Wednesday, October 7, 2009

BUTTERHORNS (Light as Air!!)

This recipe is a true delight. Not only is it a NO KNEAD yeast dough, but they bake up light as air and freeze well (if there are any left). Everyone loves these sweet, buttery treats.
 
 
 
 
1 tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg (room temperature)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 slightly rounded tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (do not leave out)
1/2 cup of COLD butter (no substitutions)

Mix 1 tablespoon of yeast + 1 teaspoon sugar + 1/4 cup of warm water in a cup and let it sit while you do the next step.

In your food processor, mix 2 cups of flour +  2 slightly heaping tablespoons of granulated sugar + 1/2 teaspoon table salt + 1/2 cup of COLD butter cubed. Pulse until the mixture looks like crumbs, like this:




In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of warm milk and one room temperature egg, set aside.

In your stand mixer, combine the  dry flour-butter mixture + the yeast  mixture + milk-egg mixture.  Mix until well combined. The dough will be very sticky, but that's what you want. It will look like this:
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm spot for one hour.  After one hour, dump the dough onto a LIBERALLY floured counter (remember, its still very sticky at this stage).  Flour your hands +  flour the top of the dough. Pat it out to 1/2"  thick rectangle. If the dough sticks to your hands, just dust it with a little more flour.

Cut the dough into 3/4" strips and work with one strip at a time.  Pick up one of the strips and brush the extra flour off of it. Twist each strip a bunch of times and then place one end on the counter and wind the twisted strip (in a single layer) around and around (tuck a tiny piece of the "tail" under the pastry) Sorry I forgot to photograph this step.

Place rolls on a lightly greased baking sheet about 4" apart.  Cover loosely with slightly damp paper towel and let them raise for an hour, or until they have doubled in size.

Bake in a PRE-HEATED  375° oven  for 15-17 minutes, or until golden.



This recipe makes about 8 pastries (depending on how big you make them)



Frost the Butterhorns with a simple glaze made out of 2 cups of powdered sugar + 2 tablespoons melted butter + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract + ¼ teaspoon of almond extract + just enough milk to make the glaze the right consistency.
ENJOY !!!