High Altitude Pecan Caramel Sticky Buns (Caramel Rolls)
Soft and fluffy cinnamon rolls, baked in a sweet and gooey caramel sauce and topped with pecans.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Dough Hook
- 8 inch baking pan
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 6 tbsp whole milk
- 1 ⅛ tsp (1/2 packet) instant/rapid rise yeast or active dry yeast
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar, divided
- 1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp bread flour, spooned and leveled, divided
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Caramel
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tbsp light corn syrup, honey or pure maple syrup
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup pecans, chopped
Filling
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted or very soft
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Dough
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the milk and stir. Warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees F.If it gets too hot, let it sit for a few minutes until it cools down to the correct temperature. It's important that you check the temperature - if it's too cold, it won't activate the yeast, and if it's too hot, it will kill the yeast.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the yeast and 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until it begins to foam and bubble; this will let you know that the yeast is active.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, stir together 1 1/2 cups of the flour (reserve 2 tbsp for rolling out the dough later) with the warm milk mixture, the sugar, salt, cardamom, egg and vanilla into a rough shaggy dough. With the dough hook, knead on medium/low speed for 10 minutes. The dough will be soft, sticky and loose, but don't add more flour. Even though the dough is soft, when you scrape it out of the bowl with a spatula, you should still be able to gather it into a ball with your hands.
- Lightly spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.If your oven has a bread-proofing setting, you can use that to proof your dough. If not, let your oven preheat to the lowest setting, turn the oven off, and then set your dough inside to rise.
- Set the bowl of dough, still covered, in the refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours, or overnight.The chill time allows the gluten to rest and the dough to develop flavor. It's also much easier to work with the dough when it's cold, since this is a soft dough.
Caramel
- After your dough has chilled, and you're ready to assemble the rolls, start making the caramel. At this point, get your 8-inch square baking pan prepped by spraying it thoroughly with non-stick baking spray (like Baker's Joy).
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Heat the mixture for several minutes until it begins to bubble, and the sugar dissolves, then remove from the heat.
- Stir in the cream and the vanilla.
- Pour the caramel into the prepared pan, then sprinkle the chopped pecans over the the caramel. Set aside while you roll out the dough and shape the rolls.
Filling and Assembly
- Turn the cold dough out onto a lightly floured work surface (using the last remaining 2 tbsp of flour to keep the dough from sticking). Roll your dough out into a rectangle measuring approximately 9x12 inches.Note: If you're making a double batch of sticky buns in a 9x13 pan, roll the dough out to 12x18 inches, and cut into 12 rolls instead of 9.
- Melt your butter and use a pastry brush to spread it evenly over the dough, all the way to the edges.In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle that evenly over the butter.
- Roll up the dough (starting on one of the long sides) into a log, keeping it as tight as you can. Using a gentle sawing motion with a sharp, non-serrated knife (or using unflavored dental floss), cut the dough into 9 rolls.
- Place the rolls cut side up in the pan, right on top of the caramel and pecans. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside in a warm place for 30-60 minutes, until the rolls have puffed up enough that they are touching each other and nearly fill the pan.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the rolls for about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center of one of the rolls reads 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The caramel will be bubbling when you take the rolls out of the oven. Let the rolls cool for no more than 3-5 minutes, just until the caramel has slightly thickened. You don't want to wait longer than this to turn the rolls out, or the caramel can harden too much, and the rolls will stick to the pan.
- Turn a plate over on top of the pan, then quickly flip the pan over to invert the rolls onto the plate. Lift the pan off the rolls. The rolls should come out cleanly, with pecans and caramel dripping over them.
- Let the rolls cool for 5-10 minutes, then serve warm.
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