Sticky cinnamon buns. A yeasted dough, curled up around a buttery, sugared, cinnamon filling, sporting a buttery, maple and golden syrup top. Did I mention the pecans too? Far, far less intimidating to make than it might appear, these are wow. Just wow.

Combine bread flour, sugar, salt and easy blend yeast in a large bowl.

Melt unsalted butter into milk and let it cool to blood temperature

Add two beaten eggs to the jug and stir it all into the flour mix

Remove from the bowl and on to a floured surface then knead for 10 minutes

until smoother and elastic

Put into a large, oiled bowl. Cover it and let it rise somewhere warm for around an hour.

Whilst it’s rising, make the filling – put soft unsalted butter into a bowl with light brown and caster sugar – not forgetting 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. Mmmmmmmmmm

and mix together to make the most heavenly scented paste

You’ll need a buttery syrup too – this is soft unsalted butter, light brown sugar and maple and golden syrup

all combined and ready to distribute amongst the muffin tins

So let’s do that. Now, depending on how large you like your buns (so to speak), you will distribute the syrup accordingly. The original recipe calls for 12 buns, therefore you would share the syrup amongst the 12 holes of the muffin tin. We, however, (and you won’t see this statement on my website very often) actually find them to be too big.

I know. Sit down and take a moment. I actually cut them smaller. Not only were they a bit big – that is, it was like having a meal rather than a snack – but in the oven they outgrew the muffin tins to the point of looking, frankly a bit silly and misshapen.

I aim to make the slices about 1″, which generally yields a very precise 17 buns. You have to laugh don’t you?

So, I smear 17 holes of 2 muffin tins with about 1 tsp of butter syrup, then share 100g chopped pecans amongst them. I left a couple devoid of pecans because Alex has taken against nuts.

If you’re not sure how many buns you want to make until you’ve seen their potential size, do this after you’ve sliced the dough.

Here’s the risen dough

Knock it down and on to a lightly floured surface again.

Knead it a few times just to get rid of any big air bubbles and generally smooth it again

Then roll it out into a large rectangle – somewhere in the region of 60 x 30cm – and take your cinnamon butter filling and slather it all over the dough. That sliver of work surface is my only working area and it isn’t 60cm long, so don’t fret over it.

Don’t worry about it not covering – it’s pretty thick

Roll it up into a swirly sausage from the long side and start cutting into slices – either into 12 slices if you want them huge, or into around 1″ slices if you want to get about 17 like I do.

Incidentally, I use a razor sharp knife and a gentle sawing action to avoid squashing the roll.

Sit each slice on top of your butter-syrup-pecan-smeared cup and whilst you’re at it, preheat the oven to GM4.

then cover loosely with some clingfilm and as the oven’s now on, let it sit in the warm kitchen for around 20 mins. It won’t rise tremendously, but it’ll get puffy looking and will fill the cup more fully.

Bake for 20-25 mins and then they’ll look like this…

Oh hello sailor.

That’s not even the business end – just hang on a minute.

Lay a large piece of parchment over the darlings and then cover that with a large roasting tin then flip the whole thing over. You want them upside down, see?

Because when they’re upside down, that means the buttery syrup and chopped pecans that you put in the cups is now on the top.

Golden.

Sticky.

And in this case, nut-free, buns

Licking your fingers afterwards is insufficient. Fainting with pleasure is possible. Giving half of these away was emotionally crippling. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

——

STICKY BUNS – schnecken

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

(adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson)

dough:

500g strong bread flour

50g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (7g) sachet easy blend yeast

150ml milk

75g unsalted butter

2 large eggs

syrup:

150g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons soft light brown sugar

4 tablespoons maple syrup

3 tablespoons golden syrup

100g pecan pieces, chopped

filling:

150g unsalted butter, softened

50g caster sugar

100g soft light brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 x 12-hole muffin tins, buttered

parchment lined roasting tin for turning the buns out onto later – big enough to cover the muffin tin

Method:

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl.

Melt the butter in the milk and allow to cool to blood temperature, beat in the eggs and stir into the dry ingredients to make a dough.

Knead for 10 minutes or for 5 in a machine with a dough hook.

When it’s springy and satiny, form into a ball, put in an oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Using an electric mixer, start the syrup. Beat the butter until soft and smooth and add the sugar, still beating.

Beat in the syrups and then divide the mixture between the muffin cups – about 1 tsp per cup. Smear the butter syrup across the bottom of each cup and half-way up the sides.

Top the butter syrup with the nuts in each cup.

Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4.

Blend the filling ingredients together in a small bowl.

When the dough’s risen, knock it back, knead once or twice to smooth and roll out into a large rectangle, somewhere in the region of 60 x 30cm. Keep at it – it will stretch eventually.

Spread the butter filling over the dough.

Roll up the rectangle from the long side, maintaining a firm, but not overly tight sausage shape.

You have options here. The original recipe suggests cutting the roll into 12 pieces, but we find that too large. So I cut them into approx 1” slices and pretty reliably get 17 buns. Odd.

Lay each slice swirly cut side up, on top of the nuts and butter-syrup in the muffin cups.

Leave to prove for about 20 minutes and when they’re slightly risen and puffy, then put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, by which time they should be deliciously golden and cooked.

Lay a large piece of parchment paper the muffin tin to completely cover all the buns and place the roasting tin on top. Turn the whole thing the other way up and let it sit for a minute. Remove the muffin tin and reattach any stray nuts.

Serve whilst still warm. Any leftovers are best reheated in a low oven (or a quick blast in the microwave for the odd one or two).

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