Maple-Nut Twist

Bart's go-to cookbook for recipes with yeast is the yeast bread book Mom and I put together a couple years ago. I was looking in that book for the "Sweetheart Cinnamon Roll" recipe that I like to make for Valentine's day, when I noticed the Maple-Nut Twist recipe next to it. I decided to make the Maple-Nut Twist, but shape it according to the directions for the Sweetheart Cinnamon Roll. It was a very yummy Valentine's breakfast!

Maple-Nut Twist

Dough:
¾ cup milk
¼ cup butter or margarine
2 ¾ to 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon maple extract
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup butter or margarine, melted

Filling:
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon maple extract

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 to 2 tablespoons milk or water
½ teaspoon maple extract

In small saucepan, heat milk and butter until very warm (120° to 130°F). In large bowl, blend warm liquid, 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, yeast, extract and egg at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in remaining flour to form a soft dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 2 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl; turn greased-side-up. Cover; let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size, 45 to 60 minutes. In small bowl, combine Filling ingredients; set aside.

For shaping, you have several options.

Original shaping instructions:
Grease 12-inch pizza pan. Punch down dough; divide and shape into 3 balls. On floured surface, roll or press 1 ball of dough to cover bottom of prepared pizza pan. Place in prepared pan. Brush dough with about 1/3 of melted butter; sprinkle with 1/3 Filling. Repeat layers of dough, melted butter and filling. To shape, place a glass about 2 inches in diameter in center of dough. With scissors, cut from outside edge to the glass, forming 16 pie-shaped wedges. Twist each wedge 5 times. Remove glass. Cover; let rise until light and doubled in size, 30 to 45 minutes. Heat oven to 375°F. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. In small bowl, blend Glaze ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over warm twists.

For the heart shape:
On lightly floured surface, roll dough into an 18x12-inch rectangle. Spread with the butter. Sprinkle with maple-nut sugar filling. Starting from a long side, roll into a spiral; seal. Place seam up. Fold half of the roll over the top of other half; seal ends. Place on greased large baking sheet. Starting ¾ inch from sealed end, cut down the center through all dough layers, cutting through the folded end. Turn cut sides out so they face up and touch each other, forming a heart. Cover; let rise in warm place 30 minutes or until nearly double. Bake as directed above.

Other options:
You can make these into normal cinnamon roll shapes or twists. Have fun!