Grandma Douglas's Schnecken

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon yeast dry
• 3 cups flour as needed ()
• 0.8 cup brown sugar packed ()
• 0.3 cup plus light (3 ounces/85 grams)
• 1 large egg yolk 
• 1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces/200 grams)
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 
• 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt 
• 1 cup milk ()
• 0.8 cup pecans chopped (3 ounces/85 grams)
• 4 tablespoons butter unsalted ()

Equipment

• bowl
• frying pan
• baking sheet
• sauce pan
• oven
• wire rack
• plastic wrap
• baking pan
• aluminum foil
• rolling pin

Directions

1. To make the dough, melt the 1/2 cup butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
2. Add the milk and sugar and heat just to lukewarm (about 110°F), stirring to dissolve the sugar.
3. Pour the warm milk mixture into a bowl. Stir in the yeast. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes, then stir in the salt.
4. Beat the whole egg and egg yolk together and add to the yeast mixture. Stir in the flour 1 cup at a time until you have a sticky dough. Scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until you have a nice smooth dough. Butter a large bowl.
5. Place the dough in the prepared bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
6. Put the bowl in a warm place and allow the dough to rise for 2 hours, until tripled in volume.
7. Meanwhile, brush a 9 × 13-inch baking pan with some melted butter (or spray it with vegetable oil spray). To prepare the sugar-pecan topping, melt the butter with the brown sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine.
8. Remove from the heat and spread the mixture in the bottom of the pan.
9. Sprinkle with the chopped pecans.
10. Punch down the dough and turn it out of the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead for a minute, then use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll the dough into a rectangle about 15 × 12 inches and 1/8 inch thick. To make the cinnamon-sugar filling, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and allow it to cool.
11. Brush the butter thoroughly over the surface of the dough. In a bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
12. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over the melted butter.
13. Roll the rectangle up, like a jelly roll, along one long edge.
14. Slice the log of rolled dough into 1-inch-thick slices and arrange the slices, cut sides up, in the prepared pan. Cover the pan with a piece of plastic wrap (you can spray the plastic wrap first with vegetable oil spray to be sure it doesn't stick to the dough) and allow it to rise in a warm place for about 40 minutes.
15. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
16. Bake the schnecken until golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time. Check them occasionally during the baking time, and if they seem to be browning too quickly, loosely cover them with a sheet of aluminum foil.
17. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn the schnecken out of the pan while still warm by inverting the pan over a large platter or baking sheet.
18. Serve the schnecken warm.
19. From The Dahlia
20. Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle by Tom Douglas and Shelley Lance. Photography by Ed Anderson. Copyright © 2012 by Tom Douglas. Published by Harper
21. Collins Publishers.