I started this post with a big introduction, sharing my relationship with gluten and how it has changed in the past few years, but it got to be so long! Those stories will come to you all soon. But right now, I just want to say, I love me some baked goods! And it seems that March has become bun month. (And I ain't mad!)
This is a bun recipe I came up with by accident.
I was going to make a new take on a hot cross bun but ended up forgetting some ingredients when I made them, and it turned into these chocolate pecan buns. They are the perfect mix between sweet and spiced. You can eat them for breakfast or dessert. They are just an all-around really good bun! I hope Paul Hollywood would be proud!
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
7 g active dry yeast
15 g castor sugar
15 g brown sugar
7 oz milk
400 g plain flour
90 g butter, softened
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1 ½ tbsp. chai concentrate
75 g pecans, chopped and toasted
75 g dark chocolate chips
honey (roughly 1 tbsp.)
orange marmalade (roughly 2 tbsp.)
Method:
1. Combine yeast, sugars and milk in a large bowl or stand mixer bowl and set aside while measuring your additional ingredients. Using a digital scale, measure all additional ingredients into a medium sized bowl, excluding pecans, chocolate, honey and marmalade.
2. Pour the contents of your medium sized bowl into the bowl with the yeast mixture.
3. Using a dough hook attachment, mix and knead the dough for about five minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer, mix the dough with a wooden spoon until combined and then knead by hand.
4. Add the pecans and chocolate and knead for another five minutes.
5. Let the dough rest, covered, for an hour, or until doubled in size.
6. Turn risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and, using a sharp knife, cut into 12-14 pieces. Roll the dough pieces into balls and place into a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Let dough balls rise another hour or until double in size. Do not be concerned if/when the dough balls touch! This is completely normal.
7. Preheat your oven to 350 F or 180 C. Using a pastry brush, brush the dough balls with combination of one tbsp. milk and a tbsp. melted butter. Placing the pan in the middle of your oven, bake until golden brown, 25-30 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and drizzle honey over the buns. Using a pastry brush, brush honey evenly across buns and brush marmalade as well. Using the parchment paper, remove buns and let cool on a wire rack.