I meant to post these last night but I’m sick with the most awful sore throat so I went to bed early last night. Interestingly in the last 12 hours of ill I’ve gone off these. Last night I was in love with them, this morning they make me feel a little sick. They are incredibly sweet and sticky so may be that’s it, my body seems to crave protein when I’m ill.
I have to say that even if I weren’t sick I probably won’t be making these the same way again. The dough was brilliant. Easy to work with and it was very tasty. I’ve been looking for a sweet dough for doing things like this with and this one is a keeper! I did have a bit of a problem getting it to rise but that was just one of the joys of trying to cook in the winter. The kitchen is freezing and nothing ever cooks the same as it does over the summer. Eventually I moved the dough through by the fire and thankfully it did its thing there.
My problem with this recipe came from the filling. Not only are pecans ridiculously expensive (£4 for 250g!) but the filling just wasn’t all that great, and at that price I expect great! I think that in the future I wouldn’t put the sticky stuff all over the bottom but inside the rolls themselves, which may make this a little tidier. It was an incredibly messy process in places and the original recipe had the cooking timings totally off so I took it out of the tin, tested it, found it was still dough in the middle then re-tinned it and put it back in the oven! unfortunately they ended up a little too brown as a result, see the bottom pic. I hope I’ve fixed that problem with my recipe here but do keep an eye on it.
Makes 9
450g strong bread flour
50g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
85g butter
7g sachet fast action yeast
2 eggs, beaten
a scant 150ml milk
1 tsp cinnamon (original recipe said 2 tsp, I don’t like cinnamon)
85g light brown sugar
100g pecans
125g melted butter
125g maple syrup
50g light brown sugar
100g pecans, roughly chopped
– Mix together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
– Rub in the butter with your fingers.
– Add the yeast, egg and gradually add the milk, mixing until you have a soft dough.
– Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and soft.
– Place in a buttered bowl, cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
– In a food processor or blender blend together the cinnamon, light brown sugar and pecans to powder.
– Butter a large springform cake tin or a large square one.
– Once the dough has risen knock it down and roll it out into a large rectangle.
– Brush the dough with melted butter.
– Mix together the rest of the butter, the maple syrup, the brown sugar and the pecans and spread over the bottom of the cake tin.
– Scatter the powder all over the dough, leaving a 2 cm strip on one of the narrow sides.
– From the opposite short side roll the dough swiss roll style.
– Pinch together the seam.
– Cut the roll into 9.
– Arrange these slices in the tin.
– Cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes.
– Bake at gas mark 6 for 30 minutes.
– Either turn out or slide onto a plate, whichever you like, and leave to cool for a few minutes before serving.
Anna in the kitchen 