Stress Baking Causes Stress

When you make sticky bun that good enough to eat for lunch - you've found a winning recipe. This recipe calls for making it in a cast iron skillet, but here's the thing. You have to turn them out. If you can't physically hold onto the cast iron pan and whatever you are turning it out onto? Use a 9 x 13 glass dish instead. These sticky buns were fun to make, a weird dough process but it works so who cares right? Once I got the dough all rolled up and sliced - I got a bit worried they would fit in the pan - but I did some overlapping and they worked. The 9 x 13 pan would likely have been perfect for this amount of dough. They baked up beautiful but then I started to wonder - just how on earth I was going to turn this out onto a pan without burning myself or getting sticky all over my kitchen. Enter Andy... he used some jelly roll pans, ov-gloves and his perfect brand of man handling... Flipped it - came out beautiful and we wanted to dig right in, but we didn't. We let it cool and had it for Sunday morning breakfast. Warmed up in the microwave - SO good. Yum. These will be made again - in a 9 x 13 pan- maybe for dinner!

Pecan Sticky Buns
DOUGH
2 cups whole milk
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup granulated sugar
2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
4½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
DOUGH FILLING
½ cup salted butter, very soft
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
TOPPING
1 cup butter, melted
1½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups pecan halves, roughly chopped

Instructions
DOUGH
In a medium bowl add milk and heat in the microwave for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes, or until it reaches 110°F. Add in the oil, sugar, and stir until dissolved.
Sprinkle yeast on top of the milk mixture, and let it sit for 1 minute.
In a large bowl, add 4 cups of flour. Pour the milk & yeast mixture over the flour and stir until just combined. It should be wet and sticky and warm in temperature.
Cover with a kitchen towel, and let sit in a warm place for 1 hour.
After the dough has rested for 1 hour, remove towel. It should look the same. Add salt, baking powder, baking soda, and remaining ½ cup flour.
Knead to combine. (If you use a large enough bowl, you can knead the ingredients together right in the bowl.)
Cover and chill 1 hour.
MAKE THE TOPPING
Melt butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Add in the brown sugar, honey, salt, and vanilla.. Stir well and make sure there are no lumps. Set aside.
PREPARE DOUGH & DOUGH FILLING
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Roll dough into a 30×10-inch rectangle on a floured surface. (Such as a clean countertop)
Using a clean hand, spread the soft butter over the surface of dough, making sure spread evenly and covering all of the dough, right up to the edge. Sprinkle with 1 cup brown sugar and then sprinkle with cinnamon.
Starting on the long side, roll up dough, jelly-roll fashion. Cut roll crosswise into 16 equal slices, and set aside. (Cut in half at the center, now cut each new section in the center, then cut each new section in half. This should be 16 pieces.)
Set a 12-inch cast-iron skillet on top of a foil-lined and rimmed baking sheet. Place pecans in bottom of skillet, and pour the butter and brown sugar (the TOPPING) mixture on top.
Place skillet in oven until sugar mixture is slightly foamy and bubbling, about 10-15 minutes.
After the 10-15 minutes, remove from oven and place rolls, cut side up, on top of melted and bubbling sugar. (Place the rolls carefully around the edges making sure to not touch the hot skillet)
Cover and let rolls rise, about 20 minutes.(This is outside the oven! Do not place rolls back into oven until they have risen for about 20 minutes!)
Return skillet to oven, and bake at 325°F until rolls are golden brown and sugar is brown and sticky, 30 to 40 minutes. (I covered the rolls with a loose foil tent for the first 20 minutes. This is optional.)
Remove baking sheet with skillet on it from the oven and let cool 15 minutes. Invert rolls onto a large serving platter. Best served warm!