Wholemeal maple pecan buns

By: Izy Hossack
From: Top With Cinnamon
Makes: 12
Photographer: Izy Hossack

There are certain flavours in the world that were meant for each other, with maple syrup and toasted pecans being my ultimate food couple. If they were celebrities I would be rooting for MapeCan (their couple name, obviously) forever. However, they are ingredients so instead of stalking gossip mags, I stalk cookbooks, scouring recipe indexes for any mention of maple-pecan. Don’t even get me started on those Danish pastry plaits that are filled with a maple filling and sprinkled with toasted pecans. It’s a good thing that they’re a lot of effort to make, otherwise I’d be eating them 24/7. I took inspiration from them here though, topping spheres of bread dough with spoonfuls of maple-pecan pie filling and a sprinkling of salt. It’s sticky bun meets Danish plait meets pecan pie. Utterly fabulous (especially if you whip up some salted treacle butter to spread on the hot rolls, too).

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
125ml	maple syrup
2 tablespoons	demerara sugar
1 teaspoon	unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon	salt
2 tablespoons	milk
95g	pecans, chopped, plus 12 pecan halves, to serve
1 quantity	Basic bread dough, (see note)
	flaky salt, for sprinkling
	Salted treacle butter, to serve

Method

Liberally butter a 12-cup muffin tin. In a small saucepan, heat the maple syrup, sugar, butter, salt and milk over a medium-low heat, stirring gently, until melted and combined. Bring to a simmer then remove from the heat. Divide the pecans and the maple mixture between the cups of the buttered muffin tin.
Punch down the bread dough and divide it into 12 balls then place a ball of dough in each muffin cup. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for 30–45 minutes, until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Once the buns have risen, remove the plastic wrap and bake them for 20–25 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Immediately flip the hot tin upside down onto a cooling rack and leave for 5 minutes. Lift up the muffin tin and scrape out any of the maple topping that may be stuck, placing it on top of the buns. Top each bun with a pecan half and a sprinkle of flaky salt. Serve warm with the salted treacle butter.