Sugar & Spice Brioche Buns

These buns are made with the same light, buttery brioche that forms the base of Joanne Chang's throwdown winning Sticky Bun recipe but instead of a coating of sticky caramel, they are coated with a crunchy spiced sugar.

A half batch of the brioche recipe (page 73) is flattened in to a rectangle, cut into strips and the strips, cut into small squares. Each bun is composed with 5 squares of dough. I wasn't quite sure about the best arrangement of the dough bits...it turns out that it doesn't really matter....the finished effect is much like bubble or monkey bread. After baking, the warm buns are first dipped in melted butter and then sugar mixed with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.

A delicious breakfast treat when you want something just a little sweet and spicy.