Cinnamon Love Knots Food

CINNAMON LOVE KNOTS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add the milk, butter, sugar, eggs and salt. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough flour to form a stiff 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 1-1/2 hours. , Punch dough down; divide into three portions. Cover two with plastic wrap. Shape one portion into 12 balls. Roll each ball into an 8-in. rope. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Dip rope into melted butter, then coat with cinnamon-sugar. Tie into a knot. Tuck and pinch ends under and place on ungreased baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. , Bake at 375° for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.

CINNAMON KNOTS

Steps:

• Prepare the recipe for Simple Pizza Dough. While the dough is rising, prepare the remaining ingredients for the cinnamon knots and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Mix the butter with sugar and cinnamon.
• Turn the risen dough out onto a floured surface. Stretch the dough into a rectangle. Spread half of the butter mixture on half of the dough. Then fold the dough in half, covering the butter with the dough.
• Using a pizza wheel, divide the dough into 18 strips. First cut through the middle, then you can cut each half into 9 pieces. Stretch each strip and tie into a knot and tuck the ends underneath the center of the knot. Place the knots onto a baking sheet.
• Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over low heat, melt the remaining butter.
• Once the knots come out of the oven, baste them with the melted butter. Serve warm and enjoy!
• In a liquid measuring cup, combine the warm water, yeast and sugar. Allow the yeast to dissolve and bloom, about 5 minutes. Once bloomed, add the olive oil.
• Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour and salt. Stream in the water/yeast mixture and as the dough begins to come together, switch to a dough hook attachment. Allow the dough to knead, adding a bit more flour if needed, so that the dough releases from the sides of the bowl, 1 to 3 minutes. You should be able to touch the dough and not have the dough stick to your fingers. Once the dough has kneaded and has pulled away from the sides of the bowl, remove the dough from bowl to a floured work surface and, with floured hands, continue to knead it by hand for 1 to 2 minutes. Then form the dough into a round ball and place it into a large bowl sprayed with nonstick spray. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and let the dough rise in a warm area of your kitchen until it doubles in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. After the dough has risen it is ready to be cooked however you'd like!
• Cook's Notes: This dough is wet dough, keep bench flour at the ready and make sure to flour your hands when working with the dough. Trust your gut as a chef, if the dough is to wet, add more flour, if it is too stiff, add a little water.
• Sugar is used to feed the yeast which will help the dough to grow. Bread flour will give you a chewier texture because the flour has more gluten. You don't need to use a thermometer to get the water temperature; it should just feel warm to the touch.

CINNAMON KNOTS

Steps:

• In bowl of stand mixer combine water and yeast. Dip a spoon into the honey, and use to stir water/yeast mixture until honey dissolves off spoon. Set mixture aside for ten minutes until foamy. Add remaining honey, eggs, milk, instant potatoes, and bread flour. Knead with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. Add salt and butter and continue kneading until butter and salt are completely incorporated, about 2 minutes longer.
• Drizzle a small amount of oil into zip-lock bag. Form dough into ball (it will be very soft) and put it into bag, making sure that it's coated with oil all over. Put bag in refrigerator overnight.
• The next morning, remove bag from refrigerator and lightly knead while still in bag, to knock out air. You may need to open bag to let air out; reseal it. Let bag sit out until it has come to room temperature, about 2 hours.
• Adjust oven racks to upper middle and lower middle position and preheat oven to 350°F Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix cinnamon and sugar in a flat rimmed plate or pie pan. Lightly flour a work surface. Remove dough from bag and knead briefly. Divide dough into 16 roughly equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 6 inches long, flouring work surface only as much as needed to keep the dough from sticking. The finished ropes should still be a little sticky.
• Roll each rope in sugar/cinnamon mixture to coat, then tie each rope into a knot and place on prepared baking sheet. When all knots are formed, sprinkle any remaining sugar/cinnamon mixture on top of them (adding extra cinnamon/sugar, if desired).
• Cover pans with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and bake until nicely browned, about 25 minutes. Remove to cooling rack to cool or serve immediately.

BRAIDED CINNAMON ROLL KNOTS

Steps:

• Whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, yeast and 1 teaspoon salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.
• Combine the milk and 4 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan and heat over medium until the butter melts. Remove from the heat and let cool until the milk mixture is about 120 degrees F. Beat in the eggs.
• Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix on medium speed until all the flour is incorporated, about 3 minutes. Increase the speed to high and mix until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. Grease a medium bowl with butter and add the ball of dough, flipping to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, whisk the brown sugar, cinnamon and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the remaining 6 tablespoons butter until well combined and spreadable; set aside.
• Generously flour a work surface and roll the dough out into a 12-by-15-inch rectangle with one of the shorter ends closest to you. Spread the brown sugar mixture evenly over the dough all the way to the edges. Fold the edge closest to you up and over a third of the way, then fold the top edge down to cover it like a letter. Pinch the edges closed to seal in the filling. Flip it over the dough so the seam is on the bottom and roll again into an 8-by-12-inch rectangle.
• Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into twelve 1-inch-wide strips. Working one at a time and starting 1/2 inch in from one end, cut each strip of dough lengthwise into 3 smaller strips so they remained attached at the top. Braid the three strips together, lightly pinch the ends and gently roll the braid into a spiral. Tuck the rolled dough into a nonstick muffin tin with the uncut end at the bottom of the cup and the braided side up. Repeat with the remaining dough. Cover the tin with plastic wrap and put in a warm place until puffy, about 45 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Bake the cinnamon rolls, rotating the pan halfway through, until golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire cooling rack.
• Whisk the confectioners' sugar, cream and vanilla in a small bowl until smooth and spread on the rolls while they are still warm.

CINNAMON-SUGAR KNOTS

Steps:

• In a small bowl, combine water and yeast. Stir until yeast dissolves.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine flour, salt, and 2 tablespoons melted butter on low speed. Add yeast mixture, and mix until well combined, about 2 minutes.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch dough down, shape into a rectangle, cover in plastic wrap, and place on a baking sheet. Chill for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
• Meanwhile, on a nonstick baking mat or parchment paper, roll the remaining pound of butter into an 8-inch square, between 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick. Wrap in parchment paper, and let rest at cool room temperature, about 30 minutes.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll chilled dough into a 12-inch square. Center butter square over the dough so that each side of the butter faces a corner of the dough. Fold the corners of the dough over the butter to enclose. Seal the edges by pinching together. Turn over dough, seam-side down. Roll into a 24-by-8-inch rectangle. Fold dough into thirds, aligning edges carefully and brushing off excess flour. (The object is to ensure that the butter is distributed evenly throughout so that the pastry will puff evenly when baked.) This completes one turn.
• Repeat the process of rolling and folding once. Chill for 20 minutes, just until cold but not firm. Then repeat process twice, dusting work surface and dough generously with sugar, about 2 cups sugar total for the 2 turns. You will now have completed 4 turns. Refrigerate dough 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, brush 2 jumbo muffin tins with melted butter; transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets. In a medium bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Remove dough from refrigerator and divide in half. On a work surface lightly sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar mixture, roll out half of the dough into a 13-by-7-inch rectangle, 1/2-inch-thick. Cut crosswise into 18 even strips. Form 3 strips into a braid, pinching ends to secure. Bring the pinched ends together to form a circle, and pinch to secure. Place braid, pinched-side down, in prepared muffin tin. Repeat with remaining strips of dough, then repeat entire process with the remaining reserved half of dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until puffed, 30 to 40 minutes.
• Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Let rest for about 3 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire rack to cool upside down. Once completely cooled, invert and serve.