CINNAMON KNOTS RECIPES

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.

Steps:

• Combine softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon powder with salt in a medium sized bowl. Mix together with a spatula until everything is combined.
• Add the milk, sugar and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough attachment.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolks together.
• Add the eggs, flour and salt to the stand mixer bowl and mix on low speed until a scraggly dough forms.
• Turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix for about 5 minutes. Start to add the butter one portion at a time, only adding more once the butter has fully incorporated. Repeat until all of the butter has been added. This will take about 10 minutes.
• Continue mixing for another 10-15 minutes at medium speed or until the dough has come together and can be lifted cleanly off the bottom of the bowl.
• Remove the dough from the stand mixer and place in another large bowl that has been greased. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours.
• Grease two 12-hole muffin tins with butter. Preheat oven to 160C (325F).
• After a minimum of 8 hours, remove it from the fridge, turn out the dough onto a lightly-floured surface and press on the dough to release the air.
• Dust the top of the dough with flour and roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle approximately 12 inches (length) by 20 inches (width).
• Cover entire surface of dough with the cinnamon sugar and butter mixture. Ensure that it is evenly spread out.
• Fold dough into thirds lengthwise, like a letter. Cut into 20 strips, about 1 inch wide.
• To form the knot shapes, cut each strip into 3 pieces, then plait. Roll the dough over itself until it forms a bun shape. Place into the hole of your muffin tin. Repeat with all the strips.
• Allow the buns to proof for about one hour or until doubled in size.
• Once doubled in size, beat one egg and lightly brush over the buns.
• Bake for 18 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Dust with icing sugar if you like and enjoy warm.
• These buns can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days. I like to microwave them until they are warm before I eat them.