Sticky Buns
Brown Sugar Kitchen
This is our first recipe from a new-to-us book! Brown Sugar Kitchen is a restaurant in Oakland, California from chef Tanya Holland, and the recipes in her book are for the food served there. She focuses on soul food, with some definite New Orleans influence. I can't wait to try more recipes!
Sticky buns with pecans are one of my husband's favorites, so when I saw it in this book, I knew I had to make it. Breads are not a strength of mine, so pretty much any recipe that includes more than just making dough and baking it in a pan takes it beyond "easy" for me, but I do like that this recipe uses a stand mixer for all of the kneading.
Tip: don't forget to put the pan on a baking sheet in case it bubbles over like mine did!
Captions
[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with heather
[00:08]: today i'm pretty excited because i have
[00:10]: a new cookbook that we're going to start
[00:11]: working from and that is called
[00:13]: brown sugar kitchen it is um
[00:16]: from tonya holland she has been on top
[00:19]: chef
[00:19]: she has her own show on uh
[00:23]: own on the oprah winfrey network um
[00:27]: and the recipes in this book
[00:30]: are recipes that she serves in her
[00:33]: restaurant
[00:34]: called brown sugar kitchen and they
[00:37]: do breakfast lunch dinner all of it
[00:41]: dessert and it's all in this book so i'm
[00:44]: really looking forward to it i've not
[00:46]: been lucky enough to eat there or i have
[00:49]: you know any idea i did watch her on top
[00:51]: chef
[00:52]: um but so i'm excited about trying a new
[00:55]: book
[00:55]: she has uh sort of some influences from
[00:58]: the louisiana area
[00:60]: um but she is in oakland her restaurant
[01:02]: is in oakland california
[01:03]: but it is sort of a soul food
[01:07]: southern um inspired
[01:10]: sort of cuisine that she serves so
[01:13]: anyway
[01:13]: i'm looking forward to it and today we
[01:16]: are making something that i'm making
[01:18]: basically for my husband because it's
[01:19]: one of his
[01:20]: favorite things um is sticky buns
[01:23]: especially with
[01:24]: pecans which these have optionally
[01:28]: we will obviously be including them um
[01:30]: so
[01:31]: we have to get started making the dough
[01:34]: and i'm going to go ahead and start
[01:36]: with some milk
[01:42]: and quite a bit of butter
[01:45]: and this isn't even all the butter in
[01:46]: the recipe but i'm going to put the
[01:48]: butter in here
[01:49]: and we're going to have to um just melt
[01:51]: this over medium heat
[01:53]: heat it up a little bit until the butter
[01:55]: is melted
[01:57]: at which point we then have to let it
[01:59]: cool a little bit so while this
[02:01]: is melting heating up and then cooling
[02:05]: i'm going to measure the rest of my
[02:06]: ingredients and get everything ready i
[02:08]: have almost everything here but i have
[02:10]: to measure
[02:11]: quite a bit of flour which is not great
[02:14]: with my current setup
[02:15]: of my canisters so it takes a little
[02:19]: while
[02:19]: but so i'm going to get that going we're
[02:21]: going to melt this and we'll be right
[02:22]: back
[02:23]: so my butter has just finished melting
[02:26]: and i checked the temperature just to
[02:28]: make sure
[02:28]: just to see where it is and it is way
[02:31]: above where you would want it to be for
[02:32]: yeast right now
[02:34]: but i'm gonna go ahead and put it in
[02:35]: here and let it cool because this is
[02:37]: what we do next
[02:41]: so it took forever for this to cool down
[02:44]: to 100
[02:45]: under 110 it's only slightly under right
[02:47]: now
[02:49]: that's not in here but my my bread guy
[02:53]: caution me against putting yeast in
[02:55]: anything that is above
[02:56]: 110. particularly if you're going to mix
[02:58]: it in a mixer
[02:59]: i don't know i don't do much bread he
[03:02]: does it all for me
[03:04]: um he says 80 degrees is what you want
[03:07]: your liquid at if you're gonna do
[03:09]: bread in the mixer but she just says let
