Hi everyone! This is my first post - I’ve been lurking for a little while and feel like I’ve learned so much already!

I only bought The Cake Bible a few weeks ago and aside from a couple of initial glitches (it took me 2 not-quite-right cakes to work out that US cup measurements were different to Aus measurements so now I weigh everything just to be safe!!) the cakes have been a major hit!

I thought i would give the brioche/sticky buns recipe a go over the weekend.  I don’t have internet at home (I’m at work atm) so I didn’t realise there were video clips showing pretty much every step. 

Anyway, just for background - for some reason at the step where you mix in the butter and it’s meant to be glossy and pull away from the bowl, mine was more like a glue or a thick paste (but it was glossy-ish and smooth).  I had to do mine in my stand mixer with the dough hooks (lol I’m still saving up for Kitchenaid and my food processor doesn’t have dough making capabilities). 

I didn’t know it was meant to be more dough-like (as opposed to thick and sticky) so I scraped it into my buttered bowl and left it to rise (and it did rise a lot).  Then I put it into the fridge for a couple of hours (I pretty much used all the maximum rising times).  When I went to stir it gently it kind of collapsed back into a gooey mess but as I said, I didn’t know this was out of the ordinary (I have never made bread before).

So as you can guess, when it came to the folding stage, my dough wasn’t so much a dough as it was a sticky gooey mess.  I put a thick layer of flour on my surface and it still stuck to everything.  I had to scrape it off the benchtop with my rubber spatula.  It wasn’t foldable!  I had to knead in a LOT of flour to get it to be more dough-like (as in about about an extra cup) and then I did the folding and pressing part and wrapped it loosely in cling wrap and foil as instructed.  It’s been sitting in the fridge overnight and I could see this morning (from the fullness of the package) that it has expanded some more. 

I guess my question is - do you think the extra kneading and flour I put in would wreck it?  I can’t work out what went wrong except that maybe because I was in a bit of a rush, I didn’t weigh the 2 cold eggs (I weighed everything else) and perhaps they were too big and there was too much liquid.  Has this happened to anyone else?  Should i cut my losses and start over, or give it a go in the oven anyway?  Eek that ended up being more than one question - sorry!

Oh wells it’s all a good learning experience anyway!! I’ve never eaten brioche before and I’m worried my first taste might not be the best example!!

Thanks for any advice you can share =)

Brioche is an extremely sticky dough, so you probably had it right before adding the extra flour.  You can usually just get it to fold into a package, but then as it chills overnight, it gets a lot easier to work with. I would guess that yours will be somewhat dry when you bake it, and maybe a little dense, so I would try it one more time, and chalk this up to getting experience working with a really sticky dough

I agree with Matthew, brioche is a very wet/sticky dough.  After the butter is mixed in, it’s incredibly sticky and pretty much impossible to do anything with, hence the extensive chilling necessary before stirring it down (deflating), and before turning or shaping.  The dough needs to be cold before you can work with it. 

All the rising and expanding you describe sounds perfect, it is a very lively dough!

Keep at it, it’s all worth it when you taste how magnificent those sticky buns are.

A pastry scraper is a good tool for handling sticky dough.

Thanks everyone for all your advice!  After much hesitation I figured I’d bake it anyway, having spent the better part of a day and night working and waiting for it to all come together - and that way at least I’d have something to compare it to when I try it again and (hopefully) get it right! 

The reason I was so worried about it yesterday was becuase the consistency of the dough that came out of the fridge looked nothing like the stuff Rose was working with in her video clip (mine was like a very thick and viscous paste - it reminded me of the flour and water glue you make in primary school).  I weighed a couple of eggs from the carton when I got home and I think mine ended up being almost 20 gms more than the recipe so I don’t know if that’s enough to make a difference to the dough.

Anyway, I tried my botched batch straight out of the oven and one reheated this morning and though I don’t have anything to compare them too, I kinda like them actually!  They have a bread-y slightly yeasty smell but a lovely golden yellow colour and feel really really soft.  I guess it’s right to describe them as being somewhere between a bread and a cake.  I expected them to be much sweeter, given all the sugar, but they’re not overly sweet either which was a pleasant surprise and the rum in the raisins just warms the throat and that hint of cinnamon… yum!  If this is the botched batch, the real stuff must be heavenly! The only parts that were dry were the outside corners - it seemed to cook very quickly - and my only tiny gripe was that the sugar/butter mix at the bottom of the pan for some reason stuck to the pan when I turned out the buns so there wasn’t as much sticky stuff over the top as I would have liked. 

