Pecan Sticky Buns and Savory with Nancy Silverton

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Hello, I'm Julia Child.

Welcome to my house.

What fun we're going to have baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads right here in my own kitchen.

Nancy Silverton, owner of La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles transforms this buttery brioche dough into the stickiest of pecan sticky buns and her justly famous brioche pockets.

Join us on... [Captioning sponsored by VIEWERS LIKE YOU] This is a brioche, and it's made out of the most beautiful buttery, rich, light, heavenly dough.

We're not going to make a classical brioche today.

Nancy Silverton is going to make this beautiful dough and turn it into sticky buns and these pretty things... what are they?

We call them savory brioche pockets at the restaurant.

Savory brioche pockets.

Well, let's get to that dough.

I'm going to start with ma king the brioche dough and the brioche dough, as you sa id, is a classic butter dough and I'm going to make just that but I am going to make mine starting with a sponge.

And a sponge is a pre-dough of sorts to get the yeast re ady to go, mu ltiplied, growing.

I start out with two an d a quarter teaspoons of dried yeast a third of a cup of warm milk-- I usually have it ha nd hot which is a perfect te mperature for the yeast-- one egg an d a cup of flour.

And with the flour, I'm go ing to scoop a big scoop and level it off wi th my knife to make sure I have ju st the right... What kind of flour do you use?

This is al l-purpose flour.

Unbleached?

Unbleached all-purpose.

With a bread dough, I usually use a higher... a flour th at has more protein but with brioche, I use an all-purpose flour.

Mix it up a little-- se e how nice and wet that is?

Mm-hmm.

And now I'm going to cover it wi th another cup of flour.

And by covering it, I' m going to insulate my sponge so it doesn't dry ou t, and also it's going to show me if my yeast is really active before I add my ex pensive ingredients like my delicious butter.

It will kind of rise up.

Yeah, it will rise an d it will crack.

Mm-hmm.

And that usually takes ab out 30 to 40 minutes.

See how the flour is cracked?

It's a sign that ou r yeast is alive.

It's swelling.

Right-- I use a sponge in, I think all the yeast doughs th at I do.

It adds flavor an d also keeping quality.

I'm going to add my sugar to my recipe, and that is...

One-third cup, rounded.

I can add my salt di rectly on top of this because my yeast, remember, is at the bottom.

You never want to add salt di rectly to yeast.

This is nice ko sher salt One... salt... kosher salt.

And my four eggs.

I always crack my eggs in to a separate bowl.

I don't like eggshells in my brioche.

You see, when you get a little eggshell down and it sinks to the bottom... Yeah.

But that's okay.

That's four so that would be three-quarters cup of egg... whole egg.

There.

And remember, I put a cup of flour on my sponge so I have a cup an d a half left to add.

You have a cup in the sponge, a cup on top of it... And now I'm going to add a cu p and a half, but actually...

So, that's about a pound, isn't it?

Of flour, right.

But I'm really only going to add one cup at this point and hold back a half a cup an d add it if needed and this way you have mu ch more control of your dough.

Make sure you tu rn it on slowly so you don't have fl our going all over.

And remember, I've re served a half a cup so I'm going to add it as I need it.

The dough has done exactly wh at it needs to do and that is wrapping it self around the hook.

And you just let it wrap around the hook.

That doesn't bother you.

Right, you let it wrap, it begins to slap.

You can really hear a change in the sound th at it makes.

You think it's now done?

We're now ready to in corporate our butter.

It's very important that th e consistency of the butter is the same consistency of our brioche so that they in corporate very easily.

We've taken this out of the refrigerator so it's room temperature.

Give it a feel.

It's cool...

It's cool.

but not chilled.

What I'm going to do is I' m going to work it a little to really make th at temperature... You can either knead it by bashing it with a rolling pin or be a little bit kinder, wh ich I'm going to be and just do that wi th a dough scraper.

The "butter rights" people would be after you if you bashed it.

Okay, so we'll be gentle like this.

But do be careful no t to touch it or touch it as li ttle as possible because the warmth of your hands, again is going to turn this in to melted butter.

Then you'll get kind of a greasy brioche.

Right.

A little bit higher.

So, we're going to ad d the butter now.

We let this mix for 15 minutes wi thout the butter earlier but once the butter is... we add the butter we want it just to blend an d then turn it off.

Now, if the butter starts to stick to the sides you can scrape it down wi th a spatula.

Turn your machine off, an d also... Because the butter has stuck here.

Right, it's kind of sl apping around... he lp it a little in there and what you can also do is add a few pinches of flour and that will help also.

A little more help and then the machine is re ady to work on its own.

It certainly looks awful.

You think looking at it now, "Gosh, I've ruined it."

Exactly-- can you hear th e slapping sound at this stage also?

You know yo u're almost there.

That was definite slapping there.

