Almond tea + Cinnamon Kringle = Yumminess :)

I tried the most delicious tea ever, so good that I had to share it with you. I never bought this tea myself, my sister gave me this tea to try which she got from a friend and now I have to admit I'm wanting more and need to find some asap. The tea is almond tea, it's slightly sweet, nutty, and has a wonderful almond flavor. Just get out your favorite cup, boil some water add almond tea, stir, sit back and enjoy. It makes the perfect healthy, low calorie dessert...yes it's that good :) Now my mission is to find more of this wonderful, delicious tea, if you happen to find some try it is so good....yum!

Almond Tea...So Delicious!!

A cup of wonderful, almondy delight :)

Okay so we got that out of the way now onto something just as wonderful and delicious. Cinnamon Kringle...yum!! I first saw this beautiful and delicious sweet dough treat on Pinterest. You can find the originally post here but it is in Romanian language so instead of trying to translate the recipe I just used my own sweet dough recipe and filling. I just followed the steps how to shape it and it is really, really simple but oh so good.

Because the dough is rolled up and then twist into a braid the result is delicious layer up on layer of sweet dough, cinnamon, sugar and walnuts. The originally recipe doesn't call for nuts but I love nuts so I added walnuts . Unfortunately I didn't have almonds otherwise I would have definitely used them.

I posted my sweet dough recipe in an earlier post you can find it here which I use to make Apricot Piroski as well but I will repost again. This recipe is a larger portion recipe it will make 8-9 Cinnamon Kringles, you can cut ingredients in half if desired , use 2 eggs if doing so.

~ Sweet Dough ~

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water

1 tablespoon yeast

Pour the warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle the dry yeast onto the water and set aside to develop. Yeast will dissolve, foam and become bubbly when ready.

7 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 cups warm milk

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 eggs (room temperature)

In a large mixing bowl combine warm milk, melted butter, olive oil, sugar and salt. Add eggs and blend mixture well. Add the developed yeast mixture and stir to combine. Start adding flour one cup at a time. You can use a wooden spoon but I find that stirring in the flour by hand works best. Add flour until you have a soft, sticky dough. You may need to adjust the amount of flour you add, therefore don't just add the whole amount at once. It's better to have a softer, sticky dough because you can add more flour when your kneading the dough. If you add too much flour the dough will be tough and stiff. Your pastries will not be as light, fluffy and soft if the dough is to stiff.

Once you've added enough flour to make a soft dough, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough, until the texture goes from soft and sticky to smooth and pliable. Tuck in edges of dough, shaping it into a ball Lightly oil the bowl and place gently place the dough ball back in the bowl (seams down). Covered the bowl with plastic wrap and a clean dish towel, put in a warm place to allow dough to rise and double in size.

While the dough is rising you can prepare the Cinnamon Sugar Walnut filling.

~ Cinnamon Sugar Walnut Filling ~

4 cups brown sugar

8 tbsp ground cinnamon - you can use less or more

2 finely chopped walnuts

Combine the ingredient in all together in a bowl. Set aside.

3/4 cup butter

In a small pot melt 3/4 butter. Set aside.

Once the dough has doubled you can start making the Cinnamon Kringle.

I first start by portioning the dough out. Just pinch off approximately the same size pieces of dough with your hands. Just very lightly fold in to shape into a circle, don't work the dough a lot.

Once all the dough is portioned out, cover the dough balls with plastic sheets. I use up-cycled cereal bags. Click here for up-cycled cereal tutorial.

Work with one dough ball at a time.

Roll out into a rectangle shape. You can gently pull and shape the dough with your hands. Roll out dough 1/2 thickness.

Brush the rolled out dough with melted butter. Be generous...butter is good.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and walnut sugar.

Leave about a 1/2 inch dough unsprinkled so it's easier to pinch dough roll shut. Be generous with the cinnamon sugar but don't go overboard as it will make it hard to twist the dough.

Roll up the dough fairly tightly, try to keep edges even, pull them out gently if needed.

Pinch the roll shut. Turn over seam down and turn so it's lengthwise in front of you.

Press the dough roll down to flatten slightly and cut the roll in half with a sharp knife.Leave an inch uncut at the top. Cut all the way down to the end.

After you cut it in half, carefully pull the two side apart.

Start twisting the dough one strand over the other and keeping going all the way till the end. Pinch end together.

Once you pinch the end together, cut the top uncut portion and twist it and pinch it together too.

Form the twisted log into a circle, gently pinch and fold over the ends trying to keep the shape.

Don't all those layers of dough and cinnamon sugar look so good? Just wait till it's baked and golden brown!!

Brush the rings with an egg wash or extra melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Carefully remove from baking sheet with a spatula after cooling slightly. Remove and place on a wire rack before the cinnamon kringle cool completely because they will stick to the sheet.