Warm from the oven, these cinnamon knots are guaranteed to make your home smell amazing.

Warm, cinnamon buns, fresh from the oven oozing cinnamon and butter are a real wintery treat.  When the girls were growing up, their favourite way to use this dough was in cinnamon knots.  So much fun when my darling granddaughters Sloan and Stella are now in the kitchen helping!  I love it.

These little sweeties love helping Nana in the kitchen, and it is even more fun for Nana – never too young to learn how to make a great sweet yeast dough.  They are already well versed in making pizza dough!

Scald 1 cup milk

Pour into a bowl, adding 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup butter

Stir until the  butter has totally melted and the sugar and salt have dissolved.

Meanwhile ….., dissolve: (I use my kitchen aide stand mixer for this part)

1 tsp sugar in 1/2 cup lukewarm water

Stir in 1 tbsp (or 1 envelope) yeast

Let sit for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to bloom.  Stir and add milk/butter mixture.

Add 1 beaten egg, followed by 2 cups unbleached flour.

Stir and knead until mixed well – slowly add another 2 cups flour.  You may need to do this by hand at this point.  Knead well until the dough is soft.  It may take up to another cup of flour to get to this point and not have the dough too sticky.

Turn into a greased bowl, cover and allow to rise in a warm spot until doubled.

Tip dough onto lightly floured surface.

At this point you have a few options:

a) Cut dough into 24 equal pieces:  Set up 2 bowls, one with melted butter and the other with mixed 1/2 cup white sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.  Dip each piece into first the melted butter, then the sugar mixture before tying into a knot and placing in a greased muffin tin.

b) Roll dough out into rectangle, brush generously with melted butter, and sprinkle over first cinnamon, then brown sugar.  Starting on the long side, roll up, leaving cut side down.  Cut into 1″ pieces and set on greased baking dish.

c) Using same method as b, once you have the rolled cinnamon buns, do not cut – instead join the ends into a circle, pinching well together.  Set onto a greased baking sheet.  Then – take scissors and snip about 2/3 of the way through all the way around.  Once you have made it around the circle, gently twist each bun to lay flat while staying attached in the middle.

Whatever method you use – now allow the dough to rest and rise again – about 30-40 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, just until golden brown.