Put these twists on summer routine

Back in February, we did a column on cinnamon twists, the puff-pastry sort, which was fairly long and involved, what with creating several layers of fluffy pastry and oozing with cinnamon and sugar and all. At the time, I heard also from Barbara Leeman of Bangor, who sent along a lovely cinnamon twist recipe calling for a yeast dough. I promised myself that when I had a chance I would try it because it sounded very good, and by golly it is.

Barbara wrote that this was her Swedish mother’s recipe. “I make it every Christmas and give away many for breakfast Christmas morning.” Of course, we are half a year away from Christmas, but I think these tasty little items would make a great breakfast treat for summer houseguests.

They are quite easy to make, and you can get it done in a couple of hours, about an hour and a half of that time is in dough rising and baking while you go off and do other things. And for whatever reason, these guys don’t ooze and stick like the ones we made in February.

You will see that the recipe suggests rolling the dough out to a 6-by-24-inch rectangle. The easiest way to get the dough stretched out to 24 inches is to roll it first into a cylinder, then hold it up in the air and let it stretch out while you squeeze here and there to make a nice evenly thick rope. Then you can lay that down to flatten it to 6 inches wide.

P.S. Eat them warm, right after baking, when they are at their best.

Sour Cream Cinnamon Twists

Yields about one dozen.

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons of butter

3 tablespoons of sugar

Pinch of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

1 beaten egg

1 package of yeast (1 tablespoon) dissolved in a 1/4 cup warm water

3 cups of flour

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon (or more) of cinnamon

1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Softened butter

Put the sour cream into a large saucepan and bring it to a boil. Take it off the heat and add the butter, sugar, soda and salt and stir until the butter is melted. Allow to cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile, dissolve the yeast in the water, and beat the egg. Add these to the sour cream mixture, and then stir in the flour. Turn out on a lightly floured board, and knead it until the dough is springy. Let rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together the sugar, nuts and cinnamon. Roll the dough out to 6-inch-by-24-inch rectangle. Spread the butter over all the dough’s surface. Sprinkle the sugar and nut mixture over half the dough. Fold the other half of the dough over the side with the mixture, and press the two sides together firmly with the heel of your hand. Even up the sides, and cut into strips one inch wide. Lift and twist them and lay them on a greased baking sheet. Some of the filling will fall out. Cover with a damp towel, and let them rise for about an hour and a quarter. Bake them at 375 for 15 minutes.

You may wish to make a glaze of confectioners sugar, vanilla and milk to spread on them while they are hot from the oven.