TWD: Pecan Sticky Rolls

In The Way to Cook, Julia Child states that brioche dough is only for special occasions, a treat to be reserved for only the most joyous days.  With more than half a pound of butter and four eggs in the dough for eight pecan rolls, that is understandable.

No wonder they taste so heavenly. Rich, sweet, slightly cinnamon-y and a bit crunchy from the pecans. Oh my.

Using an alternate recipe and method for the brioche dough than that one in the Baking with Julia cookbook, I was able to mix and knead in the food processor. It still took quite a while to fully knead and come together, but at least the food processor didn't overheat. Here is the dough, still a bit soft and not quite ready to take out:

As you continue to mix, the dough comes together and gets shinier. Here it is in the bowl, ready for the first rise:

After a couple of rises, the dough was refrigerated overnight. Roll, fill, freeze until solid enough to cut, then place in a baking pan (another stick of butter is spread in the bottom of the pan, then sprinkled with brown sugar; this is the "sticky" part of the roll) and let rise again. Bake.

Lessons learned from this week's adventure in baking:

1. In spite of my hatred for recipes whose ingredients list begin with "1 recipe of xyz", in this case, it was worth it to learn to make the brioche dough.

2. It is possible to make a multi-step, multi-stage treat without totally wrecking the kitchen.

3. I have a great deal of respect for bakers past, who first created this treat without the convenience of electric mixers.

4. I actually used two different recipes - the original brioche recipe from Julia Child's The Way to Cook, as the basis for the pecan sticky rolls from Baking with Julia - to make these. If it weren't for the discussions on the TWD blog, I'd never have thought to go looking for an alternative to a stand mixer and the methods shown in the BWJ cookbook. A big part of my motivation for doing this challenge is to learn to bake better; being able to make these sorts of changes and have a degree of confidence in the result is a huge breakthrough for me.

Too see the original BWJ recipe, visit Lynn or Nicole. For more discussion and many more links, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie site (link in the sidebar).