Christmas Tea Ring Food

CHRISTMAS TEA RING

Steps:

• Roll bread dough into a rectangle 8 inches wide and 15 inches long. Spread butter over the bread, leaving about 1/2 inch of a long edge unbuttered. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour in a bowl and sprinkle the mixture over the buttered part of the dough.
• Starting with the long edge opposite the unbuttered edge, tightly roll the dough over the filling; seal the roll along the unbuttered edge to make a log.
• Lightly grease a 12-inch round cake pan or baking dish; place dough into the pan and form a ring, pinching the two ends together to seal. Use kitchen scissors or sharp knife to make cuts 3/4 inch deep into the outside of the ring. Twist the cut sections of dough slightly to reveal filling.
• Cover the tea ring with a cloth, place into a warm area, and let rise until doubled, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Bake tea ring in the preheated oven until lightly browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Cover with a sheet of aluminum foil after 15 minutes if tea ring starts to brown too quickly. Let tea ring cool in pan for about 10 minutes before removing to finish cooling on a wire rack.
• Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl to make a smooth frosting. Spread top of the tea ring with frosting.

SWEDISH TEA RING

Steps:

• In a bread machine, put milk, egg, butter, sugar, salt, bread flour, and yeast in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the Dough cycle and press Start. When dough is mixed, transfer to a greased bowl; cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• Grease 2 baking sheets or line them with parchment paper; set aside.
• Divide dough in half. Roll each piece out into rectangles about 12x16 inches. Spread each dough rectangle with 1 tablespoon softened butter. In a small bowl, combine 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 3/4 cup light brown sugar, and 1/2 cup raisins.
• Sprinkle cinnamon mixture onto buttered dough. Roll them up jelly-roll fashion, along long side. Pinch edges to seal. Stretch and twist into rings, pinching ends to seal. Place them seam-side down onto prepared baking sheets. Using clean scissors, cut 2/3 way of the way through the loaf at about 1-inch intervals. Spread each cut slightly. you wish to
• [At this point, the dough can be refrigerated: cover dough with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, let pastries come to room temperature for about half an hour before baking as directed in step 7.]
• Alternately, cover each ring with a clean towel or greased plastic wrap and let loaves rise until double, about 40 minutes.
• Arrange two oven racks so that both baking sheets will fit. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Bake for 10 minutes in preheated; rotate baking sheets. Bake until rings are light brown and the filling is oozing and bubbling, about 10 minutes more.
• In a small mixing bowl, combine confectioners sugar, almond extract, and milk until icing is desired consistency. Drizzle icing over warm pastries.

CHRISTMAS TEA RING

Steps:

• In small bowl, dissolve 2 pkg dry yeast in ½ C lukewarm water. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, dissolve ½ C sugar and ½ C shortening in the ½ C boiling water. Cool.
• After cooled, add to large bowl, 1½ C cold water, 2 well-beaten eggs, the salt, and the yeast-water mixture. Stir together.
• Add 4 C all-purpose flour and beat with electric mixer until smooth.
• Add 3 more C flour and stir together with a spoon.
• Place in large greased bowl and place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours before using. (I use the same bowl, just wipe it out and grease).
• This recipe may be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
• Divide dough into 2 equal parts. Place the other half back into refrigerator. Roll dough out on lightly floured surface into a 9"x15" rectangle.
• Spread the butter directly on dough.
• On top of the butter, sprinkle 2 T sugar, 1 T brown sugar, and 1 t cinnamon.
• If using, sprinkle the raisins, walnuts, Craisins, and or pomegranates.
• From a wide side, roll into a roll, as if making cinnamon rolls.
• Pinch edge all the way across so that it won't unroll.
• Place the pinched edge underneath to hide it.
• Transfer onto a greased cookie sheet. Bring the ends together (pinch them together) and make a uniform ring.
• From the outside cutting inward make cuts with scissors, ⅔ into the wreath, 1 " apart all the way around.
• Take each section and twist ¼ turn, laying each section on it's side.
• Use this technique all the way around, in a clockwise direction.
• Let rise for 1-2 hours. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool on rack.
• While baking, make the icing by mixing 2 T melted butter, 1 C confectioners sugar, 1 T milk, and 1 t vanilla or almond extra.
• When cooled, drizzle with vanilla icing.
• Garnish with green and red maraschino cherries and English walnut halves.

