Ingredients
Method
Start by browning the butter for the dough
- Place the butter in a medium saucepan and melt over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once it melts, it will begin to sizzle and foam. Keep stirring for 3-4 minutes and you will start to see brown specks appear. Keep stirring until the butter becomes an amber brown color and has a nutty aroma. Be careful, it can go from brown to burned very quickly! Remove from the heat immediately, and pour into a bowl. Let it cool for ten minutes while we make the rest of the dough.
Make the dough
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the warm milk, yeast, and one Tablespoon of the honey. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let sit for 5 minutes. The mixture should become foamy on top, and if it doesn't, then your yeast is most likely dead and you should start over with new yeast.
- Add the remaining honey, cooled brown butter, egg, rosemary, sage, salt, and 1 cup of bread flour. Whisk until smooth. Fold in the remaining 2 cups of flour and fold together with a spatula or a wooden spoon until you have a shaggy dough. Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead with your hands for 4 minutes, or until the dough bounces back when poked. Place the ball of dough in a large greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in a wam and humid environment (or on the counter is fine) and let rise for two hours, or until doubled in size.
Prepare the filling
- In the last ten minutes of rising time, prepare the filling. In a medium sized bowl, toss together the apples, cinnamon, cheddar, salt, pepper, and flour until evenly coated and combined. Set aside.
Shape the rolls
- punch down the dough to release the air. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into eight even sections. Press each section down into a circular disk, about 1/4 inch thick. Place a little over 3 Tablespoons of the apple filling in the center, pull the edges of the dough to the center and pinch tightly to completely seal the filling inside. Try and smooth it out so the ball is nice and tidy. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- For the pumpkin shaping, you will need 8 pieces of kitchen twine, roughly 40 inches long. Toss the the kitchen twine in flour so it doesn't stick to the rolls. For help in this part of the shaping process, watch the video above as a guide. Place the filled ball of dough in the center of one piece of the string. Tie a knot, flip the ball, and then tie another knot, with the string running the opposite direction. You should now have a cross of string on the roll. Create another cross like this, but with the string cutting each quarter in half. Tie a double knot on the last one and cut off the ends of the string (you should still have about an inch of string though). Repeat with all the rolls.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and arrange the rolls on them, at least three inches apart. Cover the rolls with a clean kitchen towel and let them rise for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Keep the string on the rolls! We will cut it off after we bake them. Bake for 23-27 minutes or until golden browned on top, making sure to rotate the pan halfway through baking. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Make the topping
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the fresh sage. Once the butter has melted, it will begin to sizzle and foam, and you will start to see brown specks forming. It should be an amber brown or caramel like color, and the sage should be nice and crispy. Remove from the heat immediately, as it can go from brown to burnt very quickly! Remove the sage from the butter and place on a plate.
- Brush the rolls with the brown butter, and stick a pecan in the center to be the "stem". Stick the crispy sage leaves in next to the pecan as a leaf and enjoy!