The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

than lean doughs, with a softer texture and smaller air
bubbles. Of course, fats also add color and flavor to doughs.
What fun would sticky buns be if they weren’t golden and
buttery?
There are recipes for sticky buns that use chemical
leaveners like baking powder to induce a rapid rise, but this
technique compromises flavor. Yeast is the only way to
properly develop flavor and texture in a sticky bun. See,
yeasts, like pretty much all living creatures, have a strong
desire to procreate, and in order to do that, they must
consume energy. This energy consumption comes in the
form of sugars, which they digest and let off as both carbon
dioxide and alcohol, along with numerous other aromatic
compounds. It’s the carbon dioxide getting trapped in the
network of gluten formed by the flour that acts to leaven
yeasted baked goods. The process takes time, however.
There’s only so much procreating a yeast can do, you
know? A properly leavened sticky bun dough can take
several hours to produce.
Well, why can’t I just add more yeast to start? you might
ask. The problem is that yeast has a flavor of its own, and
it’s not a particularly pleasant one. Start with a ton of yeast,
and its slightly bitter, funky flavor will dominate the dough.
The flavor of properly risen dough comes from the by-
products of the yeast’s actions: the complex array of
aromatic chemicals that are produced as yeast slowly,
slowly digests the sugars in the dough. For the best flavor,
you must start with a relatively small amount of yeast and
allow it plenty of time to perform its magic. This is as true
for sticky buns as it is for pizza dough or baguettes.