Hello Darlings!
Looking for a perfect Valentine’s Day breakfast idea for your sweetie? Look no further! These cinnamon love knots (and hearts!) were absolutely delicious, and well worth the effort. Plus, you can customize them and make your own shapes! I chose to make hearts in honor of Valentine’s Day, but you could easily make letters, x’s and o’s, cupids arrow, whatever you can imagine!
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| Sweet Cinnamon Love Knots & Hearts |
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| Sweet Cinnamon Love Knots & Hearts |
The recipe below was adapted from a lovely fellow blog; you may be familiar with, called One Perfect Bite. They have some truly awesome recipes and ideas over there! After reviewing the recipe, and doing a general Google search of how to actually tie the knots, I made some changes and revisions. That and I didn’t want to spend all of that time waiting, (there’s no way I could do that in the morning) and all that sugar! I encourage you to try both methods, they probably come out about the same, but I just love how my version came out!
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| Sweet Cinnamon Love Knots & Hearts |
Cinnamon Love Knot – Sparkly Sharp and Fabulous Version
(less time, less sugar!)
Ingredients:
- 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/2 cup warm milk
- 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 – 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves
Cinnamon Sugar Topping
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- *optional to use 1 spoonful of brown sugar for different flavors*
Directions:
1) In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add milk, butter, sugar, eggs and salt. Beat until smooth. Add a few small shakes of cinnamon and nutmeg, and one good shake of cloves. Stir in enough flour to form a soft dough.
2) If your bowl is large enough, knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. If not, use a flour dusted surface. Take dough out, use nonstick spray directly on bowl; place the down back in, spray a light coat over the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours.
3) While the dough is rising, mix your sugar toppings together in a microwave safe bowl. On short 20 – 30 second intervals, microwave the sugar mixture until warm. You should start seeing the separation of the excess butter at the top. Pour into a separate wide set bowl (a soup bowl worked well for me). Continue microwaving and pouring off excess butter into the other bowl until most of the excess butter is in the bowl. It is ok to stir the sugar mixture; the butter will still separate (and have some spices in it, which is ok!)
4) When the dough has doubled/risen, punch dough down; divide into three portions. Cover two portions with plastic wrap or towel. Use a wide flat plate or non-porous surface to flatten out one section of dough into a circle.
**I had no luck rolling this dough into even shapes, so a quick Google search helped me find this video, which you may find helpful too **
Using a pizza cutter, cut strands into about 1 inch wide strips, (see above video).
5) You may have to reheat your cinnamon sugar and your butter, as you want it warm and fluid if possible. 10-20 seconds in the microwave should do.
6) As you pick up each strand to dip in the melted butter, lightly stretch it out a little to give you more length. Holding each end, slide the strand through the butter on one side, then flip it and slide through the butter on its other side. Tie into a knot. Tuck and pinch ends under and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough.
IF YOU ARE DOING HEARTS: I suggest twisting the dough after you dip it in butter, giving it a spiral twist look. The ends will connect best at the bottom of the heart, creating a point.
7) Using your fingers or a kitchen brush, scoop small spoonful’s of the sugar mixture onto the center of the dough, and work your way out spreading it in all of the crevices and edges.
8) Meanwhile preheat oven to 375 degrees F. When ready to proceed, for bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Hearts will take less time to cook.
Makes 2-3 dozen based on sized
Serve warm.
Additionally, you can easily reheat these in the microwave (if they even last that long!) I’ve had good luck heating one big knot for about 20 seconds.
Enjoy!
Love,
The Sparkle Queen
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