Some recipes I’m posting during this time are going to be super pared-down and simple, and others are…well…not. What can I say? Bakers gonna bake.
These Cream Biscuit Pecan Sticky Buns came to be because I went into this time of quarantine with a ton of heavy cream in my fridge. It’s usually reserved for making buttercream for the various layer cakes I make every month, but there are no cakes on my calendar for…who knows how long.
So, what to do with all that cream? Whip it, make ice cream, make biscuits, and—oh yeah—combine it with the giant bag of pecans in my pantry and roll it all into super soft, tender sticky buns. Yesssss.
This is not the first time I’ve used biscuit dough to make sweet rolls on here, but it is certainly the prettiest (forgive those photos—I was a baby blogger). Assembly is super simple and, aside from the lack of rise, pretty similar to regular sweet rolls. Make a dough, make a filling, roll it all up, slice, arrange, bake over a lake of sticky pecan stuff, invert, eat. Boom, done.
I’ve designed this recipe to be for just nine rolls. I figure most of us don’t need more than that sitting around to taunt us from the kitchen counter. If nine still seems like too many, know that these keep remarkably well in the fridge for a few days and can be reheated on demand.
Now for the social distancing swaps so you don’t have to go to the store.
-Have nuts that aren’t pecans? Use ‘em.
-Don’t like nuts? Leave ‘em out entirely. Nothing terrible will happen.
-Don’t have honey for the topping? Use maple syrup, agave, light corn syrup, or golden syrup.
-Use any milk you like for the topping. I went with almond. In a pinch, you can swap the milk for 2 tablespoons of cream and 3 of water.
-Don’t have cream at all? You can use another biscuit dough. I’d be careful about making sure the dough stays cold and probably give the sliced & arranged rolls a good chill before baking.
-Feel like making traditional yeasted sticky buns? Click here. (You can leave out the bananas.)
Even with all those swaps, these buns may not quite qualify as quarantine-friendly for some, but they do for me. In an effort to stay home, I’m baking with things that are already in my pantry and fridge, as we all should be. To see more social distancing bakes, click here. And if you’re more inclined to cook than bake right now, head over to my Instagram. I’m posting easy dinner recipes over there a few times a week.
For now though, have a great weekend, and for the love of yourself and everyone else, stay home and make yourself a special breakfast. You’ve earned it! We all have.
Cream Biscuit Pecan Sticky Buns
makes 9 medium-large buns
Topping:
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, divided
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup milk of choice
2 tablespoons honey
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Filling:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
Biscuits:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream, cold
Preheat oven to 400F. Grease an 8- or 9-inch square pan with butter. Set aside.
Make the topping. Place pecans on a dry baking sheet. Toast for 5-7 minutes, or until fragrant. Let cool for a few minutes. Chop finely. Set aside 1/2 cup pecans for the filling.
Combine butter, brown sugar, milk, honey, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Stir constantly while mixture boils for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour mixture into prepared pan—it will seem thin. Tilt pan slightly to coat evenly. Scatter 1 cup chopped pecans evenly over the topping. Refrigerate full pan while you prepare the rolls.
Make the filling. In a small mixing bowl, use a fork to whisk together butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt, until it’s completely combined. Set aside.
Make the biscuit dough. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, salt, and baking powder. Use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to fold in heavy cream, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Dough will be shaggy.
On a floured surface, roll half the dough into a 10×14-inch rectangle so that the edge closest to your body is 14 inches. Drop spoonfuls of filling over dough and use an offset knife (or butter knife) to spread it out, leaving a 1/2-inch border at the edge. Scatter on reserved pecans. Starting at the long edge furthest away from your body, tightly roll the dough toward you until you have one large cylinder. Slice into 9 pieces, and place close together in the prepared pan. Bake rolls for 25-30 minutes, until light golden and fully cooked.
Let cooked rolls rest in the pan on a rack for 3 minutes. Run a small, thin knife around the edge of the pan. Place a large serving plate (or cutting board) upside down on top of the pan. Wearing oven mitts, tightly grab the plate and the pan and flip them over, inverting the rolls onto the plate. Remove pan. Nudge any leftover topping onto the rolls and smooth to distribute evenly. Serve warm. If rolls do not release, return pan to the oven for a minute to warm the topping before trying to invert again.
Cream Biscuit Pecan Sticky Buns are best served the day they are made, but may be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to three days.
One of the great things about yeast doughs—aside from the fact that they’re way easier than they’re made out to be—is that they all seem to have multiple uses. My 
Love a multitasker ❤ ❤ ❤ 
If you’ve never heard of pull-aparts, they’re basically a loaf of bread made of individual pieces layered with a filling (sweet or savory) and baked so that the whole can be pulled apart with your fingers instead of sliced with a knife.
Achieving this is really simple. The process begins like you’re going to make cinnamon rolls. Make a dough, make a cinnamon-brown sugar filling. Roll that dough out and top it with the filling. Nothing you haven’t (probably) done before.