[03:11]: it cool slightly
[03:13]: i let it cool down to 110 or below
[03:16]: i used a um cold
[03:20]: wet rag on the bowl while i stirred it
[03:23]: well this started so we're good now
[03:27]: and so now i'm adding sugar
[03:31]: my granulated sugar kind of got a little
[03:34]: extra moisture in it but that's all
[03:35]: right because
[03:36]: it will be fine um it's a little just a
[03:38]: little clumpy
[03:40]: and our yeast which is why i was
[03:42]: concerned
[03:43]: about the um temperature
[03:47]: here so i'm going to add the yeast
[03:51]: and then we are going to with our yeast
[03:53]: attachment mix it on
[03:55]: medium speed until combined
[03:58]: that should be fine now we're supposed
[03:60]: to let it sit until it's foamy
[04:02]: about five minutes so i'm gonna go put
[04:05]: my yeast back in the freezer because i
[04:06]: just i buy it in both and keep it in the
[04:08]: freezer
[04:10]: which is fine just keeps it makes it
[04:12]: last longer
[04:13]: um be back in about five minutes
[04:16]: okay it's been about five minutes it is
[04:19]: definitely getting foamy
[04:21]: but while i was waiting i was rereading
[04:23]: the recipe and i realized that i did
[04:24]: something wrong so it's only suppose
[04:26]: supposed to heat up half of the milk
[04:28]: with the butter um in the first place
[04:31]: and i was supposed to add the other half
[04:32]: at this point i'm sure it'll be fine
[04:36]: especially since i um waited until it
[04:38]: was pretty cool
[04:40]: i'm sure it'll be fine it'll be fine um
[04:43]: you can see
[04:44]: you've got some foamy yeasty bits here
[04:46]: hopefully you can see that
[04:48]: um and it smells like yeast like bread
[04:51]: right now so we are going to add
[04:54]: continuing with our whisk attachment
[04:56]: we're going to add
[04:58]: some eggs that i've just sort of beat up
[05:01]: with a fork to break them up
[05:07]: we're supposed to add the other half of
[05:09]: the milk
[05:11]: but we don't have that and we have some
[05:14]: salt
[05:14]: it's actually quite a bit of salt but
[05:17]: like let me yep i'm not misreading
[05:22]: so and now we um
[05:26]: mix this on low speed just until that's
[05:29]: combined
[05:30]: i think that's good and now i'm going to
[05:32]: switch to the
[05:33]: dough hook my dough hook attachment and
[05:36]: we're going to do this
[05:37]: entirely all the kneading is going to
[05:40]: happen in here
[05:41]: so we're going to gradually add
[05:44]: our flour that i've already pre-measured
[05:46]: here and
[05:49]: and then beat it doesn't say what
[05:53]: speed but it'll probably be at least
[05:54]: medium after we get everything in there
[05:57]: beat it for about five minutes until the
[05:59]: dough is smooth and elastic so it's
[06:01]: gonna be loud
[06:03]: we'll probably cut most of this out but
[06:05]: we'll see
[06:07]: so we'll start i'm going to start on a
[06:08]: low speed while i'm adding the flower
[06:22]: okay turn this off for a second now this
[06:25]: is pretty well incorporated
[06:27]: um and made a nice dough ball
[06:31]: uh i'm going to turn this up to medium
[06:33]: speed and
[06:35]: let it go for about five minutes and
[06:36]: hopefully
[06:38]: fingers crossed we'll be okay uh i just
[06:40]: wanted to let you know i don't think i
[06:42]: said but that was just plain all-purpose
[06:43]: flour not bread flour
[06:45]: um no rising agents or anything just
[06:47]: all-purpose flour
[06:48]: my bread guy says to look for unbleached
[06:52]: unbromated flour we generally buy
[06:54]: king arthur but whatever you like
[07:01]: okay my mixer is getting warm it's going
[07:05]: all over the place and it's been a
[07:06]: little more than five minutes i don't
[07:08]: know that it is
[07:09]: super smooth and elastic
[07:12]: but uh we're gonna call it good
[07:16]: for now i am going to transfer
[07:19]: you won't be able to see that from there
[07:20]: but hopefully from there you will i'm
[07:22]: going to transfer this dough
[07:23]: into a lightly greased a well
[07:26]: lightly greased well oiled a large oiled
