I came across Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen’s blog while searching for a recipe to try this weekend.  She had this “you can’t help but drool” picture of sticky buns and when I found out the recipe came out of the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, I knew I had to get the book.  In the meantime, I couldn’t wait to test the recipe which starts with a Master Dough that you let sit in the refrigerator. Then you  just get the amount of dough you need to bake whatever goodies strike your fancy.  The rest stays in the refrigerator until you are ready for the next one. Perfect for a household of 2 people!

Here is the recipe for the master dough as printed in the book and posted on Jaden’s blog:

Master Dough

from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tbl instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tbl kosher salt (or 1 1/2 tsp table salt)
• 4 lg eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, water, honey, melted butter, yeast and salt.
2. Stir well with a wooden spoon. Add in the flour. Stir until you don’t see any more dry bits of flour (about a minute).
3. Cover (not airtight) and stick it in the refrigerator overnight, or up to 4 days. The longer you let it sit in the refrigerator , the better tasting the dough will be.

According to Jaden,  you can let the dough rise for 2 hours on the counter, pinch off the dough that you need to make your rolls. However, it’s not as flavorful as when you let it sit in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.  Also, the dough will not “rise” like a normal dough when left in the refrigerator.

So for my experiment, I mixed the master dough and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.  I baked this rolls the next afternoon.  Here is the rest of the recipe:

Pecan Cinnamon Buns in Pannetone Mold

adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Pull out dough the size of two large oranges from the refrigerated master dough. Generously flour your hands and the dough. Shape the dough into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough and tucking it to the bottom all around, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.  Let the dough rest, covered with a towel to take the chill off while you prepare rest of ingredients.

Filling

• 4 tbl unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup chopped and toasted pecans
• pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Cream all ingredients together except pecans. Set aside.
2. Prepare the dough by rolling into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Spread the filling and then sprinkle the pecans.
3. Roll the dough starting at the long end.
4. Place in the pannetone mold like a coil. Let sit for an hour covered with towel.
5. Preheat oven to 350F during the last 10 minutes of the rising. Bake buns for 18 minutes.

Either my molds were too tall and or I didn’t put enough dough in each of them because it didn’t rise as high as I expected.  However, it still  tasted yummy even without the caramel topping than Jaden suggested.

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