If you have ever stood in line at Flour Bakery’s South End location and watched someone emerge from the door carrying a paper bag with caramel seeping through the bottom, you know exactly why these buns have their reputation.
What Makes Flour Bakery’s Sticky Buns Famous
Most sticky buns sold in bakeries and grocery stores use a soft, enriched yeast dough — closer to a hamburger bun than a pastry. Joanne Chang uses brioche: a dough with nearly three sticks of butter and six eggs, mixed until the fat is fully incorporated and the dough practically shines. The crumb is tighter, slightly chewy, and markedly richer than a standard cinnamon roll. It holds the caramel without going soggy.
The goo — Chang’s word for the caramel topping — is also unusual. Most sticky bun caramel is primarily butter and brown sugar. Chang adds honey and heavy cream, which lower the caramel’s set temperature and give it a looser, more flowing texture when hot. When you flip the pan immediately after baking, it runs down over each bun in a thin, lacquered coat rather than sitting in a thick slab.
The cinnamon in the filling is deliberately light (just ⅛ tsp for the whole batch). Chang wants the brioche and caramel to be the story, not the spice. If you prefer a frosting-topped, cinnamon-forward roll instead, our copycat Cinnabon cinnamon rolls go the opposite direction; for a flakier, croissant-style bakery pastry, see the Tartine morning bun.
The Two Keys to Getting These Right
Cold dough is everything. The overnight refrigerator proof does two things: it develops flavor through slow fermentation, and it keeps the butter in the dough cold and firm for rolling. A warm brioche dough is almost impossible to roll into a clean rectangle — it sticks, tears, and spreads butter everywhere. Work from the refrigerator, work quickly, and if the dough starts warming up (you will feel it soften), refrigerate it for 10 minutes before continuing.
Flip immediately. The inversion step — placing a foil-lined baking sheet on top of the pan and flipping both over at once — must happen within 30 seconds of the pan coming out of the oven. The caramel is still completely liquid at that temperature. Wait even five minutes and it begins to set; wait ten and the buns are stuck and will tear. Have your landing surface ready before the buns go into the oven.
Flour Bakery’s Story in Brief
Joanne Chang opened the original Flour Bakery & Café at 1595 Washington Street in Boston’s South End in December 2000. She had studied applied mathematics at Harvard, spent several years at McKinsey & Company, and left consulting to cook full-time — first at Rialto in Cambridge, then at her own place. The sticky buns were the menu anchor from day one.
The national audience arrived in 2007 when Food Network filmed a Throwdown with Bobby Flay episode at the bakery. Chang won. The episode aired, the Bon Appétit best-in-America designation followed, and Flour expanded to seven Boston-area locations over the next decade. Chang’s cookbook, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery & Café (Chronicle Books, 2010), reprints the recipe in full and remains one of the most referenced bakery cookbooks in American home baking.
A single bun costs $5 at the bakery. A batch of eight costs roughly $10 to make at home — though it requires a stand mixer, an overnight commitment, and the willingness to flip a pan of liquid caramel the moment it comes out of a 350°F oven.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are they called “Sticky Sticky Buns”? The double adjective is deliberate. The caramel goo soaks the underside of each bun during baking and then coats the top when the pan is flipped — every surface is sticky. Chang uses the name as a warning and a promise.
Can I prepare these the night before and bake them in the morning? Yes, with a modification. After cutting and placing the buns in the pan, cover and refrigerate overnight instead of letting them rise at room temperature. The next morning, remove the pan from the refrigerator and let the buns rise at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours (the cold dough takes longer to proof than room-temperature dough) before baking. This is the best method for fresh-baked morning sticky buns.
My caramel hardened in the pan and I couldn’t flip it. What went wrong? You waited too long. The goo sets rapidly once it drops below about 200°F. Next time, flip within 30 seconds of pulling the pan from the oven. If this happens again: place the pan back in a 350°F oven for 3–4 minutes to re-liquefy the caramel, then flip immediately.