Here, feel the temperature of this dough.

You can see it's st ill really cool af ter all that mixing.

Yes, it is... it's surprising.

It's very important th at it is left cool.

Otherwise, you said, it will turn oily.

Right, and you won't ge t the volume and you wo n't get the structure.

So, we're going to transfer our brioche to a nice, clean, li ghtly oiled bowl.

We're going to put this in a nice warm place and let it do uble in volume.

That's beautifully risen now.

Doubled in bulk.

And now it's time fo r me to deflate it.

Smelling good...

Here, I'll give you a little peek in here.

It's kind of webby, isn't it?

Uh-huh.

Isn't that interesting?

It's kind of grown to its capacity.

If we had let it go mu ch longer what would have happened is it would have been inverted.

It would begin to collapse again.

Right, exactly, and that me ant it went too long.

But now we need to deflate it let the air out, the gas out, an d redistribute the yeast so it has new food sources to eat up and grow again.

Right-- most doughs, at this point, you wo uld be able to shape and let rise in a pan or wh atever you're going to make but because this dough is so sticky it would be really di fficult to work with and that's why it needs to be refrigerated.

It is sticky, isn't it?

Uh-huh.

I usually re frigerate mine overnight but really four to si x hours is plenty-- just so it's firm and ready to use.

So, this is really a gentle kind of a twist.

That's all I do.

It needs to be covered... Mm-hmm.

and refrigerated.

Okay, let's see that's done.

I have one that's al ready been chilled down and ready to use.

It's kind of lumpy.

Yeah, it rises again... not as much as before.

That is really chilled.

I'm going to take this ba tch of dough that we made.

I'm going to di vide it in half.

The recipe makes two pans of sticky buns... Well, that's what we're going to do-- sticky buns!

Yes, I'm going to make st icky buns with one of them and I'm going to save the other half for the brioche pockets.

So that should be refrigerated.

Right, until we're re ady to use it.

Okay.

What are we going to do now?

I'm going to take this soft buttery dough and add a little more butter to it... Well, that's always good.

by rolling it in, but it 's an interesting technique.

It's very much li ke puff pastry.

It's great to have this marble to roll the dough on.

It keeps it cool.

Just as we were cautious about ha ndling the butter too much when we were adding it to the dough the same needs to be done wh en you're rolling it out.

You don't really want to touch it.

No.

It's irresistible an d you want to but you really want to touch it as little as possible so that it does stay cold.

You know, I always measure You know, I always measure the size of the dough that I'm rolling out and that way I'll always get th e right amount of sticky buns.

I need seven per pan.

So, we're going to do 11 by 14... A little bit longer.

You really have to be a fast roller, don't you?

Okay, now we're going to give it a few turns.

We're going to dot in th ree ounces of butter.

You know, this technique ca n also be used for puff pastry if yo u don't want to do it...

I've never seen that one.

It's very sensible-- a lot easier.

You're folding it in three.

That's very clever!

That's a much easier method.

I notice you don't go beyond the edge; you just roll up to the edge.

Right.

There we go.

And this we're going to ch ill for a half an hour both to firm it back up and also to allow it to relax a little bit.

Now, that's nice and chilled.

Is that ready to roll again?

It's ready to roll.

We'll see as we st art to roll it.

If it springs back much an d becomes too difficult I'll have to let it re lax a little longer but this feels al l right.

You can't rush these things.

No, you can't ru sh dough.

It has to be cold and you can't rush yeast.

No-- we're working with something that's alive and it's very different th an if it was just a sugar crust dough.

If this hadn't rested enough, it would recrack and...

Exactly, bu t this is perfect.

If you see any bu tter poking through, wh ich is very natural just add a little bit ex tra flour right there.

If you start to roll the butter th at's coming through you're going to end up wi th a sticky mess.

Lift it up, make sure it 's not sticking.

Just a lovely smell-- I could eat it raw.

( laughs ) I'm going to roll this out ag ain to 11 by 14..

There we go.

We got the size.

Now I'm going to make a little egg wash so that our ci nnamon sugar sticks.

And I'm actually going to use just a whole egg.

If I wanted a dark egg wash, I would use just the yolk but in this case, I' m going to go ahead and just use the whole egg because we're just using this egg wash more or less as glue.

Spread it on... All righty, I have tw o tablespoons of sugar that I've mixed with an eighth of a teaspoon of cinnamon and I'll sprinkle...

The egg wash holds on that, doesn't it?

Use a half a cup of pecans th at are chopped.

You know, the whole ones ar e the halves, actually that we're going to stick on the sides of them so that it's very de corative-looking.

I guess I'm going to roll a little.

I stay away from...

I stay away from the edge so that when I ro ll it up, it seals.

Otherwise the pecans ge t in the way.

Not too tight of a roll.

Not too tight of a roll.

