roll, resist adding too much flour, which toughens it; a brief chill in the fridge firms the butter and makes it far easier to handle.
These are at their absolute best warm from the oven, but a few seconds in the microwave revives any that linger to the next day. Pull them apart with your fingers, lick the caramel from your thumb, and put the kettle on.
A note on the dough temperature, which trips people up more than anything else. An enriched dough this rich proves more slowly than a lean bread dough, because all that butter and egg weighs it down, so be patient and judge it by size rather than the clock. Somewhere genuinely warm, around twenty-five degrees, makes a real difference; a cold kitchen can double the proving time. If the dough ever feels greasy and the butter starts to leak, it has warmed too much, so pop it in the fridge for ten minutes to firm up before carrying on.
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