Then, though, things get a little wacky. Instead of rolling the filled dough into a cylinder, it’s sliced into 36 squares, which are then piled into six stacks of six and arranged in a line(-ish thing) down the center of a loaf pan. The assembled loaf is allowed to rise for about an hour and then baked for 40 minutes, until deeply browned on top and cooked through in the center.
Let your pull-aparts cool for 20 minutes or so before removing them from the pan. Put the loaf on a serving platter and then blow it a kiss goodbye because it’s going to be quite literally pulled apart in front of your eyes. And it will be glooooorious.
I mean, it’s basically the center of a cinnamon roll’s swirl cut into squares and baked into a loaf shape so that it’s soft and gooey on the inside and crisp and brown on the outside and how could that be anything but glooooorious?
There is a time for large-batch, super-shareable baking, and then there is the time for a cookie for one (or two, if you’re feeling generous) that can be measured in tablespoons instead of cups, mixed with a fork, and baked to crisp-chewy perfection all in the span of 25 minutes.
I started making these One Big Cookies about a year ago; you can find the 
This is a cookie designed to be made on the fly. Yes, you’ll need baking basics (sugar, butter, flour), but you likely have all of them and even if you don’t, swaps can be made in the moment. Trust me. I did nine test rounds of this recipe, so I know all the ins and outs.
As you can see, adaptability is the name of the game! It’s such a rarity in baking, but this Snickerdoodle allows for it in spades. Who doesn’t need that sort of cinnamon-sugar-coated positivity in their life?
A few weeks ago, there was a 
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and, oh, do I love finding an exception. Today’s recipe, Cinnamon Roll Doughnuts, are exactly what they sound like: fluffy, brown sugary cinnamon rolls made from doughnut dough, fried ‘til golden and dunked in a classic sugar glaze. They are both cinnamon roll and a doughnut and they are exactly as delicious as they sound.
The inspiration for these comes from my childhood doughnut shop, Dale’s Donuts #9.* They made (and I assume that they still make) a version of these, and since I didn’t grow up with much home baking, I just assumed that all cinnamon rolls were doughnuts. As has been established, they are not, but I didn’t know at the time and I don’t think I would have cared…unless there wasn’t one left for me after a Sunday doughnut run.
Anyway…I’ve since learned to make great cinnamon rolls and doughnuts, but the cinnamon roll doughnuts of my youth have eluded me. I’ve looked for something comparable in every doughnut shop I’ve encountered over the years (which has been a lot), but have come up empty-handed…so I figured it out myself.
Cinnamon Roll Doughnuts are as simple to make as any of my other yeasted doughnuts. They begin like many sweet rolls and doughnuts do: by making a dough and letting it rise slowly in the refrigerator overnight. This makes for prime gluten development (critical for softness and chew) and nuanced flavor, and it means you don’t have to get up at 5am to make doughnuts in time for breakfast.
The next day, the dough is punched down, rolled into a rectangle, filled with cinnamon & brown sugar, rolled back up, and sliced.
Then the rolls are then pressed down with the heel of your hand and the ends are secured with toothpicks before a short second rise. These steps will keep them unraveling while rising and frying.
And speaking of frying, this is when these rolls take a decidedly doughnut-esque turn. Each one is fried in hot oil until golden and fully cooked in the middle. Some filling will escape during frying—that’s the nature of the beast—but trust me when I say your doughnuts will still be plenty cinnamony.
Once they’re all fried and golden, the Cinnamon Roll Doughnuts get a dip in a sugar 
It tastes like childhood and doughnut victory and a very delicious exception to the rules. The best.
I have put a lot of 
Now, I know there are a gazillion cinnamon roll recipes out there. You probably have one you love. Why take a chance and switch it up? What makes these cinnamon rolls special?
Well, I like to think *all* cinnamon rolls are special. I have never been disappointed to be offered a cinnamon roll in all my 33.5 years. Not once. Not even by the one I ate at a Roy Rogers in rural Connecticut at 8am that one time eleven years ago.
But, um, back to these cinnamon rolls, which are infinitely better than anything you could possibly find at a fast food restaurant in New England. They’re made with the same dough I use for my 
This dough works best with an overnight chill in the fridge. Immediately after mixing, it’s very soft and sticky—very frustrating to roll. After a chill however, the butter has set up enough that the dough rolls without sticking, making it ideal for slathering with brown sugar-cinnamon filling. This overnight method is also the ideal way to get scratch-made cinnamon rolls on the breakfast table without having to get up and start baking when it’s still dark outside. Sleep > baking.
Once the dough has been filled, roll it into a cylinder and slice it into pieces.
Let them rise and bake them until they’re brown.
And then slather them with a thin coat of cream cheese frosting. Or double the recipe for a thick coat. Whatever floats your cinnamon roll boat. <—hey, that rhymes.
Anyway, you don’t need me to talk you into wanting fresh cinnamon rolls (unless you hate them like 
e2 bakes brooklyn 