Salted Caramel Pecan Rolls

A happy plate of pecan rolls, gooey and crunchy and salty and sweet.

Once upon a time I worked as a baker who made Danish, Croissant and Puff pastry. It was there when I learned how to make pecan rolls with Danish dough and a thing called pan smear. I've been hankering to make them again. Alas, I can't seem to find a similar recipe. Nothing rang my memory bell. However, I thought I'd shoot for easy overnight rolls.

I suppose you don't need to hold them overnight, but I think they work well for breakfast and I am not waking up early enough to make these from start to finish in the morning. Those days are behind me.

This is how we do it:

Ingredients

• Dough
• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• .5 cup granulated sugar
• .5 cup water at room temperature
• 1 cup milk at room temperature
• .25 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups flour
• .5 teaspoon Kosher Salt

• Caramel Sauce:
• .5 cup butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• .25 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1.3 cups chopped pecans, toasted
• 
  
• Filling:
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Put all the dough ingredients into the bowl of stand mixer. Knead until smooth about 5 minutes. Scrape together. Oil the bowl and the top of the dough. Cover and let rise 90-120 minutes. 
Prepare two 9 inch cake pans by spraying liberally with cooking spray. 
Near the end of the rise time, in a sauce pan combine the butter, brown sugar and salt. Melt together until the sugar dissolves. Add the cream. Bring to a quick boil then off the heat, stirring the whole while. Into the pans toss the pecans, carefully pour the caramel sauce on top of the pecans. Set aside as you roll the dough. 

Divide dough into two equal portions and roll out each section into a rectangle. 

For the filling, mix brown sugar and cinnamon together. Brush melted butter evenly on each rectangle and sprinkle with brown sugar cinnamon mix. Starting with the longer side roll up each rectangle. Cut each roll into 10 equal portions. Place rolls into prepared cake pans and brush with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Bring to room temperature and proof until the pan is full. Bake until browned and baked through 20-30 minutes. 350 degrees. 

This is the tricky part. Don't let them cool in the pan!!! Put the serving plate over the rolls and flip them to where the caramel and pecans are on top.