Knot Your Average Bunz (Sweet Chocolate and Cinnamon Knots)

Hello my fellow social distancers

It is I again, your resident baking aficionado (J A M I E). I hope you all are staying away from other humans. Queue the joke about how that’s how I normally live my life!!!! The other day (or whenever my mother decides to post the recipe) I wrote a post about no-knead bread that is AMAZING (if you have tried it please post a pic on IG-you might win a prize!)

Today, I am here to write a piece about kneaded bread.

In times of great stress, I turn to TV and baking. I had a particularly tough week at work a few months back, and I showed up on Friday with two pies in hand. One of the most calming shows I watch is Great British Bake Off. Honestly, if you are reading this blog, you don’t need an introduction. Anyways, after a  l o n g week of WFH and meetings, I decided to combine my two stress relievers and try a recipe from one of the GBB contestants. I chose Steven’s sweet chocolate and cinnamon knots because

1) Steven is great

2) They looked amazing

3) Who doesn’t like cinnamon and chocolate?

4) Here is the link to Steven’s post, he is British.  Lucky for you I’ve watched a lot of GBB so I can help with the Queen’s English, lol. Steven’s Sweet Chocolate and Cinnamon Knots

Here are some of my thoughts below:

W O W. This bread is beautiful. I think it might be the prettiest thing I’ve baked. AND the best part—it also tastes DELICIOUS. Definitely worth the trip or TWO (thnx Whole Foods for turning me away) grocery stores at 7 am this morning. Side note: Whole Foods is actually doing this cool thing where they only let 60 year-olds and up (where is my mom when I need her, lol) shop from 7 am – 8 am. I think it’s really great, except for the fact that the Whole Foods employee told un-caffeinated, at 7 am me that I looked like I was 16. Rude.

The dough is light and sweet, with just enough texture to it that I don’t feel like I’m eating air. On its own, it’s great. The perfect bread to drizzle with honey. But even better yet, the recipe calls for stuffing chocolate and cinnamon sugar into the center of the dough before you bake it off. After proofing and baking, the chocolate melts into spirals throughout the bread, permeating every bite with a rich flavor. I know, not a great job of describing this—hey, it’s been a long week of WFH—so just trust me on this one.

One thing that was a bit hard for me was getting the proofing time correct. The recipe calls for dividing the dough into 4 equal pieces; each piece is woven separately into its own knot. As you can guess, it takes a bit of time to finagle the dough into place, so the amount of time the first knot was proofed was about 15-20 min longer than the last. If you are going to try these, I might suggest baking the knots in 2 batches, so you can optimize the proof for each bun. (Lol, can you tell that I’ve been writing too many work emails? “I might suggest…” Just do it, people.

Another difficult thing about these bunz was—you guessed it—the weave pattern. When I first looked at this recipe, I was a bit intimidated by the intricate pattern of the dough.

Don’t be discouraged, trust me.

While the recipe’s instructions are clear as mud, there are a lot of resources online that are helpful. Just google Winston knots, and you will find a lot of sites that show you a step by step process for braiding dough. The difficult thing about this was getting enough chocolate and cinnamon sugar in the buns. After weaving the dough together, you flip over the bun and place your filling in the center. Then use the ends of the strands to seal the filling into the bun, making sure to pinch any holes in the dough that might allow the filling to leak out during the bake. When I was stuffing my dough, I was worried about disrupting/flattening the pattern on the top, so I went pretty conservative with the chocolate. WRONG.

Stuff that bad boi UP.

Proofing the dough the second time will unflatten the buns.
Ok, this post is now way too long. Make this bread, you’ve got the time.

For your viewing pleasure and to help with the process, PICS and a video I found on YouTube that is PRICELESS

The Jamie Way of tying Knots Bunz

FINALLY, HERE IS THE RECIPE., You’re welcome

Print Pin

STEVEN’S SWEET CHOCOLATE & CINNAMON KNOTS

These Winston-knot bread rolls are made by braiding together three strands of a soft, sweet enriched dough – filled with dark chocolate and cinnamon sugar.