I’ve attached some pics.  Sorry about the presentation - I didn’t expect them to work out so I didn’t exactly try very hard to get them to look nice hahaha.  Oh and I had to do it in a rectangle pan too because I don’t have a square one.

I’m going to give it another go this weekend and hopefully get it right!  I also think I need to get me one of those pastry scraper things too!  I ended up using my metal ruler to roll the thing up.  I don’t even know if you call it rolling.  It was more like scraping and pressing/folding hahaha. 

Thanks again!  =D

They look fabulous!  Brava!

Your overly-large eggs would have made a difference, it’s such a sticky dough even when done properly that I think it wouldn’t take much to push it over the edge, so to speak.

Brioche is one of my favorite things, hope you enjoy it!

They do look just fine.

Thanks you guys!  I brought some into work and everyone loved them!  I can’t wait to make some more! =D

I am a beginner, but I have four of Rose’s books to help me.  I want to share my experience with making Sticky Buns.  I have been making one batch a week now for 7 weeks.  I got the CDN ProAccurate Quick-Read Pocket Thermometer and it makes it easy to make the carmel,  After the sugar is moist, do not stir it or the mixture will crystalize, Just swish the pan around.  244 degrees and that carmel will be bubbling furiously while the burner is medium high.  I have doubled the carmel for Rose’s recipe but my wife and kids want me to triple it tomorrow.  The carmel is a beautiful golden color.  Also, I double the filling too, otherwise it just isn’t sweet enough for us.  I also soak the raisins in pure rum for 24 hours, naturally, several raisins never make it into the buns, they taste heavenly!  Mostly I am haiving great success, but I still can’t roll the dough into a rectangle.  And the last batch rose so high it took too long to test done at 180 degrees so the carmel burnt slightly on the bottom.  I might be crowding the buns so the only way they can rise it up, up!  I think I like to roll my dough a little bit thinner so each bun has more coils and thinner coils.  I refrigerate the dough before rolling it because it is so sticky otherwise.

Great tips Stephen. Thanks, It sounds like you are having great fun. Your tastes are sure at odds with satimis. In another thread he complains that sponge cake is too sweet.

Hi Kitstar

Putting in my two pence, the Brioche is a sticky dough to work with but the results are worth every bit of it!!!

People swoon over that buttery, soft taste and making sticky buns with it is a sure winner…the pictures look so good too, so moist and fluffy.

They will beg you for more!

Hello again, I have been making Rose’s Sticky Buns now once a week for several months.  I finally got the golden color on top as you see here in these two pictures by brushing the butter & raisin-rum liquid on before it goes into the oven for about 7 minutes or until golden.  Then I take it out and brush the butter & raisin-rum liquid on again, - then covering with foil to finish baking.  I check the temperature again in 15 minutes.  It usually takes another 3 or 4 minutes to get the center to 180 degrees.  The edges are about 212 degrees by this time. 
I love to taste the raisins soaked in pure rum for 24 hours, but since I cannot taste the rum the next day, I decided to forego the expense.  Instead, I soak the raisins in water and a tablespoon of molasses!  I can’t tell the difference. 
We double the caramel because everyone likes it. 
This is a staple at my house now.

They look great!  I’d love to have a bit of the caramelized corner from your photo

It looks wonderful and crispy! On what temperature for seven minutes?

I follow Rose’s recipe temperatures, If I remember correctly, it is 375 F.  But after I brush on the raisin-rum-butter mixture, I cover it with foil and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes, then I start checking the center for the “done” temperature of 180 degrees, (according to Rose’s recipe).

I still cannot roll the dough into a perfect rectangle so the ends of the roll are not as thick as the center and so I try to put the smaller cuts of dough in the center of the pan and the larger cuts of dough in the corners because the corners get hot faster than the center of the pan.

Ok, thanks for the tips!