Caramel sticky buns--obscenely great!

The Alpha Bakers tackled Caramel Buns from The Baking Bible this week, and they are so delicious, polite words fail to describe them!

The recipe isn't a quick one.  First, there's the brioche bread dough.  Rose's silky, buttery brioche dough must be made a day in advance of baking. The dough is refrigerated and allowed to mellow at least overnight for flavor development. 


Incidentally, If you haven't tried her brioche, you are missing out on one of the most wonderful breads in her repertoire!  I haven't compared the two, but you can find the recipe for brioche in The Bread Bible or in the new Baking Bible.   It is superb on its own, but it is also the basis of several of her best recipes!

Essential kitchen equipment--a ruler!  The chilled dough is rolled into a rectangle.

The filling is a mixture of white and brown sugars, cinnamon, toasted pecans and raisins soaked in dark rum.  For extra flavor, I used Rose’s recommended Muscovado brown sugar.  This sugar has a deep, delicious, almost smoky flavor.  It’s not readily available, nor is it inexpensive, unfortunately, so I don’t use it often.  My favorite raisins are Sunkist Jumbo Mixed Raisins.  

An extensive, and increasingly desperate hunt finally turned up a roll of plain (not mint-flavored) dental floss in my travel bag!!  The dental floss makes tidy slices from the soft dough rolls.

My over-proofed buns are tucked into a foil-lined pan with a pint-sized mason jar in the middle.  Right before baking, the mason jar is half-filled with boiling water to create steam in the oven.  One batch of buns makes 12 rolls, enough for two pans.

They have emerged from the oven, and the foil is lifted from the pan.  The jar is removed half way through baking.  Contrary to the recipe, by the way, my dough DID stick to the mason jars, so next time I will grease the jars before baking.  A glaze consisting of dark rum, the leftover raisin-soaking water and butter is brushed on the rolls.  The rum and water is reduced to a syrup.

The Soft Sticky Caramel...ooh, la la!!  Sugar, corn syrup and water are boiled rapidly until the mixture is just the right caramel color, and then hot heavy cream is added.  The cream produces a volcano of steam and furious bubbling.  When the mixture calms down, butter is added and finally a touch of vanilla finishes it off.  

One note---Smitty and I did have a "discussion" during the panic of making (and trying to NOT BURN) the caramel.  
Me:     "Take it off the heat! Take it off the heat!"  
Smitty: "It's off."  
Me:      "That's NOT THE SAME as taking it off the heat!  Remove it from the hot burner!!  Hurry!" 

This recipe for Caramel Buns is significantly changed from the version in The Bread Bible.  Rose calls this one her "ultimate sticky bun recipe," with double the amount of caramel, and she completely altered the baking method.  In her previous recipe the caramel baked in the pan, and the buns were baked in jumbo muffin tins.  She likes this one better.  Who am I to argue?  They are superb!!

Unlike bakery buns, the dough is more than just a supporting act.  It's feather light and full of buttery flavor.  Topped with toasted pecan halves and plenty of caramel, this bun is heaven!

Notes for next time: 

• As much as I liked the filling, I think it would be just as delicious with more pecans and no raisins. 
  
• I will grease the jar!
• I was interrupted and the rolls spent too much time proofing, but they didn't seem to suffer a bit in flavor or texture.  
• I made a double batch of this recipe.  Once the buns were shaped, I put them into a foil-lined pan and froze them.  I am going to try defrosting them and see if they will rise and then bake successfully.  I am keeping my fingers crossed!

NEXT WEEK: Sour Cherry Pie!

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