Recipe: Don’t Tell the Dentist About Natalie Paull’s Sticky Maple Monkey Buns

If you have a sweet tooth, don’t see the dentist. Natalie Paull will see you instead.

For more than a decade, the Melbourne baker’s cake shop Beatrix Bakes inspired what can only be described as Beatrixmania among cake fiends. Meanwhile, her cookbooks continue to inspire a generation of home bakers to embrace a more joyful, freewheeling approach, with "adaptrix" tips to help make every recipe your own.

Paull’s third title, Sweet Heart, sees her covering classic cakes and desserts, with a few twists and turns thrown in for good measure. But this time around, chapters are organised by flavour profile. Though these buns - a mash-up of the Danish brunsviger and Southern American monkey bread - fall under the "yeasty" category, never fear: “These ultra-sweet yeasty treats have a buttery maple syrup butterscotch to scratch the sweet itch,” writes Paull.

“Sauce them with disregard for your dentist!”

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Natalie Paull’s sticky maple monkey buns

Makes 6 buns

Preparation time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Cooking oil spray

Salt flakes, for sprinkling

Milk dough

120ml warm water

20g dry milk powder

20ml maple syrup

30g caster (superfine) sugar

½ tsp (3g) dried yeast (or 9g fresh yeast)

25g egg, from approx. ½ egg

25g unsalted butter, squidgy soft (22°C)

210g bread/baker’s flour (12%+ protein), plus extra for dusting

½ tsp (3g) fine sea salt

½ tsp (1g) ground cardamom

Maple topping

80g unsalted butter

80g good maple syrup

100g dark brown sugar

60g glucose syrup or light corn syrup

Method

Mix all the dough ingredients together with a stiff plastic spatula to make a sticky rough dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until most of the stickiness has diminished and the dough is smooth. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm place for 1 hour until spread and puffy.

Make the maple topping by bringing all the ingredients to a full boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring as the sugar and butter dissolve. Simmer for 30 seconds until a glossy dark brown, then set aside to cool.

After the first proof, roll out the dough on a lightly floured cutting board to a 23cm square. Spread 120g of the topping over the surface – it doesn’t have to be neat or super even. Chill, uncovered, for 1 hour to make the next step of cutting easier.

Cut the dough square into 3cm strips, then turn the paper 90 degrees and chop the dough into 3cm strips again so you have a grid of dough squares. Cluster 10–12 squares (fewer if using the muffin tin). Spray the tins with cooking oil spray and place a strip of baking paper along each base, long enough so you can use it to lift the baked loaf out. Place the clusters in each tin. Proof, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm place for 40–60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220°C and place a heavy baking tray in the oven to heat up too. Check the proof with the poke test. Just before baking, spoon a tbsp of the topping onto each bun. Bake for 15–20 minutes until caramel brown and puffed (internal temp should be 95–100°C). Cool on a rack for 3 minutes, then carefully lift out of the moulds. Run a knife around the sides if any are sticking and, if they look stuck, return the tray to the oven for 2 minutes to re-warm the topping. While still warm, pour another tbsp of the warm topping over. Sprinkle with your level of salt flakes.

Best eaten warm on the day but, if holding them overnight at room temp, refresh at the bake temperature for around 10 minutes with leftover topping spooned over – I love the crisp toasty edges it gets!

Notes

Nuts! I do like to poke four or five raw pecans or walnuts into the top of the dough at step 5.

This is an edited extract from Sweet Heart by Natalie Paull. Photography by Rochelle Eagle. Published by Murdoch Books (RRP $49.99).