Chocolate Tahini Babka Buns

I made these this morning. They are all gone.

 SAD has hit. I'm getting very good at spotting it early on by this point in my life. I start sleeping really well--too well. I still run, but I don't get the same endorphin hit. I don't want to get down on the floor with the kids. Everything is just. So. Hard. 

Thankfully, I still like to bake. If that goes away I'll be needing some serious help.

I knew I'd be making dessert this week because today is the first feast day after our sugar-free January (which was a very successful one, I must say). Eating dessert is wonderful, but I couldn't wait to MAKE dessert. A whole realm of the culinary world finally within reach once more!

I was going to make this almond galette, which is gorgeous and will photograph extremely well and taste delicious. But I promised my coworkers I'd bring something to our meeting this morning and the timing of the galette didn't align very well with preparations/baking/transporting. So I shifted gears last minute to these beautiful babies. I've had my eye on Edd Kimber's One Tin Bakes book for a while now, but haven't bought it yet. This recipe, from the book, was available through his website so I decided to see if the hype is worth it before investing.

Yeppers.

I love sticky buns. They are one of my most favorite pastries, and I'll almost always choose it if one exists in a local bakery. They are, admittedly, very sweet and perhaps a bit over the top. This recipe looked like a nice variation--swapping mounds of syrupy cinnamon sugar for a bittersweet chocolate tahini filling. The balance between sweet and savory was, truly, spot on. The dough was a dream to work with and baked up beautifully. 

A few notes/observations:

• I used Irish butter and it was so worth it for both the enriched dough and the filling. Make the splurge here as you could absolutely taste a difference.
• Do chill your dough overnight. It's very wet coming out of the mixer and the rest overnight lets everything solidify and makes it way easier to roll out. Bonus tip: chill in a square Rubbermaid (large enough to allow for expansion overnight) and then you'll be all set up to roll out into a square when you turn it out the next day!
• Because you roll the dough so thin and there are so many revolutions, I did opt for the dental floss trick when cutting the log into individual buns. The crisp, sharp cut really helped accentuate the contrast between the dark chocolate and white dough.
• It took longer than "45 min-1 hour" for the shaped rolls to expand. The dough is cold coming out of the fridge...plan for more like 90-120 minutes for the yeast to wake up and do its thing.
• Use all the vanilla syrup. You won't drown them. Promise.

Here's the link for future reference.

Next feast day: Valentine's Day. <3