No knead Sticky cinnamon buns

I have been looking for saucy cinnamon bun recipe for a long time. Since I tried this no-knead recipe a year ago, I hadn't given up on finding the prefect saucy recipe. And then the same recipe created came out with this recipe, which is also no-knead, and uses caramel sauce. Together with my new no-leak PushPan, this was a SCORE.

Original recipe: http://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/sticky-buns/
I have tweaked some of the ingredients and technique. The ingredients are similar to Gemma's cinnamon bun recipe.

Ingredients (makes 8 - 9 buns)
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup honey
1 cup milk, slightly cold
1/2 cup (115g) butter, melted

Topping/filling
3/4 cup butter, softened. This excludes the butter for buttering the pan.
1 1/4 cup (220g) brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup whole walnuts
3/4 cup raisins

Method
1) In a big bowl, combine the flour, yeast on one side and salt on the other. Mix everything together well. Set aside.
2) Melt the butter and add the milk. The temperature of the liquid should be around 35 deg C. Crack in the eggs one at a time and beat. Add the vanilla and honey.
3) Create a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients a bit at a time. Combine with a wooden spoon until there is no dry flour left. The mixture should be sticky and slightly wet.
4) Cover the bowl with cling film and a towel and let it prove for 4 hours. At the end of that time, it should have doubled in size. At this time, either continue with the preparation or put in the fridge for up to 3 days.
5) When ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge to let it come up to room temperature. Meanwhile, prepare the filling (this can keep in the fridge).
6) To the softened butter, add the cinnamon, sugar, and honey and mix well.
7) Butter the 9" pan. If using a regular pan, don't use a springform or one with a loose bottom or the sauce might leak out. Spread half of the filling on the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan, then set the pan aside. Scatter the walnuts at the bottom of the pan, I try to keep them in a single layer.
8) Pour the dough out onto a well-floured surface (I used a pastry mat). Flour the rolling pin and roll out to 1/8 inch thick and 20 inch long. Try to keep it rectangular.
9) Spread on the other half of the filling but keep a 1 inch border clear of any filing on the top and bottom long edges. Scatter on the raisins.
10) Using a scraper to assist you, roll up the dough, starting with the long edge. Try to roll it as tight as possible. (The pastry mat was fantastic as I was able to use it like a sushi mat, together with the scraper. Bliss unlike the sticky mess the last time.)
11) Pinch the seams close and again on a well-floured surface, place the entire roll seam-side down.
12) The roll is very soft and difficult to handle, but you need that in order to get the fluffy cake-like texture of the bun. Using dental floss, cut 2.5 inch pieces and place into the filling-coated pan. I put the end seam which is less pretty in the centre and surrounded it with the other buns.
13) Cover and let it proof for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
14) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C and prepare a baking sheet with parchment on top. This catches any over-flowing caramel sauce.
15) Bake at 180 deg C for 40 to 45 minutes until golden brown, turning halfway. Once out of the oven, immediately place the serving dish over the pan and invert. Let the sauce flow out. This has to be done as soon as possible after it is out of the oven otherwise the sauce sets quite fast.
16) Best consumed while it is still hot but not when the caramel is scalding!

Recipe feedback:
- The original recipe called for melted butter for the filling but this made the sauce too sloppy and there was no way it could be buttered up the sides of the pan. I've adjusted the recipe to use softened butter which makes it more spreadable.
- After 40 minutes, the outside was nicely brown and crusty but the middle was not fully cooked. I did not bake any further but I might have to tent the outsides next time.
- Not kneading was fantastic because the bread was cake-like rather than bread-like rather than developing tough glutein.

Update (30 Jun 18)
- This time I decided to leave the butter softened instead of melted. Made a whole lot of difference!
- Did 45 minutes and the centre bun was cooked. Tented the last 15 minutes.
- The bread was crusty on the outside. The inside was moist, soft and fluffy. The caramel hardened (almost giving it crispy texture) almost immediately once out of the oven. Luckily I well oiled the sides of the tin and also placed parchment at the bottom. It fell out and slid off the plate and onto the benchtop :( but the caramel had absorbed into the bread. Brilliant.

Update (14 Sep 17)
New recipe that has just been posted. Similar idea of creating a sticky sauce which is not the same as the glaze.
http://www.joyofbaking.com/breads/StickyBuns.html

Slight differences in recipe e.g. the butter is room temp and beaten in like a broiche instead of melted (which is supposed to give it more lift). While Gemma's recipe uses the same cinnamon sugar for the glaze, this recipe has a cinnamon sugar which uses 2 type of sugars (soft brown sugar and normal sugar), and the glaze uses honey with soft brown sugar. I read elsewhere that the meltiness actually comes from the normal rather than the soft brown sugar, which makes sense why my sticky buns are more dry than melty and sticky!

She also puts them into texas muffin tins which is an interesting idea as it gives all the buns a regular round shape.

Might give this recipe a try next time.