As a kid in southeast Pennsylvania I reveled in the regional delicacies. Shoofly pie. Funnel cakes. Creamy white American cheese from our local market. But no treats were more special than the sticky buns my father and our neighbor, Jim, would pick up on Sunday mornings from the now shuttered Minnie’s Bakery.
If I was lucky, I’d get to ride along, and if I was really lucky, I’d be trusted to hold the bakery box in the back seat. I’d carefully pull open a corner and pluck a gooey pecan from the wax paper wrapping. It was a creamy, sweet preview of the indulgence yet to come: The rolls themselves which were the perfect vehicle for a swirl of cinnamon and sugar covered with a flood of auburn, pecan-studded caramel sauce.
Sticky buns originated with 18th century German settlers in Pennsylvania as a pastry called “Schnecken.” Cinnamon rolls get a lot of press, but I think this Philadelphia specialty is due for its own headliner status. My recipe is a nod to those treats but I used sourdough as the base instead of the traditional yeast dough.
The result is a delicious intersection where cinnamon roll meets pecan pie. If you’re lucky, you can steal a warm pecan from the pan before anybody notices. If you’re really lucky, there will be extras left to have warmed up and topped with ice cream that night.
This method allows you to make them in the evening (steps 1-4) and bake them first thing the next morning. So your dad and Jim can sleep in, too.
Step 1: Make the Dough
Ingredients:
1 cup (227 g) active sourdough starter
3/4 cup (170 g) room temperature whole milk
1 egg
4 tablespoons (58 g) unsalted butter, softened
2 3/4 cups (326 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (57 g) white whole wheat flour (or finely-milled whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup (50 g) white sugar
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 g) kosher salt
Instructions:
1. Add all ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 3 minutes. Let dough rest for 30 minutes, then knead for 4-5 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and clinging to the hook.
2. Allow to rise for 3 hours, giving it a stretch and fold every hour or so to strengthen the dough. It will be puffed and smooth when ready to roll out and slice.
3. Just before rolling, mix the filling, prepare the pan(s), and make the caramel sauce.
3/4 cup* (158 g) toasted pecans, chopped (*Toast this amount, but use only 1/3 cup for the filling; reserve the rest for step three)
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon (14 g) unsalted butter, melted
Instructions:
1. In a dry skillet, toast 3/4 cup (158 g) pecans until fragrant. Chop and divide (1/3 cup for filling, 1/2 cup for the caramel).
2.Mix all other filling ingredients with the 1/3 cup of pecans. The mixture will be slightly dry, which helps keep it from leaking out too much during baking.
Step Three: Make the Caramel Sauce & Prep the Pans
Ingredients:
3/4 cup (293 g) packed dark brown sugar (for a lighter caramel, use light brown sugar)
3 tablespoons (42 g) unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons (30 g) hot water
1/2 cup (63 g) toasted, chopped pecans (reserved from previous step)
Instructions:
1. Whisk sugar, butter, and hot water together in a bowl until smooth.
2. Rolls can be made in a 9” x 13” baking pan (for 12 rolls) or in two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans (6 rolls each). Because of the caramel, non-stick pans are ideal but regardless of the finish, generously coat pan(s) with cooking spray before spreading the caramel evenly over the bottom of the pan(s) with a spatula.
3. Sprinkle evenly with ½ cup pecans and set aside.
Step Four: Fill, Roll & Slice
1. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Flour the top and pat it down carefully to deflate it a bit. Roll the dough into a 14” x 20” rectangle with a rolling pin.
2. Spread the filling evenly on the dough, and starting with the short edge, tightly roll the dough into a cylinder. Squeeze the dough as you roll it up to tighten it. It will get longer as you go, and you can stretch it out once you’re done if you need to before cutting.
3. An 18” cylinder will yield 12 slices at 1 1/2” each. A serrated knife works well for cutting the rolls. Place the pieces into the prepared pan(s), on top of the caramel and pecans, leaving a little room in-between to allow for rising. Cover pan(s) with foil sprayed with cooking spray and put in the refrigerator overnight (8-10 hours).