[07:29]: bowl uh enough for it to double in size
[07:33]: so i'm going to get my oil i'm just
[07:35]: using um
[07:36]: i'm just using some grapeseed oil
[07:37]: because that is a neutral
[07:39]: flavored oil and that's what i usually
[07:41]: use for this kind of thing
[07:44]: um i'm just going to spread
[07:50]: the oil around with my hands and then
[07:53]: i'm going to scrape this out
[07:55]: or pull this out
[07:58]: kind of form it into a ball and
[08:03]: at some point i had three different
[08:06]: separate dough balls in there while i
[08:08]: was kneading
[08:08]: whatever it will be fine um i'm going to
[08:12]: put this
[08:12]: in this bowl i'm going to cover this
[08:15]: with plastic wrap and it's going to go
[08:17]: in my i've got my warming drawer set to
[08:19]: proof bread
[08:21]: uh temperature you want just somewhere
[08:23]: warm but not too warm
[08:25]: um let's let it sit for about an hour
[08:29]: we'll be back some time before that to
[08:31]: make the
[08:32]: sticky bun goo that goes on the bottom
[08:35]: of the pan
[08:35]: so we'll see in a few my dough has been
[08:38]: done for a little while i turned off my
[08:41]: warming drawer so hopefully it's not
[08:42]: going to get too overproofed
[08:46]: life happens it is at least doubled in
[08:50]: size now so we're good
[08:52]: but i have two things to make before we
[08:54]: can deal with it first i have to make
[08:56]: the
[08:56]: sticky bun goo
[08:59]: so for that i have my clean
[09:03]: uh bowl a little wet
[09:06]: not anymore um i have some
[09:09]: more unsalted butter all of the butter
[09:12]: in this recipe is unsalted
[09:14]: just you know fyi if i forgot to say
[09:17]: that before
[09:18]: but i have some light brown
[09:22]: sugar everything's already measured
[09:24]: thankfully
[09:25]: and we have our whisk attachment again
[09:28]: and we are going to
[09:30]: beat this together at medium speed until
[09:32]: it's light and fluffy we're basically
[09:34]: creaming these together
[09:39]: also we need to stop and white and um
[09:43]: sort of scrape the sides at least twice
[09:45]: during this time and she said it says
[09:47]: it'll take
[09:48]: three to five minutes so you probably
[09:51]: won't see any of that but
[09:52]: i will be stopping to scrape this scrape
[09:55]: the sides
[09:56]: and it'll take about three to five
[09:57]: minutes so we'll let you know what it
[09:59]: looks like
[10:00]: i don't think this is going to get very
[10:01]: much lighter or creamier
[10:04]: it just seems to be kind of sticking to
[10:06]: the sides of the bowl
[10:10]: and i don't have the patience to mess
[10:14]: with it any more than this i think this
[10:16]: will be fine
[10:17]: so i'm gonna go ahead and add the rest
[10:19]: of the ingredients here
[10:20]: um which is some salt
[10:24]: not a whole lot of salt but some salt
[10:26]: [Music]
[10:30]: i like to put things away when i'm done
[10:32]: with them so i don't
[10:33]: forget if i've used them um
[10:38]: we need corn syrup honey and water so
[10:41]: i'm going to go ahead
[10:42]: i like these plunger things to measure
[10:45]: corn syrup and honey so i'm going to use
[10:48]: both of those and make sure i'm getting
[10:50]: the right measurement and i am
[10:53]: yeah there we go
[10:57]: best part about this it comes right out
[11:01]: and you can sort of scrape it like that
[11:04]: and then one more time for my corn syrup
[11:08]: this is just light
[11:09]: corn syrup and so i put my corn syrup in
[11:13]: here
[11:13]: same thing as the honey just scrape it
[11:17]: off there
[11:19]: and now we just need a little bit of
[11:21]: water
[11:24]: i'm going to
[11:28]: there we go over here
[11:31]: and we're going to um
[11:35]: beat this until combined so
[11:40]: i'm going to stop and scrape it down
[11:43]: now just get all that salt
[11:46]: and everything combined and now it's
[11:48]: actually looking sort of
[11:50]: light and fluffy i just feel like there
[11:52]: wasn't enough
[11:54]: butter to sugar there to really get it
