Twisted Sisters

This was a 4 hour undertaking but totally worth it. Basically you make the dough and go do other stuff for 3 hours and then form them and bake them for a half hour. While mine was rising I made muffins and a birthday cake. I used amy stand mixer with a dough hook to make my dough even though they used a whisk.

To see how to put this pastry together check out the original recipe at Ask Chef Dennis. Really good pics and explanations.

Ingredients:

Dough

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs at room temperature
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons lukewarm water
3/4 Tbsp. granulated yeast
3/4 Tbsp. kosher salt
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Filling

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

6 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
fresh vanilla beans from a 2 inch pod
12 Tablespoons brown sugar
zest of one lemon

Instructions:

Dough

Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly.
Lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl.
Add honey, salt, and melted butter to beaten eggs. Gently and briefly mix together then set aside.
Combine lukewarm water, yeast and a dash of honey together in a big bowl using a sturdy fork or whisk. Add eggs mixture. Mix together briefly.
Add half the flour. Mix it in with a fork or sturdy whisk. Add the remaining flour and mix. Use damp hands once your fork or whisk becomes overburdened. The dough will be damp and sticky. This is a no knead dough so just get all the flour mixed in and you’re done.
Place dough in a warm spot, covered with a towel for three hours. The dough will rise and be full of air pockets. Perfect!

Filling

Melt the butter, set aside.
In another bowl combine all the rest of the filling ingredients and mix, then set aside.

Assembling the twisted sister:

Preheat oven to 350.
Dust top of dough with flour. Dust hands with flour. Covering your work surface generously with flour and some more standing by for sticky moments. Flour!
Cut dough into about 6 to 8 pieces, grab one piece and plop it onto your floured surface.
Roll the dough into a long rectange, turning and keeping the dough well-floured the whole time.
Spread top with melted butter.
Sprinkle filling evenly across entire rectangle.
Fold one long edge to start roll.
Roll the dough into a long log.
Cut the dough log in half lengthwise.
Turn the two halves so that the cut sides face up and you see all the layers of dough and cinnamon and such. Admire your artistry thus far.
Pinch ends of the two halves together on one side and coil them a bit to get the two halves joined lightly at one end.
Gently cross the ends over each other taking care to arrange the cut sides together as much as possible. Don’t stress. It’s gonna be pretty. Twist the two halves together till you use up the lengths and have one pretty twist.
Coil the twist into a nest.
Lift the coil up and tuck the final end under the center of the coil then gently let the coil fall into place. You don’t have to do any excessive pinching or sealing. Just arrange it nicely. Think Zen.
Use the little bit of melted butter you saved earlier to drizzle over the center of the twisted sister.
Bake on center rack at 350 degrees for 22-27 minutes. Pastry should be golden on top and feel firm to the touch in the center. Poke the center with your finger and you should feel some resistance.
Allow to cool a few minutes and enjoy. It pulls apart or you can slice it into servings.

After making these we decided it needed a danish drizzle, so put about a cup of powdered sugar in a bowl and add some milk, whisk it and add more milk until it's drippy, then drizzle that over the pastry and let it harden.

If you are eating these left-over, toast them up first!!