Joanne Chang’s Sticky Sticky Buns Recipe
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Jun 1, 2024 • 7 min read
A specialty at James Beard Award–winning chef Joanne Chang’s Flour Bakery, these sweet rolls are a decadent, sugar-drenched take on a classic cinnamon roll recipe. Follow this recipe to make your own homemade sticky buns.
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About Joanne Chang
Joanne Chang is a Boston-based pastry chef and the co-owner of Flour Bakery. The award-winning pastry chef has a degree with honors in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Passionate about baking since her college days, Joanne left her consulting job to work in restaurants, eventually opening Flour Bakery in 2000. Since then, she expanded the bakery to eight more locations, opened a Taiwanese-inspired restaurant, won a reality TV cooking competition and a James Beard Award, and wrote five cookbooks.
Despite her long list of accolades, Joanne still delights in the alchemy of baking: simple ingredients that, when combined with the right techniques, transform into something magical. Learn to bake like a pro with Joanne Chang.
What Are Sticky Buns?
Sticky buns are an extra-gooey twist on classic cinnamon rolls, a sweet rolled pastry made with a yeasted dough, gooey cinnamon-sugar filling, and topped with cream cheese icing. To make this dish, home bakers prepare buttery brioche dough, which they cover in a cinnamon-sugar mixture, before cutting the dough into individual buns. They then add a thick layer of gooey caramel sauce, which may feature chopped nuts for texture, to the bottom of the baking pan and set the buns on top of it. After baking is complete, the baking pan gets inverted, so the gooey sauce tops the sweet buns; bakers use a similar technique to make pineapple upside-down cake.
Serve sticky buns as a decadent brunch treat or dessert.
8 Tips for Making Sticky Buns
Whether it’s your first time baking with brioche dough or you’re a professional, follow these tips to make the best sticky buns possible.
- 1. Use fresh or active dry yeast. Rather than instant yeast, use either active dry yeast (which is a shelf-stable powder) or fresh yeast (which retailers sell in soft, compressed “cakes”) to make sticky buns. Fresh yeast activates more quickly than dry yeast, so if you use the former, the proofing process will be faster. However, fresh yeast is more difficult to work with; it has a shelf life of about two weeks when refrigerated, and bakers must crumble and proof it (or test its activity) in a yeast mixture with warm water before using it.
- 2. Use room-temperature butter. Using too-soft butter will result in runny dough resembling pancake batter, and it will take longer for it to absorb. However, too-cold butter is difficult for your stand-mixer to mix. Err on the side of colder butter than warmer.
- 3. Use the windowpane test. Check the readiness of your dough with the windowpane test. When you gently stretch the dough apart with your hands, the dough should almost be transparent, with web-like gluten strands.
- 4. Make the dough in advance. Make the brioche dough for your buns in bulk and freeze it for up to five days before baking it, after which the yeast will no longer be active. Place the dough in the freezer, tightly wrapped in plastic. Use dough stored in the refrigerator after one day.
- 5. Make the goo in advance. Make the goo for the sticky buns up to two weeks in advance, and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Bring the goo back to room temperature before using it.
- 6. Roll the dough forcefully. Instead of kneading, use some force when you initially roll out your dough. Be firm with the rolling pin to manipulate the dough and encourage gluten development, which will make for light, fluffy buns. The dough must be cold while rolling so it doesn’t absorb any additional flour.
- 7. Store the assembled unbaked buns. Wrap your prepared pan of raw sticky buns tightly in plastic and freeze it for up to 5 days. When you’re ready to bake your rolls, thaw them, still wrapped, in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.
- 8. Store properly. It’s best to enjoy these buns within a day of baking them. However, you can also store them in an airtight container at room temperature overnight. The next day, reheat the buns in a 300-degree-Fahrenheit oven for three to four minutes.