[11:57]: light and fluffy without anything else
[11:59]: so
[12:01]: i'm gonna call that good and try to get
[12:05]: as much of this off of here as i can
[12:07]: so now all i have to do is spread this
[12:09]: on the bottom of a
[12:11]: 9 by 13 pan i've chosen this
[12:14]: pyrex glass dish
[12:18]: she doesn't suggest whether it should be
[12:21]: glass or um
[12:24]: metal doesn't really
[12:28]: tell you what kind to use but this is
[12:30]: what i would generally bake
[12:32]: this kind of thing in so that's what i'm
[12:35]: going to use
[12:39]: and just spread it on the bottom she did
[12:41]: not say to
[12:42]: butter the the dish or anything
[12:46]: just spread spread
[12:49]: all of it along the bottom sort of
[12:51]: evenly
[12:53]: as evenly as you can
[12:60]: all of this is just preparing for the
[13:02]: dough
[13:03]: to go in here and we are going to be
[13:06]: using pecans so now we just sort of
[13:10]: sprinkle these along the bottom
[13:16]: as evenly as we can
[13:21]: and she says whole pecans which
[13:25]: these are halves which is pretty much
[13:27]: what hole means
[13:28]: and a few pieces
[13:33]: okay
[13:36]: rearrange anything if i feel like it
[13:39]: needs it
[13:41]: so that you know all of my sticky buns
[13:44]: have some of these nuts with them
[13:49]: because it's my favorite part okay
[13:53]: i'm gonna put this back here and we're
[13:54]: gonna set up to
[13:57]: roll out the dough i did forget one step
[13:59]: that we're gonna need
[14:01]: also to have some cinnamon sugar
[14:04]: to go on the inside of the dough so
[14:08]: um i'm just going to mix some ground
[14:10]: cinnamon into
[14:11]: some plain granulated sugar um
[14:14]: use the non-wet side here it's quite a
[14:17]: lot of
[14:18]: cinnamon but it's also quite a lot of
[14:21]: sugar so
[14:27]: there we go and just
[14:32]: combine these together
[14:36]: as evenly as you can my sugar is a
[14:38]: little bit
[14:39]: like i said a little bit lumpy
[14:43]: that will be fine because it will all
[14:46]: sort of melt
[14:47]: in the middle of the dough with
[14:51]: again quite a lot of butter um speaking
[14:54]: of
[14:55]: i have i'm going to melt some more
[14:58]: unsalted butter
[14:59]: in the microwave to be ready for us
[15:03]: when we need it after the dough is all
[15:08]: shaped okay so now i need to sort of
[15:11]: prepare my work
[15:12]: surface have a lightly floured
[15:16]: surface and then i'm going to also need
[15:20]: to lightly flour my
[15:22]: um rolling pin when i get there my dough
[15:25]: is a bit overproofed
[15:29]: but
[15:32]: i'm sure it'll be fine so she says to
[15:35]: punch down the dough
[15:39]: and pat this
[15:42]: on this surface into a rough
[15:45]: rectangle in the end
[15:49]: we're going for a rectangle that is
[15:53]: approximately um oh it says a large
[15:56]: rectangle about a quarter inch thick so
[15:60]: i guess we get whatever size we get
[16:03]: when it's a quarter inch thick
[16:10]: all right i think we're at about
[16:14]: a quarter of an inch it'll do
[16:18]: and then i'm going to need a knife
[16:23]: and a pastry brush
[16:27]: okay so i've got this about a quarter of
[16:30]: an inch thick
[16:32]: and i have a lot of melted butter and a
[16:35]: brush so i'm just going to brush this
[16:38]: with melted butter
[16:40]: try to get it all over i assume i'm
[16:44]: supposed to try to use all of it
[16:45]: i do not know for sure but i'm going to
[16:49]: see
[16:50]: i have doused this liberally with butter
[16:52]: and i probably still have about half
[16:54]: left so i don't think i need all of that
[16:55]: butter
[16:57]: sprinkle this with the cinnamon sugar
[17:06]: i feel like i don't need to use all of
[17:09]: this
[17:10]: cinnamon sugar because it's an awful lot
[17:13]: and maybe because i didn't put all of
[17:14]: the butter on it i don't know
[17:23]: we'll see but i think i'm gonna call
[17:26]: that
[17:26]: good enough um
[17:30]: yeah i'm gonna call that good enough and
[17:33]: now
[17:34]: uh you want the long end facing you
[17:37]: and we're going to roll it i guess if i
