Pis­ta­chio Sticky Buns

Makes 1 dozen

This is the most pop­u­lar pas­try we sell at K’far, Zahav’s sis­ter restau­rant in Philadel­phia and Brook­lyn. ​“K’far” means ​“vil­lage” in Hebrew, and our ​“vil­lage” embraces both the town of K’far Saba in Israel, where Mike began to cook, as well as the Israeli restau­rant vil­lage we’ve built in Philly. We use an Asian method called tangzhong, which involves first cook­ing a por­tion of the flour and liq­uid togeth­er, cre­at­ing a fluffi­er dough that stays fresh­er longer. Mak­ing these buns is a two-day project.

Katreena Kan­ney is the exec­u­tive pas­try chef of K’far both for the restau­rant itself as well as for our entire ​“vil­lage.” Although she is some­how not a big fan of sweets, she’s sure good at mak­ing them!

For the tangzhong

1 scant cup whole milk

⅓ cup bread flour

• Put the milk and flour into a small saucepan set over medi­um heat.
• Whisk con­stant­ly until the mix­ture thick­ens into a paste like brown­ie bat­ter. Remove from the heat and let cool.

For the dough 

1 cup whole milk, warmed to 100ºF

1 table­spoon instant dry yeast

6 table­spoons sugar

3 eggs

6 ¼ cups bread flour, plus more for the work surface

2 tea­spoons salt

10 table­spoons but­ter, at room tem­per­a­ture, cut into table­spoon-size pieces

• Pour the warm milk into a medi­um bowl. With a fork, whisk the yeast and 1 table­spoon of the sug­ar into the milk until near­ly dis­solved. Let sit for about 5 min­utes; look for foam to form in the cen­ter of the mixture.
• Slow­ly pour the yeast mix­ture into the tangzhong (about a quar­ter at a time), using a whisk to blend. You’ll end up with a thin paste.
• Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
• Set up a stand mix­er with a dough hook attach­ment. Add the flour and remain­ing 5 table­spoons of sug­ar to the bowl. Mix on the low­est set­ting and add the salt.
• Grad­u­al­ly pour the yeast and milk mix­ture on top of the flour and knead on low (speed 2 on a KitchenAid) for 5 minutes.
• Cov­er the dough with a kitchen tow­el and let it rest for 15 minutes.
• On medi­um speed, add the but­ter, one piece at a time. Incor­po­rate each piece before adding more.
• Trans­fer the dough to an oiled bowl. Cov­er with plas­tic wrap for proofing.
• Now you have two options: Proof the dough either at room tem­per­a­ture in a non-drafty spot until dou­bled (about 2 hours), or overnight in the refrigerator.
• While the dough is proof­ing, make the caramel and filling.

Mak­ing: Pis­ta­chio Sticky Buns

For the caramel

Neu­tral oil, for the pan

¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter

1½ cups brown sugar

2 table­spoons light corn syrup

2 tea­spoons vanil­la extract

• Before you make the caramel, oil and line a 13-by-9-inch rec­tan­gu­lar pan with parch­ment paper. FYI: This is the pan in which you’ll bake the buns.
• In a small saucepan set over low heat, melt the but­ter. As the but­ter melts, add the brown sug­ar, corn syrup, and vanil­la, whisk­ing until smooth.
• Two impor­tant notes: Do not let the mix­ture boil! And: Keep whisk­ing! Your goal is to not let the but­ter and brown sug­ar separate.
• Pour the caramel into the pre­pared pan, mak­ing sure it com­plete­ly cov­ers the parchment.

For the filling

1¾ cups whole unsalt­ed shelled pis­ta­chios, plus ½ cup chopped for finishing

¼ cup gran­u­lat­ed sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ tea­spoon salt

½ lemon, zested

½ cup (1 stick) but­ter, at room tem­per­a­ture, cut into table­spoon-size pieces

• In a food proces­sor, blitz the whole pis­ta­chios, both sug­ars, salt, and lemon zest.
• You’re mak­ing a thick paste with very fine­ly ground pis­ta­chios, but leave some tex­ture; this is not quite a nut butter.
• Grad­u­al­ly add the but­ter, mix­ing until it is no longer visible.
• Trans­fer the mix­ture to a bowl and keep at room tem­per­a­ture for eas­i­er spreading.

Rolling and assembly

• Light­ly flour the work sur­face and roll the dough out into a rec­tan­gle approx­i­mate­ly 12 inch­es wide by 18 inch­es long. The dough should be about ¼ inch thick.
• Spread the pis­ta­chio fill­ing even­ly on the dough from edge to edge.
• Roll the long edge of the dough clos­est to you into a log about 18 inch­es long.
• Cut the dough into 12 even pieces, each about 1½ inch­es wide.
• Care­ful­ly trans­fer the cut dough to the caramel-lined pan.
• Cov­er with a tow­el and let proof until the buns have dou­bled in size, 1 to 2 hours.
• When ready to bake, pre­heat the oven to 350 F.
• Bake until the buns are puffy and gold­en on top, 25 to 30 minutes.
• Let the buns rest 3 to 5 min­utes to allow the caramel to cool and thicken.
• Care­ful­ly invert the pan onto a cut­ting board or serv­ing dish.
• Top with the chopped pis­ta­chios and sep­a­rate into buns.

From the book Zahav Home by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. Copy­right © 2024 by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. Reprint­ed by per­mis­sion of Har­vest, an imprint of Harper­Collins Publishers.