Course Breads

Cuisine British

Keyword Sweet Chocolate and Cinnamon Knots

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 500 g strong white bread flour plus extra for dusting (Bread Flour)
• 5 g fast-action dried yeast from a 7g sachet (Instant)
• 60 g unsalted butter softened, diced
• 40 g caster sugar granulated sugar
• 7 g salt
• 2 medium eggs at room temperature, beaten
• About 225ml full-fat milk lukewarm (whole milk)

For the filling:

• 50 g dark chocolate broken into chunks
• 4 tsp light muscovado sugar sub light brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 medium egg beaten, for glazing, use any size egg

Instructions

• Step 1 To make the dough: weigh the flour into a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, and mix in the yeast with your hand. When thoroughly combined, add the butter and rub into the flour with the tips of your fingers until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Mix in the sugar and salt then make a well in the centre of the mixture.
• Step 2 Pour the beaten eggs and 3⁄4 of the lukewarm milk into the well. Using your hands or the dough hook attachment of the mixer on its slowest speed, gradually work the flour into the liquids to make a soft but not sticky dough – slowly adding as much of the remaining milk as needed.
• Step 3 Knead the dough thoroughly – for 10 minutes by hand on a lightly floured worktop, or for 7 minutes if using the dough hook (on its slowest speed) – until very smooth and elastic. Return the dough to the bowl (if you kneaded by hand) then cover with cling film or a snap-on lid and leave on the worktop to prove for about an hour or until doubled in size.
• Step 4 Uncover then punch down the risen dough with your knuckles to deflate it. Turn out onto the worktop, very lightly dusted with flour, and knead into a ball. Then weigh the dough and divide into 4 equal portions. Cover 3 portions loosely with cling film and divide the other portion into 6 equal pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece on the worktop into a neat, even sausage 12.5 inches long. Try to use as little extra flour as possible for dusting your hands and the worktop – adding too much extra flour will make the dough tough and dry.
• Step 5 To shape the Winston knots: arrange 3 sausages of dough in a line on the worktop in front of you – at a minus 45-degree angle and fairly close together. Gently pinch the 3 together in the middle. Now place the other 3 strands on top at a 45-degree angle – to form an ‘X’ shape – and pinch together in the middle as before. Fold the 3 strands at the top left down over the centre point and onto the worktop – to the far right of the strands already there. Gently shuffle the 3 strands at the top right downwards so they sit alongside the other strands.
• Step 6 Arrange the 4 sets of strands closer together so they are lying side by side and slightly apart, so you can plait them. Pass the set on the far left under the 2 middle ones then back over the last one it went under and into line again. Then take the far-right set and put it under the twisted 2 in the middle then back over the last one it went under and into line.
• Step 7 Flip the knot over on the worktop. Scatter a quarter of the chocolate chunks down the centre of the knot. Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle a quarter on top of the chocolate. Bring the long ends of the plait up and over the filling and pinch them together, then gently fold in the sides (try to keep the plait as neat as possible) and pinch the dough together to seal in the filling. Turn the plait over again, right side up, and gently shape into a neat ball with your hands. Transfer to the lined baking sheet.
• Step 8 Repeat with the other 3 portions of dough to make 4 neatly plaited round loaves – these knots take a lot of practise and patience to get right! Set them well apart on the baking sheet, slip the sheet inside a large plastic bag and slightly inflate the bag so the plastic doesn’t stick to the dough. Leave on the worktop to prove for about 1 hour, until doubled in size – take care not to over-prove the dough, or let the temperature become too hot, as the breads will lose their shape. Towards the end of the rising time, heat the oven to 425°F
• Step 9 Uncover the loaves and carefully brush with beaten egg to glaze. Bake in the heated oven for about 20–23 minutes until a good golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.