[17:40]: had
[17:40]: um made it thinner it would have been
[17:42]: slightly more surface area but
[17:45]: whatever
[17:51]: maybe i would have needed more of it
[18:02]: roll this this way so i can see it
[18:04]: because now i need to sort of
[18:06]: pinch
[18:09]: um this together so that it doesn't come
[18:15]: apart
[18:15]: hopefully kind of roll it a little bit
[18:19]: just to flatten that out
[18:23]: and now we cut it into 12 pieces so
[18:29]: cut it in half
[18:32]: and then approximately in half again
[18:38]: and then get three pieces out of each of
[18:41]: those
[18:44]: hopefully they'll be relatively even
[18:51]: good enough and now we put these cut
[18:55]: side up
[18:56]: on top of our sticky bun
[18:59]: goo
[19:03]: all right
[19:14]: all right i'm just gonna throw those
[19:17]: pieces in there because why not
[19:19]: um now we're gonna cover this with
[19:22]: plastic wrap
[19:22]: and let it rise for 30 minutes before we
[19:26]: bake it so we'll be back in about half
[19:27]: an hour
[19:29]: so these have risen for half an hour and
[19:33]: approximately doubled in size i don't
[19:36]: know but i do have
[19:37]: since i have this extra butter i thought
[19:40]: i would
[19:42]: put some on top maybe why not
[19:46]: um and my oven is preheated
[19:50]: to uh 350 degrees
[19:54]: not convection just regular um i figure
[19:57]: some extra butter is not gonna hurt this
[19:59]: i would put some of the cinnamon sugar
[20:01]: on top but i don't want it to get
[20:04]: super brown and crusty so
[20:08]: i'm not going to do that but i figure
[20:11]: the butter won't hurt and we're going to
[20:14]: bake these
[20:15]: at 350 degrees for
[20:18]: 40 to 45 minutes and she says that they
[20:21]: should be
[20:22]: um golden brown at that point so
[20:25]: hopefully they will be
[20:28]: and yeah i think that's pretty good
[20:32]: and i still have some of this butter
[20:34]: left over i don't know what i'm gonna do
[20:36]: with it
[20:36]: we'll see my sticky buns been in the
[20:38]: oven for 45 minutes
[20:40]: they are um they're definitely golden
[20:44]: brown
[20:44]: i'm pretty sure they're done enough
[20:49]: they did try to boil over and i got a
[20:52]: little bit of a burny smell
[20:54]: about 30 minutes in i think so i put a
[20:56]: tray in the on the rack underneath it
[20:59]: we'll have to clean my oven a little bit
[21:01]: and they did kind of
[21:03]: rise very funky here on the edges i was
[21:09]: i don't know was not expecting that
[21:12]: mine do seem to be a little bit
[21:15]: thicker my layers seem to be a little
[21:18]: bit thicker than her so maybe i should
[21:20]: have
[21:22]: rolled it out a little bit bigger we'll
[21:24]: see how they turn out
[21:26]: um at this point we have to leave this
[21:28]: to cool
[21:29]: on this rack for 15 minutes before we
[21:33]: turn it over or turn it out onto a
[21:34]: platter
[21:36]: i found i think i own one platter that
[21:39]: will fit
[21:40]: this you can use a a baking sheet
[21:43]: as well that would be just fine whatever
[21:45]: you have
[21:46]: that will fit it and you can turn it
[21:48]: over but we'll do that
[21:49]: in about 15 minutes now is the moment of
[21:52]: truth
[21:54]: when i'm supposed to invert this onto
[21:57]: here
[21:59]: my platter is a little big but
[22:03]: it's the only one i have that is big
[22:04]: enough and vaguely decorative
[22:07]: so this is
[22:11]: super fun i'm going to
[22:18]: there we go maybe
[22:23]: it's heavy all right well
[22:26]: here's nothing
[22:31]: [Music]
[22:32]: okay well well it could have been worse
[22:42]: it's coming off
[22:45]: yay all right that was not so bad
[22:50]: and so a little stuff on my
[22:60]: things here she says to um
[23:04]: spoon any extra goo that does not come
[23:07]: out over
[23:11]: the cinnamon buns the sticky buns
[23:16]: and there you have it
[23:21]: it worked oh my goodness
[23:24]: um all right so she says that if you
[23:27]: need to make these ahead
[23:28]: you can uh cover these
[23:33]: with um plastic wrap cover them tightly
