Last week, I had an enormous exam coming up, an imminent snowstorm, and four leftover Granny Smith apples. Although I'm not a huge fan of apples, I didn't want to waste them, so I tried eating one. Even after smothering the slices in nutella, they were still really sour (are apples supposed to be like that?!). I figured that the only way to save the apples was to embed them in warm, chewy dough. The pecans were added to bring out a subtle crunch. My favorite thing about these sticky buns is that they're not too too sweet; the natural sourness of the apples balances the sugariness of the caramel sauce. This is now one of my all-time favorite desserts, and I'll be baking another batch next week!
1/4 cup + 1 teaspoon sugar
1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1.75 cups unbleached all purpose flour (8.75 ounces)
1.33 cups whole wheat flour (6.67 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Granny Smith apples
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup dark brown sugar (7 ounces)
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup pecans
In a small bowl, dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup warm water (about 100 degrees). Sprinkle the yeast over top and whisk it in. Make sure your yeast hasn't expired! I once made a loaf of bread with expired yeast ("Hmm the yeast is expired..oh well, I'm sure the bread will be fine.."), and it turned out 2 inches high and rock hard. Remember that yeast is a living fungus....delicious!
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave using 15-second intervals. Let it cool, then whisk it together with the milk, egg, vanilla, and 1/4 cup of sugar.
If the yeast is alive, a thin layer of foam will form on the surface of the yeast mixture in 10 minutes (referred to as "proofing" the yeast, a.k.a. making sure that it's alive before wasting 3 hours making a recipe with dead yeast). Given simple sugars (like sucrose), yeast will begin metabolizing, producing carbon dioxide (the bubbles) and water. Temperatures of 90-100 degrees maximize air-bubble-producing yeast metabolism. Stir the yeast mixture into the milk mixture.
In a food processor fitted with a dough blade, combine the all-purpose and whole wheat flours and salt. If you're making the recipe by hand, whisk together the ingredients in a large bowl.
While the food processor is running, slowly pour in the yeast-milk mixture and process until the dough comes together and is uniformly wet. For handmade dough, pour the yeast-milk mixture into the flours and combine with a large wooden spoon.
Process for no more than 90 seconds using 15 second intervals. Because food processor blades spin so fast, they heat up the dough very quickly. This can kill the yeast, so give the dough a few minutes to cool down before continuing to knead. At the end, the dough should be smooth and hold together in a tight ball (if it's very sticky, add up to three extra tablespoons of all-purpose flour). If the dough starts to lose cohesiveness and look like a puddle of goo, you've processed too much. Alternatively, you can knead the dough by hand for 10 minutes, which is very calming.
Place the dough in a bowl lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray. Turn the dough to coat it with spray, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
While the dough is rising, you can prepare the apples. Aren't these a beautiful green? Frasier is optional.
Peel, core, and finely chop the apples into 1/4-inch cubes. Larger pieces of apple will rip the dough.
In a skillet, melt 4 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat until foaming.
Add the cinnamon and cook for a minute until fully combined and fragrant. This seems like a lot of cinnamon, but it'll actually be the perfect amount.
Add the apples and stir to combine.
Cook for about 7 minutes, stirring a few times, until the apples are soft and cooked through. Remove the apples to a bowl.
Add another 4 tablespoons butter to the skillet on medium heat. Once foaming, add the brown sugar and 1 tablespoon water and stir to combine until the sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the heavy cream.
Here's the puffy dough after 2 hours rising time.
Lightly flour a large, clean, flat surface or piece of plastic wrap. Roll the dough out to a 22- x 12-inch rectangle.
Spread the apples in an even layer over the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border along the top and an inch border on the sides and bottom.
Toast the pecans in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, 5-7 minutes. Finely chop the pecans and sprinkle over the apples.
Tightly roll the dough, starting from the top end. Spread a thin layer of water on the dough along the bottom border to glue the dough to itself.
With the seam-side down, cut off about an inch from both sides to expose the filling.
Score the dough into 12 equally-sized rounds.
Using your sharpest knife dipped in water (which is my boning knife), gently slice along each score.
Generously coat a 13- x 9-inch baking pan with nonstick spray and pour in the pseudo-caramel.
Arrange the buns in a 3 x 4 grid with the prettier sides up.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to rise again for another hour until the buns are just touching.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the tops are brown and beautiful. There are sticky bun recipes that call for pouring the caramel sauce over the buns after they're baked. I think baking the buns in the sauce is far better because the sauce actually soaks into the buns.
All those layers of cinnamon and apples and pecans!
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