Maple Twists

Make the dough:
Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan on low until it’s nice and warm. Add it into the bowl of your stand mixer and blend with half of the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, maple flavoring and egg. Beat this on low for 1-2 minutes. Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time. Then attach the dough hook and knead into a soft dough. It will become smooth and elastic in about 2-3 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 45 minutes (or till at least double in size).

While the dough rises, mix together all of the streusel ingredients and set aside.

After the dough rises, divide it into 2 pieces. Roll each piece into a 12″ circle. Place the first circle on a buttered baking sheet. Top the first circle with 1/2 of the streusel mixture and spread it around as thinly as you can get it (top the layer of streusel with 2nd circle). These became very thick once baked. You could EASILY take the second circle and instead of putting it on top of the first, you could make a second batch of twists. I will do this next time!

Find something that is 2-inches in diameter and center it in the center of the circle(press down a little to make a mark; I used my 1/4 cup measuring cup). Using a pizza cutter, cut from the outer edges of the dough circle, in to the edge of the center mark, making 16 wedges (but leaving the center circle that you have marked intact).

Gently lift and twist each wedge 5 times (again, the center will remain intact and you’ll twist from there). Tuck the ends of each wedge in just a little so that it stays twisted. You can see I forgot to put the second half of the streusel on my dough. So after I twisted, I brushed the rest of the streusel onto the top of the twists. It worked out just fine!

Lightly cover this with plastic wrap and let it rise for about 45 minutes to an hour. Bake in a 375F oven for 18-22 minutes (mine took the 18 minutes). Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

Whisk all glaze ingredients together. Drizzle glaze over warm twists. Eat and enjoy warm!