Tutorial: Cinnamon Twists :3

Hello beautiful people! =) I noticed I haven't put up a cooking tut in awhile, and don't worry! I WILL post up the tut for the kimchi fried rice :) But.. aside from that! Yesterday on the FoodNetwork (a cooking channel for those who don't know) Giada's "Everyday Italian" happened to be on [my fav show on the channel!] She made these Cinnamon Twists and they looked soooo good! +_+ I tried to roughly remember all the measurements and ingredients, so here it is! As for the dipping sauce that she made... I didn't have a lemon with me, so when I made it without, it was absolutely atrocious. So i'm just going to skip out the sauce! Also, the pictures may say one thing, but make sure to read my descriptions because I always write up the directions according to the mistakes I made/improvements that could be made!

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 10 min
Baking time: 15 min

Ingredients:
-Brown sugar (dark or light, doesn't matter)
-Cinnamon
-zest of 1 Lemon
-1 Egg
-1 sheet of Puff Pastry
-Powder sugar (optional)
-OPTIONAL: Sesame seeds (preferably toasted) they look really pretty on it, but I don't really like the two tastes of sesame and cinnamon... they're just for garnish


Gather up your ingredients! Yes yes, I know there's honey in the picture, but it was used for the terrible sauce, which I don't think is worth making.

Go ahead and defrost your puff pastry; it's supposed to be kept frozen, so put out to thaw 10-15 minutes before you start! It's usually rolled up, so it's a bit tricky to unravel it! Try keeping a knife nearby for its straight edge

Cut the dough into 4 squares--cut down the center vertical line, and then one center horizontal to make a cross shape.

Cut each of the sections into 4 pieces!

Cut em all up, they should look like this :)

Now, prepare a large bowl, preferably flat and shallow; add in 2 tbs of cinnamon~

You can add your sesame seeds here, but I regret putting mine in raw, and they were just a bit overpowering the cinnamon...

and 4 tbs brown sugar :) If you want to make them more of a desert, add up to 6 tbs! You can add some powder (confectioner) sugar for more of a melt-in-your-mouth taste~

Mix up the dry ingredients! Add the lemon zest here :)

Line a baking try with some parchment paper--I ran out, so I just had to use foil :( If you use foil oil/butter/spam it up! I forgot to, so I had one hell of a time removing them when they were done -0-

This picture shows two, because the original shape I was going for was a bit different, but I liked my second idea better--just use one strip at a time!

I tried it in this shape first, but it was just too big and ugly! :/ so trust me on this one. Just use one :p

Crack your egg and beat it up real well till bubbly :) Prepare a pastry brush too! If you don't own one, you can use your hands :) Some people like to add water in their egg wash, but I think for this recipe, it's better thick.

So taking the egg wash, brush it on both sides of a strip!

Roll it around in the dry mixture and cover well :) it's okay to have missing spots! Now, taking the strip horizontally, grabbing each end of the strip, twist the ends in opposite directions~

When you're done, you should end up with a whole lot of these! 8)

The oven should be preheated by now, so pop em in for 15 minutes! Keep an eye on them after the 10 minute mark, since everyone's oven differs. Mine was a bit on the crispier side and mine was left in for 15. Maybe about 13 minutes? Go figure. (but be prepared to leave them in longer; my oven is strong enough to nuke a planet.)

Ah.. what a mess -___- this is the time to wash the dishes and clean up your work area!

They're done!

Pastries don't like to come off in one go when they're hot, so cool em just a bit!

And here we go!


Finished! =-) they're super yummy with some coffee~
I hope you enjoyed this cooking tutorial! :) Haven't made one in awhile, so i'm just a little rusty ._. Sorry for the picture overload! But I would much rather have pictures as reference, than read a huuuge paragraph and have no idea wth the author is saying. :p Just a couple things to keep in mind: 1) Don't be afraid to go a little crazy with the sugar! 2) Keep an eye on them! Once they pass a certain point, they burn quickly! 3) Stay away from sesame seeds, unless you really want em...

Sorry if this last picture scared you, because it sure scared the crap outta me while scrolling down. LOL. I've been having some problems with falling asleep lately, so I've been hella tired. I had work today, and drove home for 1.5 hrs due to a brush fire in my area.

Goodluck trying it out! :)
Best,
Jinna