[23:36]: put them in the refrigerator
[23:38]: and then reheat them for about 15
[23:40]: minutes
[23:42]: uh the day you want them she says they
[23:44]: only keep about a day in the
[23:46]: refrigerator
[23:48]: i would think they probably keep a
[23:50]: little bit longer than that but you know
[23:53]: i'm no expert there we go
[23:58]: so i'm gonna plate one of these up and
[23:60]: take some pictures and then we'll let
[24:01]: you know what we think about it
[24:03]: serve them warm that goo will probably
[24:06]: not be very tasty once it's cold
[24:08]: so uh i would reheat it in the microwave
[24:11]: a little bit
[24:12]: if you you know if it gets a little too
[24:14]: chilly
[24:18]: we'll let you know what you think
[24:27]: on this episode of cooking the books
[24:29]: with heather you watched me make
[24:31]: sticky buns from tonya holland's brown
[24:33]: sugar kitchen
[24:34]: cookbook and now
[24:37]: i'm i bake but not a lot and i certainly
[24:40]: don't do a lot of bread
[24:42]: or cinnamon buns or anything like that
[24:44]: so there are certainly some things i
[24:47]: probably did wrong or could have done
[24:50]: better
[24:51]: um i think i didn't roll them out quite
[24:54]: thin enough
[24:55]: for me if i were to do this again i
[24:57]: would probably
[24:59]: leave them about the same width because
[25:01]: i don't want the
[25:03]: i don't want the honey buns sorry sticky
[25:06]: buns to be any taller because then
[25:07]: they'd be
[25:08]: really out of my my baking dish but i
[25:12]: think i want the layers to be thinner
[25:13]: and
[25:14]: be a few more layers and to be able to
[25:16]: get all of that butter and sugar in
[25:17]: there without feeling like i'm just
[25:19]: dumping it on and it's just gonna roll
[25:21]: all over the place right so i think that
[25:25]: would allow rolling it a little bit
[25:27]: bigger maybe even more like a square
[25:28]: than a rectangle
[25:30]: um would allow me to get all of the
[25:33]: butter and sugar in there
[25:34]: they're a little bit bready because the
[25:37]: the rolls are
[25:38]: kind of thick um but the the dough is
[25:41]: good um
[25:43]: it rose nicely it baked nicely
[25:46]: uh this sticky bun mixture the the goo
[25:50]: the sticky bun goo is pretty gooey
[25:54]: um i was expecting there to be a little
[25:57]: bit more of it but i think that's
[25:59]: fine my husband said they they taste a
[26:01]: little bit like they're healthy because
[26:03]: there's not quite enough butter
[26:04]: and sugar in the middle i think this
[26:07]: makes up for it though
[26:09]: um they did take a while
[26:12]: they took um a little longer than i was
[26:15]: expecting to make
[26:17]: with all of the waiting mostly uh
[26:20]: waiting for the milk to cool down may
[26:24]: have been
[26:25]: my fault heating it too hot i don't know
[26:27]: some of my butter was
[26:28]: frozen so everything else might have
[26:30]: gotten a little bit too warm
[26:31]: um waiting for it to
[26:35]: rise twice um but really it wasn't
[26:38]: too bad you would want
[26:42]: a mixer a stand mixer with this because
[26:45]: it does call for that for the kneading
[26:46]: and i hate to knead
[26:48]: bread dough by hand i just really do i
[26:51]: don't feel like i'm good at it
[26:52]: um i never know when it's done so if a
[26:55]: recipe tells me
[26:57]: knead it or put it in the machine for a
[27:00]: certain amount of time
[27:02]: that's great with me and it did it
[27:04]: turned out well
[27:05]: the bread dough the bread part seems
[27:08]: perfect to me so that's good
[27:10]: um but yeah we are going to enjoy these
[27:14]: but we are also going to share them
[27:16]: because this is a lot
[27:18]: to eat in a relatively short amount of
[27:20]: time
[27:22]: so uh
[27:26]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[27:29]: please give me a thumbs up
[27:31]: hit the subscribe button share it with
[27:34]: your friends if you think they would
[27:36]: enjoy this
[27:37]: and come back and watch me make
[27:38]: something else next week