Mm-hmm.

There we are.

There we go.

I'm going to set this in the fr eezer for about 45 minutes just so it's firm enough th at when I go to slice it I don't squish th e dough.

While our dough is freezing I'm going to prepare the pan fo r the sticky buns.

We're going to put the butter an d the brown sugar...

It's a softened butter... on e stick.

That's what really makes them sticky and beautiful, isn't it?

Right, it gives th em that shine and also that, uh... ri ght, that "stick to your teeth."

Okay, it just needs to cover the bottom.

And a half a cup of brown sugar.

And this is light brown sugar?

Right, the da rk brown sugar has a lot of mo lasses in it and that's not... Would be too dark?

Yeah, it's not a... A rather coarse taste.

There we go.

You got that firm brioche?

There you are.

Great.

That's such a good idea.

You never would be able to cut slices out of it, would you?

No, it would ju st collapse.

Can you see the la yers of butter that we have in there from folding th e butter in?

I have to put on my glasses but I'm sure it's there.

It's there, all right.

I'm going to cut them into 1½-inch slices.

You want seven?

Yeah, seven of them.

Five... six... seven!

Just right.

Cut them...

There we go.

Flatten a bit, ro und it.

You know, I'm going to stick a few pecans on the underneath side.

Every time I see pecans on a sweet roll, I always know.

That they're what?

Sticky buns-- that's the cl assic sign...

I see...

I guess that sticky buns are an American invention, I guess.

Are they?

They are.

How about if I ha nd these to you and you press them in?

All right.

And this last one wi ll be for the middle.

Got to find a nice warm pl ace to set these out again.

They have to rise again.

Yeah, they're going to all grow together.

How long does that take?

Because this is chilled.

It takes another hour an d a half, two hours.

Yeah.

Here they are, ready-risen.

Those are ready to go in.

Lookit, they're really puffy.

Yeah, and they're al l stuck together.

Okay, here we go.

What temperature do you put them in?

Well, in your oven here, I'm going to be cooking them at 325 degrees because it's a convection oven.

If you don't have a co nvection oven, I would suggest maybe 25 degrees more-- 350 would be good.

They certainly smell good.

They look go od, huh?

Now cross yo ur fingers.

( chuckling ): Okay, there they are.

You know, it could ha ve been a good idea to run a knife ar ound them in ca se they stuck.

Well, you can always turn them over and do it again.

They came out!

They look be autiful, huh?

They really are sticky, aren't they?

Yes-- unfortunately, they ha ve to cool, though, because... We can't eat one now?

No, you've got to let them cool.

Well, put them over there and let them cool.

Julia: There-- here's your chilled half a brioche dough.

Great, now we're go ing to make our sa vory brioche pockets.

Oh, good.

They sound wonderful.

Yeah, you know, I love do ing things like this... using up leftovers in your refrigerator.

Today we're going to be using some goat cheese and asparagus and potatoes.

But first, we need to roll the dough out.

We're going to ro ll it quite thin... because we don't want our pockets to be as bready.

We want to be able to re ally taste the filling.

There we go-- you know I can take that baking sheet th at's right behind you and I'm going to roll it... actually right on the back side so that it's easier to come off.

That's that wonderful paper.

Is it silicone paper?

Yeah, it's silicone paper, and then...

But I'm going to al so reuse this paper when we go to bake the ta rts on the baking sheet.

Can you refrigerate th at for me?

Mm-hmm.

Thanks.

Let me start with blanching so me of the asparagus and I cook them fo r about two minutes.

And then you want to refresh some in this ice water?

Right, stop the cooking in the ice water.

Okay.

You've got onions.

My caramelized onions.

I caramelized them in more butter.

Very slowly, yo u know, low flame ma ybe 25-30 minutes-- as long as possible.

Get it really even and brown.

Right, to sl owly color and it really brings out th e sweetness of the onion.

And I've got some... potatoes that ar e peeled.

Steamed potatoes.

These are "R ed Rose" potatoes.

And I want to mash them-- wi th a fork-- rather coarsely.

I don't want ma shed potatoes because it's nice to bite into that pocket and have so me texture.

Kosher salt.

A little pepper.

Pepper... And I'm just adding a couple ta blespoons of cream... Oh, this is nice, a nice heavy piece there.

And, you know, the joy of cooking sometimes-- as opposed to baking-- is it's not as precise.

Mm-hmm, yeah.

But I always say that the best cooks start out as bakers because they have to be precise.

You know, I just ad ded a little goat cheese into here.

Now, do you want to see whether these are done enough for you?

Let's take a bite.

Oh, yeah, perfect.

That's right?

Good, I'll... Because they're go ing to cook in the oven, in the pockets, so...

I'll put them in the ice water to stop the cooking.

There's our nice chilled, rested dough ready to roll.