NANNY'S CHRISTMAS TEA RING

Steps:

• Dissolve years in water in large bowl. Wait 5 minutes. Stir in milk, sugar, shortening, salt, egg and 2 cups of the flour and beat until smooth.
• Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle and not sticky.
• Turn dough onlo lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes Place dough in greased bowl, flip dough over so greased side is up.
• Cover dough, and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1.5 hours. Dough is ready if indentation stays when touched. Punch dough down.
• Roll dough into 15x9 rectangle on lightly foured surface.
• Spread butter/margarine over the rectangle covering the whole surface. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins.
• Starting on the long edge, roll dough tightly up. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal well. Firmly grasp the dough in various spots as needed to even it out (it may be thicker in some spots.).
• Withe sealed edge down, shape into ring on lightly greased cookie sheet, and pinch ends together.
• With kitchen shears or sharp knife make cuts 2/3 of the way through the ring at 1 inch intervals. Turn each cut section onto it's side so pieces kind of overlap.
• Let rise again until double, about 40 minutes.
• Heat oven to 375 and bake until golden brown about 25-30 minutes I fit starts to brown too quickly, cover loosely with foil. When it's done, let cool on wire rack and transfer to large plate or platter.
• While it's cooling mix up the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth and desired consistency. Spread over the cooled tea ring. Decorate with Cherries, walnuts, pecans so that each piece of the tea ring has something on it. The cherries are my favorite.

COUNTRY CHRISTMAS TEA

Steps:

• Pour 8 cups boiling water into a slow cooker. Add 16 chai tea bags; secure the lid with the tea bag tabs hanging outside and steep 10 minutes. Remove the tea bags. Stir in 1/2 cup each spiced rum and vanilla-flavored vodka and 2 cinnamon sticks. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours. Stir in 2 cups sweetened condensed milk; switch to the warm setting until ready to serve. Ladle into mugs and garnish with cinnamon sticks.
• If you don't have a slow cooker, keep these drinks warm in a saucepan on the stovetop over low heat.

CHRISTMAS CRESCENT RING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• Unroll crescent dough; separate along dough perforations into 16 triangles.
• Overlap 8 dough triangles on prepared baking sheet, forming a 10-inch-diameter dough disk that looks like the sun with a hole in the middle.
• Press edges together to seal the dough "disk".
• Using a rolling pin, roll out almond paste between 2 sheets of waxed paper into a 9-inch diameter disk.
• Place almond disk atop dough disk.
• Spread jam over almond paste.
• Using remaining 8 dough triangles, arrange second 10-inch diameter dough disk atop jam.
• Pinch edges of dough disks to seal; tuck edges under.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.
• While ring is baking, make glaze by stirring powdered sugar, water, and almond extract together in a medium bowl until smooth.
• Drizzle half of glaze over warm crescent.
• Let glaze set for 10 minutes and then drizzle remaining glaze over.
• Decorate with sugar-dipped cherries and small pears, if desired.

FRUITED SWEDISH TEA RING

Steps:

• In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Cover and refrigerate. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast, 1/4 cup water and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1/4 cup warm water; let stand for 5 minutes. In a large bowl, combine remaining water and sugar; stir until dissolved. Add yeast mixture, eggs, shortening, salt and 3 cups flour; mix until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. , Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour., Punch dough down; divide in half. Roll each portion into a 16x9-in. rectangle. Sprinkle filling over dough to within 1/2 in. of edge. , Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seams to seal. Place on greased baking sheets; pinch ends together to form a ring. With a scissors, cut from outside edge two-thirds of the way toward center of ring at 1-in. intervals. Separate strips lightly; twist to allow filling to show. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. , Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks for 20 minutes. For icing, combine the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice and milk; drizzle over tea rings while warm. Decorate with cherries if desired.

SWEDISH TEA RING

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, oil, egg whites, salt and 1 cup flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. , Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat the top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. , Combine the walnuts, cherries, brown sugar and cinnamon; set aside. Punch dough down; roll into an 18x12-in. rectangle. Brush with butter; sprinkle with nut mixture to within 1/2 in. of edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. , Place seam side down on a 14-in. pizza pan coated with cooking spray; pinch ends together to form a ring. With scissors, cut from outside edge two-thirds of the way toward center of ring at scant 1-in. intervals. Separate strips slightly; twist to allow filling to show. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes., Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool. , In a small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and enough milk to achieve desired consistency; drizzle over tea ring.