Step Five: Bake
The next morning, take the rolls out of the refrigerator 30-45 minutes before baking and allow them to come to room temperature. Heat oven to 400°F, remove the foil, and bake for 18-22 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool for 3 to 5 minutes and then gently invert hot rolls onto a serving plate (the caramel will be VERY HOT—be careful!) to allow the caramel to cover the top of the rolls. Scrape any extra off the bottom of the pans and add to the rolls. Serve warm.
Store leftovers in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to two days, reheat briefly before serving. Excellent with ice cream or whipped cream as dessert.
The more starter you use, the faster your dough will ferment - resulting in a less sour loaf. Of course the amount of starter is actually a ratio in relation to the flour - so 50g of starter to 500g of flour will ferment at a much slower rate than 200g of starter to 500g of flour.
Lightly flour your finger and poke the dough down about 1". If the indent stays, it's ready to bake. If it pops back out, give it a bit more time. The poke test is especially helpful for free-form breads like cinnamon rolls.
Whole wheat flour is an excellent choice for creating a sourdough starter due to its nutrient-rich composition and potential for fostering a robust microbial community. However, it's important to note that the quality of whole wheat flour can vary between brands.
Generally a more mature and well established starter will produce a more flavorful, sour loaf. Hydration of the Dough - this affects how long your dough will take to ferment. A slightly lower hydration will take longer to ferment than a higher hydration loaf, leading to a bigger depth of flavor and sourness.
Although you need an active, well-maintained starter for certain artisan breads, you can still make tasty bread with a sluggish, slow starter so you don't have to discard sourdough starter daily. In fact, many of my favorite sourdough bread recipes use discard for flavoring to give bread that classic tang.
If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.
Discarding half is wayyyy LESS wasteful than keeping it around or “sharing” the other half with a friend because… The sourdough starter is not a viable starter until 3 to 5 days old and sometimes longer. It takes that long for the organism balance to get established.
Gently press your finger into the dough on the top. If the dough springs back quickly, it's underproofed.If it springs back very slowly, it's properly proofed and ready to bake.Finally, if it never springs back, the dough is overproofed.
The rolls are still prone to over-proofing if left in the fridge too long; and the cinnamon-sugar filling can melt and make the bottoms of the rolls syrupy and damp if left unbaked for too long. Also note that some cinnamon roll recipes are made with chemical leaveners versus yeast.
One of the most common mistakes is having a dough temperature that's too low for the starter to feed on all the flour in the dough, resulting in a crumb that's dense, with fewer openings. "Starter is happiest and most active at around 75 degrees. If it's a lot colder, the process will be much slower.
If your bread is very compact and the crumb is super tight, it can mean that the hydration level was not enough for amount of flour used. Increasing the water content will help to alleviate this issue. If you're working with higher hydration dough, consider lamination for superior dough strength.
There are many reasons why your homemade sourdough bread could be dense. Here are some of the most common causes: Inactive or weak sourdough starter: A sourdough starter needs to be active and healthy in order to produce enough gas to leaven the bread. If your starter is not active, the bread will be dense.
There are two main acids produced in a sourdough culture: lactic acid and acetic acid. Acetic acid, or vinegar, is the acid that gives sourdough much of its tang. Giving acetic acid-producing organisms optimal conditions to thrive and multiply will produce a more tangy finished product.
Honey: Honey adds a sweetness to this dough and helps balance any sour flavor that comes through from the fermentation process. If you are looking for whole wheat bread without the honey, try this recipe. Salt: Salt enhances the flavor and helps tempers the fermentation.
Baking soda or bicarbonate of soda can be used in sourdough bread to create a less sour loaf. Added after bulk fermentation, but before shaping, it can help to create a lighter, more fluffy loaf of sourdough.
In my experience, the shortest final proof (at room temperature) that I prefer to do is one hour. The longest final proof (at room temperature) is about 3 hours. When going past 2-3 hours in a final proof, the crumb tends to get very gassy and opens up large gas bubbles with a longer countertop proof.
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