I'm going to give it a quick roll because it always does shrink just a bit in the refrigerator.

You know, if you could tu rn the sheet pan over and put the parchment pa per in there... then we can put ou r pockets in there.

All right, I' ll give it a roll.

It's very thin.

That's about a sixteenth of an inch I would think, wouldn't you?

It is, but remember that th ere is yeast in here and once it goes in the oven, it's going to puff up.

Yeah, so you want it really thin.

You do need it thin.

I'm going to be cutting th ese out with a cutter.

This is about 4 ½ inches round.

Cut them fa irly close together so there's not to o much waste here.

Then you can reuse the dough, can't you?

Sure, you can al so freeze scraps.

Uh-huh, yes.

When you put them on the tray... you can't crowd, because they are going to expand.

So you might have to-- if you do a full recipe-- do it on two sheet pans and rotate them in the oven.

Let's see if this is cool.

Yeah, it is.

I'm going to ju st taste it fo r final seasoning.

What do you think, a little bit more... a little bit more salt and pepper?

The goat cheese is nice there.

I think a little more pepper I think it has enough salt.

A little more pepper... oh, and let's no t forget our chives which we have ri ght over there.

Oh, yeah.

I'll mix those in.

Here they are.

A couple tablespoons of chives.

Really any herbs wo uld be fine.

Thyme would be delicious.

I love po tato and thyme.

Okay, now can you put ab out a tablespoon of caramelized onion...

In the middle?

Just in the mi ddle, uh-huh.

Mmm, that's going to be lovely.

So, we're going to mound the potato.

About two tablespoons of po tatoes, does that look like?

Okay, and then maybe tw o asparagus tips on top.

I never would have thought of making a tart with mashed potato... but everyone loves mashed potato.

It's quite delicious.

I think you'll be pl easantly surprised.

Now we need to put the tops on.

I'm putting this top on and I see that it's sh runk a little bit so we'll just help it along by dimpling it.

Well, that's a good idea-- the dimpling.

I wouldn't have thought of that.

See, that's why it's nice working with a pro because you've got all these little tricks.

Okay, now, with this I' m going to... kind of crimp it backwards.

And the crimping actually... we're going to lose its definition in the oven so it's not th at important.

The importance is th at it doesn't open up and everything sp ills out.

I see... what have you... you're pressing your finger down...

I'm pressing my fi nger to hold it and I'm rolling it back to wards... the mound.

But I'm picking up bo th layers, see?

And then fo lding it back... and pressing down.

Then they just stick by themselves.

They stick by themselves.

We're not going to have picture-perfect.

Not all will look the same which is really, I think, adds to the look of them.

So they don't look factory-made.

They definitely don't lo ok factory-made.

All righty-- go t my egg wash.

This is what's going to gi ve it its gorgeous brown.

Add just a little poppy seed.

Oh, poppy seed, that's a nice idea, yes.

And a little sage.

Fresh sage leaf.

That's nice.

And they bake and they don't really di scolor much in the oven.

We're going to let these rest for about 20 minutes and then we're go ing to bake them at a 350-degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

And then we'll eat them.

And then we 'll eat them.

Great.

Now we're going to eat them!

Shall we start with this savory brioche pocket?

Yeah, absolutely.

Something savory before so mething sweet, of course.

You show me how you do it and I'll... Should they be warm, or what?

Warm or room te mperature.

Either one-- you know, at the bakery we have them piled on big plates and people buy them an d wrap a napkin around them and eat them to go.

Ah, lookit!

Yes, look at that and there's the potatoes and the onions and...

Smells so good, too.

It does.

And here's... we'll just take a bite out of it...

But it's nice wh en they have all th ose colors, huh?

Mmm.

Mmm.

And having the brioche dough is so... because it's so tender and full and lovely I think that's a triumph, I just love that.

Great.

Now, the sticky bun!

Mmm, there's that beautifully... way it came out... Again, do you serve that warm?

These, no, these ne ed to cool because what wi ll happen is the sugar from the sticky pa rt will really burn you.

They'll be really sticky, yeah.

They'll be sticky an d they'll... get to your teeth.

But these we just pull apart and... Now, how would you just pull... Want to split one?

I'm going to use my hands an d pull them apart... Oh, lookit!

Look at the wo nderful layers in the elastic dough th at we developed.

Oh, beautiful dough.

See, it still maintained th e integrity of the brioche itself.

Yes, it has, hasn't it as you can tell by that.

The "pully-ness," uh -huh.

Now, the test is in the taste, huh?

( laughs ) Mmm, awfully good.

They're not too sweet.

Uh-uh.

I think they're just right.

By having this perfectly made brioche makes a difference, doesn't it?

I think these are the best brioche I've ever had.

Well, thank you.

Oh, thank you so much.

That's a beautiful display of what you can do with it.

Julia: Bon appétit!