Pecan and Maple Sticky Brioche Buns

Buttery and rich brioche dough, encases a delicious mix of dark brown sugar and cinnamon. All topped with a pecan and maple caramel. Sticky, sweet and SO moreish. These sticky brioche buns are a delight.

These beaut sticky brioche buns are my 100th recipe on the blog! I honestly can’t quite believe I’ve made, photographed, written and edited that many bakes…! I actually started this blog back in 2015, and have posted on and off ever since. Verryyy on and off in 2019 where I posted just one recipe! Oops!

Being at home so much this year has given me the chance to dedicate time and energy into my blog and really make it into something I’m extremely proud of. So thanks for reading if you’re a new or old follower, I love sharing my bakes!

So for my 100th recipe I had to make something utterly delicious and indulgent.

What could be better than pecan and maple sticky brioche buns?!

This is like cinnamon buns on steroids. The brioche dough gives the buns such a rich and buttery flavour that you just don’t get in a regular pastry. The filling is packed full with dark brown sugar and cinnamon, giving a gorgeously deep caramel flavour. And the topping is just DIVINE. Its mapley, its caramelly and its fullll of pecans.

This combination just can’t be beaten in my opinion! It is my 100th recipe afterall…!

So how do you make a brioche dough?

Creating a brioche dough isn’t as hard as you may think and for this recipe you don’t need a stand-mixer. The only piece of ‘equipment’ I use is a dough scraper. This isn’t necessary to create the dough at all, but it does make your life a little easier when kneading, as the dough can get pretty sticky!

The problem I find when you’re following a recipe where you need to create a dough is that you often don’t know what the dough is meant to look like at certain stages. So with this in mind I decided to take some process shots, which I hope will be helpful!

Going from L-R the steps are as follows:

• 1 – This is the dough after the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, milk and eggs have been combined.
• 2 – This is the dough after the butters been added. The dough will be fairly sticky at this point, and should take you at least 10 minutes.
• 3 – This is our dough after kneading for 10 minutes. It will be smooth, elastic and have lost its stickiness.
• 4 – This is the dough after its proved for 1 hour and has doubled in size.
• 5 – Chopped pecans are placed in a baking tin.

• 6 – The pecans are smothered in maple caramel sauce.
• 7 – The risen dough is rolled out and spread with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.
• 8 – The filled dough is then rolled up like a swiss roll, cut into slices and placed on top of the pecans.
• 9 – This is the dough buns after they’ve been proving for 45 minutes, and they’re ready for the oven!

I really hope that breakdown helps, as I know it can be so hard to know what you’re looking for! The recipe is fairly straightforward, but it does take a little bit of pre-planning as you need to prove the dough twice. Which makes it the perfect dish for a late brunch! And it’ll most definitely be a crowd pleaser. Still warm these are honestly so delicious. I ate two straight from the pan and I’m not ashamed!

The taste test!

Like most pastries they do taste best on the day of baking, but I did some taste-testing. (I know, what a saint!) On the first day after baking, the dough wasn’t quite as soft but was still delicious. On the second day after baking I put a bun in the microwave for 20 seconds just to warm it up, and it was a delight. The sponge softened up and it gave it that freshly baked feel again.

I really hope you give these buns a go! I’d love to see pictures if you do, so make sure to tag me on instagram or drop me an email 🙂

Pecan and Maple Sticky Brioche Buns

Aimee Field

Buttery and rich brioche dough, encases a delicious mix of dark brown sugar and cinnamon. All topped with a pecan and maple caramel. Sticky, sweet and SO moreish. These sticky brioche buns are a delight.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr 35 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Proving time 1 hour hr 45 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 45 minutes mins

Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Servings 12 Buns

Ingredients

  

Dough

• 500 g plain flour plus more for kneading
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 7 g easy bake instant yeast
• 125 ml whole milk
• 4 large eggs beaten
• 175 g unsalted butter room temperature

Topping

• 200 g pecans
• 115 g unsalted butter
• 135 g soft dark brown sugar
• 180 ml whole milk
• 80 ml maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp salt

Filling

• 60 g unsalted butter room temperature
• 100 g soft dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

 

• For the dough: Place the flour, sugar, salt and yeast into a large bowl and mix together with a silicone spatula until combined. Then make a well in the centre and pour in the milk and beaten eggs. Mix with the spatula until a rough dough forms. Then, flour your work surface generously and removing the dough from the bowl, knead for 5 minutes until the dough has a smooth skin.
• Add the butter to the dough, one tablespoon at a time, kneading as you go so the butter is completely combined. You will need to re-flour your work surface a few times throughout, as the dough will be very sticky. (If you have a dough scraper, this will also help to manoeuvre the dough.) This process should take around 10 minutes.
• Once all the butter has been combined, continue kneading the dough for a further 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and pliable and no longer sticky. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough inside and cover with clingfilm. Leave this to prove for at least an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
• For the topping: When your dough has around 15 minutes left of proving time, begin making the topping. Roughly chop the pecans and lay them in the base of a greased baking tin, around 26x30cm. Then in a medium saucepan combine the butter, sugar, milk, maple syrup and salt and place over a medium-high heat. Cook until the butter has melted, then turn up the heat and boil for 3 minutes stirring every now and then. Take off the heat, pour over the pecans and set aside.
• For the filling: In a small bowl, combine the butter, sugar and cinnamon until smooth and a thick paste. Then set aside.
• Lightly flour your work surface, tip out the risen dough and knock back slightly, by folding in on it self a few times. Then using a rolling pin, roll out to a large rectangle approx. 30x45cm. Then using a palette knife or spoon, spread the filling evenly across the dough. Then roll up from the long side, so you get a spiral of dough with the filling inside. Slice off the edges if they're not exactly straight, then cut the roll into 12 pieces. Place these over the pecan caramel topping, and leave to rise in a warm place for around 45 minutes. Your dough will have puffed up and spread once they are ready.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4 while the the buns are proving. Then bake for 25 minutes until golden and bubbling at the sides. Leave the buns to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, before inverting the tin onto a serving platter. Enjoy warm.

Notes

Buns are best served same day, still warm from the oven.

Buns will last 2-3 days in an air-tight container, and can be warmed up in a microwave for 20 seconds. 

Keyword brioche, enriched dough, maple, pecan, sticky buns

Want to try something else with maple and pecan? Why not give these cupcakes a go? Or these bars?