These Pecan Sticky Buns are the perfect soft and sweet roll topped with a sweet caramel, and crunchy pecans. These are perfect for breakfast!
I love sweet rolls in all forms; cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, berry sweet rolls, sticky buns, you name it.
If you’ve followed along on instagram, some friends and I are taste testing different baked goods from around here in Utah to try and find the best. We tried 12 different chocolate chip cookies to find the best chocolate chip cookies in Utah. And last weekend we tried out sugar cookies.
We were talking about what we should taste test next and I think we are going to try cinnamon rolls! Now the point of all this, is that I love cinnamon rolls. I can’t wait to find the best one that I can buy from a bakery. But thankfully when I don’t want to buy some, I can make some even better at home.
These sticky buns start with the same dough recipe as most my other sweet roll recipes. I think it’s the best dough, and I’ve made it adapted it for pumpkin cinnamon rolls, eggnog cinnamon rolls, and now these caramel sticky buns.
It’s a basic sweet yeast dough that starts with yeast dissolving in some warm milk. You’ll add in some sugar, butter, eggs, flour, and salt. I know yeast can seem intimidating to bake with, but I promise these rolls are so easy to make!
I’ve made them dozens of times, as well as many others have as well. Don’t be nervous to try them 🙂
These pecan sticky buns bake longer than regular cinnamon rolls because of the gooey caramel at the bottom. The caramel keeps the bottom and middles from baking as quickly, so to keep the tops (which will later be the bottom 😉 ) from getting too hard after 20 minutes, or whenever they’re nicely golden you’ll cover the top with foil.
These sticky buns are baked in the caramel and then after they’re done you flip them over and let the gooey caramel soak all over, down the middle and sides of the sweet rolls.
The rolls are perfectly soft and sweet, filled with cinnamon sugar, and the gooey caramel on top has a subtle maple flavor, with a strong brown sugar flavor. The chopped pecans give the perfect crunch in every bite and you’ll fall in love with these delicious sticky buns.
These sticky buns really are sticky, and a little messy. They’re best eaten with a fork.
These would make the perfect breakfast for Thanksgiving morning, or Christmas morning. Do you have a Christmas morning breakfast tradition? Our apple cinnamon rolls would also be amazing for these special holiday mornings.
Looking for more Sweet Roll Recipes:
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Pecan Sticky Buns
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 tsp yeast (1 package)
- 1 cup warm milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter (softened, 1 stick)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups all purpose flour
For the Filling:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 TBS cinnamon
For the Caramel Topping:
- 8 TBS butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup half and half
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
For the Dough:
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.
- Add sugar, butter, salt, eggs and flour to the bowl and mix well.
- Once the dough starts to come away from the edges, knead for about 5 minutes (if you are using your hands, dust them lightly with flour to avoid sticking) until a large ball is formed.
- Cover the bowl with a towel and allow to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until dough has doubled in size.
For the Caramel Topping:
- Combine the butter, brown sugar, half and half, and maple syrup in a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat.
- Bring to a boil and allow to boil for about 3 minutes, stirring often.
- Remove from heat and pour into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.
- Sprinkle pecans all around the caramel.
For the Filling:
- Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
For Assembling the Rolls.
- Lightly flour your counter top and roll the dough out until it is approximately 16x20 inches, and 1/4 inch thick.
- Spread softened butter all over the dough.
- Sprinkle brown sugar cinnamon mixture over the top.
- Carefully roll the dough from the long top edge to the bottom edge.
- Carefully cut the dough into 12 to 16 even cinnamon roll slices.
- Place them into the prepared baking pan.
- Cover the rolls and allow them to rise for about 25-30 more minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Bake rolls for 30-35 minutes, until they are golden brown and cooked throughout. After about 20 minutes cover the rolls loosely with foil so the tops don't get too brown or hard.
- Remove rolls from oven and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes.
- Carefully invert the pan onto a large serving platter. The warm topping will melt down the middles and sides.
- Serve warm.
Jessica Martens says
How can I alter for prep the night before and bake in the morning?
Aimee says
I haven’t tried this as an overnight recipe, you might be able to stick them in the fridge after they rise and then bake in the morning
Sarah says
Absolutely delicious! Boiled the caramel sauce for 3 min, no longer! It will boil a bit in the oven too. I baked mine at 375 for 20 min and then just turned the oven off and let it sit in there for 5 min and that was perfect.
Ellen says
So glad you found the recipe delicious. We always are happy when our followers find the perfect recipe for them.
Kim says
Although the dough itself was very good, the caramel was very hard instead of gooey. I think next time I’ll bake at 375 for 20 minutes and add time if I need to
Ellen says
I am assuming you only cooked the caramel topping beforehand for 3 minutes. If it is cooked longer here it will become a hard caramel on the buns. If you did that, great. Sorry it harden for you when baking the buns. Let me know how the lower temperature and shorter time works out for you. I hope just right.
And so glad you liked the dough.
Lela says
The dough part of the cinnamon rolls was very delicious. But the pecan topping was very hard and basically in inedible.I think cooking the caramel for three minutes on the stove and then baking it for 35 minutes in a 400° oven is what really did it.
Aimee says
I’m so sorry that happened to yours, the liquid must have evaporated too quickly. I’ve made these several times and never had that problem :/
Jennifer Keith says
Can you prep the night before and bake in the am?
Aimee says
I’m not sure how that will effect the rise on these, since I haven’t tested it. Let me know if you try it
Mary Silverzweig says
My husband thought he had died and gone to heaven. And he is a sticky bun aficionado.
Aimee says
That makes me so happy 😍😍
Stephanie says
Hi, is it possible to make this with anything other than maple syrup? It’s very expensive in the UK although there are cheaper kind of fake? maple syrups. Would that or honey or golden syrup work?
Aimee says
I haven’t tried them with anything else, but I would think honey or golden syrup would work fine
Marcia Lewis says
This is a very moist, and delicious sticky bun. I doubled the recipe because it is a popular roll. I modified the recipe slightly. I cut the all purpose flour 3/4th’s and added a fourth of bread flour; I used half unsalted butter, and half salted, used pink salt, and goat cream instead of regular cream; and the sugar was part honey for gooiness. Shalom
Eduardo says
Hi Aimee,
When you cook them the oven is in regular bake or convection and why ?
Thank you
Aimee says
I use a regular bake because it’s more reliable for me to use and users be able to mimic since not everyone has a convection oven. If you only have a convection oven you will want to lower the oven temperature a bit, So about 375 for these and then they may bake faster as well, about 22-28 minutes (though I haven’t tested these with a convection)