Joanne Chang’s Sticky Sticky Buns Recipe
makes
16 sticky bunsprep time
25 mintotal time
55 mincook time
30 minIngredients
For the brioche dough:
For the goo:
For the sticky sugar:
Notes: The total time does not include up to 25 hours and 20 minutes of inactive time.
Make the brioche dough:
- 1
In a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the water, yeast, all-purpose flour, bread flour, sugar, and salt, and mix the ingredients on low speed.
- 2
Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, and then increase the speed slightly.
- 3
Beat the mixture until all of the flour is incorporated and the dough is a pale yellow color, about 3 minutes.
- 4
Beat on low speed once again until the dough comes together in one ball that’s smooth and springy to the touch, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- 5
Turn the mixer to medium speed and add the butter piece by piece. Wait for each piece to incorporate before adding the next.
- 6
Continue mixing on low speed for 6 to 8 minutes and up to 10 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until all of the butter is thoroughly incorporated.
- 7
Continue mixing on medium speed for 6 to 12 minutes, pausing the mixer every few minutes to scrape the dough off the bottom of the bowl and the dough hook. The dough will eventually come together in a single stretchy mass as the butter gets absorbed and the gluten develops.
- 8
Increase the mixer speed to medium-high. In the last few minutes of mixing, the dough should start to gather together and slap around on the inside of the bowl. When the dough is done, it should be smooth and glossy, and hold together as one piece.
- 9
In a large bowl, let your dough rise (or proof). Cover it tightly with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours and up to overnight. The dough should double in size.
Make the goo:
- 1
Over medium heat on a stove, in a small saucepan, melt the butter.
- 2
Add the brown sugar to the melted butter, and whisk until the sugar completely dissolves.
- 3
Whisk in the honey until combined, then whisk in the heavy cream and water.
- 4
Stir in a pinch of salt, and whisk until the ingredients are thoroughly combined. This should make about 4 cups of goo.
- 5
Set the goo aside to cool, about 5 minutes.
Make the sticky sugar:
- 1
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and half of the pecans. Set it aside.
Assemble and bake the buns:
- 1
Remove your proofed brioche dough from the refrigerator. It should have doubled in size.
- 2
On a lightly floured surface, turn out the chilled dough. Press it down to flatten it into a rough rectangle. Flip the dough over and flick flour across the top of it.
- 3
Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 16x12-inch rectangle that is about a ¼- to a ½-inch thick. Take care when rolling the dough, working from the center, and pushing out. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat. Once you’ve finished rolling out the dough, brush off any remaining flour.
- 4
Sprinkle the sticky sugar mixture evenly across the surface of the dough.
- 5
On the long side of the dough, starting at the edge farthest from you, fold over a small lip of dough, about 1 inch, then start rolling it like a jelly roll. Leave about 2 inches of dough unrolled at the edge closest to you.
- 6
Using your fingertips, stretch and thin the lip of the dough so that when you finish rolling, the lip adheres to the roll with a smooth edge.
- 7
Trim off about a ¼ inch from either end of the finished roll.
- 8
Use a bench scraper or a chef’s knife to cut the roll into 16 equal dough rounds, each about 1½ inches wide.
- 9
Pour the cooled goo into a 9x13-inch baking pan, making sure to cover the bottom evenly. Sprinkle the remaining pecan halves evenly over the surface. Place the buns cut-side down in the pan, spaced about 1 inch apart.
- 10
Proof your buns. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap, and place it in a warm place to proof for 2 to 3 hours, or until the buns nearly double in size.
- 11
Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and position a rack and baking sheet in the center of the oven.
- 12
Bake the buns in the heated oven until they’re golden brown on top and fluffy, which should take about 25 minutes. Begin checking on them after 20 minutes. If the buns are done, take them out of the oven. If not, continue baking for another 20 minutes.
- 13
Cool the buns for at least 15 minutes, then invert them onto a serving platter. Use a spoon to scrape the leftover goo and pecans over the buns and serve.
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