Maple Twists

 I found this recipe on my favorite foodie blog, Mennonite Girls Can Cook.  It looked delicious.  And it turned out to be just that-DELICIOUS.

MAPLE TWISTS

Heat 

3/4 cup milk and

1/4 cup butter until very warm.

Blend with 1 cup flour,

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon instant dry yeast

1 teaspoon maple extract

1 egg

Beat this with an electric beater on low for 2 minutes.

Add remaining 1 3/4 cups to 2 cups of flour and knead to a soft dough.

It will become smooth and elastic in about 5 minutes.

Let rise for about 45 minutes in a bowl covered in plastic wrap. In the meantime, make…    

Maple Struesel

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup chopped nuts

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon maple extract

Combine this together and let sit

Divide the dough into 3 balls.

Take out a pizza pan, and butter it.(I used parchment paper but I still buttered it)

Roll out the 3 balls of dough to about 12 inches.

Put 1/3 of the streusel on the first layer of dough, put another layer of dough on top of this and put the second amount of streusel on.

Finish with the third layer of dough and again the 1/3 amount of streusel.

Put a 2 inch cup on the center of the dough and cut 16 wedges with scissors. (use the glass as a guide as to how far to cut. They'll stay even all around . .in the picture below you can see the faint outline of the glass rim in the center)

Twist each wedge 5 times. Remove the glass.

Cover with a light Tea Towel and let rise for 30 - 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. I used a convection oven at 350 degrees.

Bake the twists until golden brown about 18 - 22 minutes

Cool for about 5 minutes on the pan and remove to a cooling rack.

  Make a glaze of

1 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons of melted butter

1 -2 tablespoons of milk

1/2 teaspoon of maple extract