The wheat based recipe for these scrumptious buns featured in the April edition of delicious. magazine. I am a lover of the combination of pecan & maple syrup so I simply had to convert Matt Preston's recipe for use with Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour. I was really happy with the result (& kept on nibbling on loose pieces - or ........ pieces I had loosened). To my horror my husband asked me to never make them again!!!!! What! Why! His response "I can't stop eating them". Seriously they are so good. If you like buns with a bit of sticky caramel on top with just a drizzling of icing these are a must to make.

When I made these for the first time I misread the recipe, consequently the dough had a whole lot more butter than it should. But the buns tasted so good I decided to keep the mistake in the recipe. There are a few other minor adjustments that I made, these don't change the flavour of the buns.

You will need to use a stand mixer or good hand held beaters & a food processor.

This recipe was designed specifically to be made with Bakers' Magic gluten free flour. The finished baked product will not be the same if you use another gluten free flour and you will need to adjust the recipe, particularly if the flour you're using contains rice flour. 

 

Ingredients

Total for all stages

185 g Milk

195 g Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

63 g Maize starch

1 tbs Caster sugar

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Yeast (dried)

190 g Butter

1 Egg

2 tsp Cinnamon

100 g Brown sugar

67 g Maple syrup

75 g Icing sugar

260 g Pecans

 

Extra - oil

 

 

Butter - The original recipe used unsalted butter (I used the salted butter in my fridge) & added more salt than I have used. If using unsalted butter you may need to add more salt. 

Pecans - When cutting pecans I tend to break the pecans into smaller pieces first. Sometimes little bits of the shell/woody material can be found in some of the fissures on the pecan (even those bought in packets at the supermarket), these need to be removed as they are really bitter. I usually break the pecans by hand (essentially quartering them) to check & remove any of the woody material.

 

Pre-incubate yeast

170 g Warm milk

1 tbs Caster sugar

1 tsp Yeast (dried)

 

Bun dough

195 g Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

63 g Maize starch

115 g Butter (small cubes)

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Egg

 

Cinnamon Pecan Crumb

2 tsp Cinnamon

70 g Brown sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

140 g Pecans

 

Melted Butter

75 g Butter

 

Pecan Maple Caramel

Left over melted butter

80 g Chopped pecans

67 g Maple syrup

30 g Brown sugar

~1/2 tsp Salt

 

Pecans for on top

40 g Chopped pecans

 

White Icing

15 g Warm milk

75 g Icing sugar

 

Method

Pre-incubate Yeast

Warm the milk slightly (stove top or microwave) & add in the sugar. Test a little of the milk on the inside of your arm - if you can feel it the milk is probably too hot. 

Pre-incubate the yeast at room temperature for approximately 5 - 8 mins in the warm milk containing the sugar. Stir the mixture to dissolve the sugar & disperse the yeast. This gives the yeast a readily available food source & they can "revive" in a relatively undisturbed environment. After the allocated time the surface of the yeast mixture should be slightly frothy. This indicates the yeast are viable. 

If the yeast mixture has a slightly frothy top or you can see bubbles proceed with bun making.

Bun dough

Transfer the Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour, maize starch & salt to a mixing bowl (stand mixer).

Chop up the butter into small cubes & add to the dry ingredients.

Mix flour & butter until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. 

Gently whisk the egg into the yeast mixture & pour this onto the flour/butter mix.

Beat until the dough has a uniform consistency (a couple of minutes).

Set aside until the Cinnamon Pecan Crumb is ready.

Put the cinnamon, brown sugar, salt & 70 g of pecans into a food processor & whiz until finely chopped. 

Add in the other 70 g of pecans & pulse the mix until the pecans are roughly chopped.

"Rolling" out the dough

Cut a piece of baking paper ~30 cm x 45 cm. Draw a 24 cm x 36 cm rectangle on the paper. Flip the paper over & lightly oil this side.

Lightly oil your hands & transfer the bun dough to the paper. Spread the dough evenly (with your hands) to the size of the rectangle.

Melt 75 g of butter.

Brush a little of the melted butter over the dough rectangle. Reserve the rest of the melted butter for the Pecan Maple Caramel.

Spread the Cinnamon Pecan Crumb evenly over the dough rectangle, leaving a 3 cm gap along the top of the long edge. It is okay to spread the crumb right to the edges of the short sides. 

Gently press the crumb into the dough.

This next part can be a little tricky - I find the hardest part is starting the roll. For ease have the long edge of the rectangle (with the crumb right to the edge) facing you. Gently start rolling up the dough from one edge, rolling it off the oiled baking paper. If necessary peel the baking paper off the dough. The dough can get a few holes from the larger pieces of pecans - don't worry when it is all rolled up you wont notice them. Once you have started the roll at one end continue starting the roll down the long edge. Continue rolling, making sure you tighten the roll, until you reach the top edge. The 3 cm overlap of dough will become the seam.

Roll the roll up in the oiled baking paper, transfer the roll to a baking tray (with the seam side down) & put it in the fridge for ~30 mins. Cooling the dough makes it easier to cut into pieces.

While the roll is cooling prepare the Pecan Maple Caramel.

Combine the chopped pecans, remaining melted butter, maple syrup, salt & brown sugar in a small bowl.

Line a 24 cm springform pan or a 24 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Ensure the baking paper is a large enough to cover the sides of the pan/tin.

Cover the bottom of the pan/tin with the Pecan Maple Caramel. In the original recipe 1/2 tsp sea salt was sprinkled on top of the caramel. I didn't do this but had put the salt into the caramel.

Remove the roll from the fridge & cut into 8 equal portions. If the roll is 36 cm long the pieces will be 4 cm long.

Arrange the portions in the pan/tin with 1 in the middle & 7 equally spaced around it. Place the outer portions with the seam side facing the side of the pan/tin. In the photo below most have the seam side to the side (I forgot with the first one). 

Cover the pan/tin & proof the buns in a warm place for 45 mins - 1 hr. The time will vary depending; on how cold the roll was when it came out of the fridge, how quickly it was rolled & how fast the portions were assembled in the pan. If you are wondering whether the dough has had enough time proofing it rises sufficiently for some of the individual buns to just touch. When they are cooking they will rise a lot more.

Turn the oven on to 160 C.  

Bake in the oven for ~30 - 40 mins. I baked mine for 30 mins in my fan forced oven set at 160 C. 

Allow to cool slightly in the pan (~5 mins) before inverting the buns on to a serving plate. Take care when inverting as the pecan maple caramel will still be hot.

Sprinkle the remaining chopped pecans on top.

Prepare the icing by mixing the warm milk & sifted icing sugar together. Transfer the icing to a small plastic bag. Make a small opening by cutting a tiny bit of the corner off the plastic bag. Randomly drizzle the icing on top of the buns.

I didn't wait for the icing to set before I had my share of the buns.