This is a fabulously rich dough which, as Jenncc says, takes a lot of time, but most of it hands off. I did not bake them into brioche loaves, though, but instead used the dough for some sweet rolls. The large amount of butter, and the sponge preparation, was different from other things that I baked. But my daughter tells me it made the flakiest and most delicious cinnamon buns ever.

These cookies have everything I like in a chocolate chip cookie. The cookie matrix is soft in the middle and crunchy on the edge, it has good notes of caramel and butter, and including pecans is just genius.

My only complaint is that the baking time was wrong. The recipe suggests 10-12 minutes, but mine were definitely done by 8 minutes, and bordering on overcooked at 9.

Yield estimate of 48 was right on.

I prepared this recipe as it was written, and loved the result! The muffins were moist, the raisins were just little nuggets of sweetness (not overpowering), and the muffins themselves had just the right amount of sweetness.

The color inside was also lovely - a perfect orange color. I might pump up the ground ginger and other spices next time, but maybe mine are just getting too old?

I am still playing with my new oven, and prepared these using convection bake. They turned out a tad browner than I had expected, and was initially disappointed. However they were all extra crunchy - telling me that the heat was well distributed - and the inside was so nice and moist that the final result was just perfect.

I prepared these for my daughter, for the first breakfast of her four-day weekend with no school.