Kay Nimitz Smith -- Writer, Mom, Goddess in Training: Granini's Cinnamon Pecan Pastries

Breakfast Pastries

Granini's Cinnamon Pecan Pastry

So I have started to dabble a wee bit in the pastry department,

and I think I may have just about gotten things right.

I have been changing up the recipes for the breakfast pastries for my brunch bunch depending upon which fruits and such I have in my fridge at the time. The pastries can be filled with just about whatever your wee little heart desires. So I thought I'd pass along a few of my recipes for my various concoctions.

Today's recipe: Cinnamon Pecan Pastries

So after scanning Pinterest, and trying out a variety of recipes, my favorite pastry dough to date comes from Sally's Baking Addition.

Ingredients:

For the pastry dough:

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cubes (14 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, chilled

2 1/2 cups flour, sifted

Additional flour will be needed for rolling out your dough.

Oh, and parchment paper will make your life easier. If you haven't got any yet, you have time to dash to the store and pick some up whilst your dough is resting in the fridge.

Egg Wash:

1 large egg, whisked and beaten until frothy

2 Tablespoons milk

For the Cream Cheese Goodness:

1 (8 ounce) cube of cream cheese*, softened

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted

(*I use the 1/3 less fat cream cheese version in this recipe, and it seems to work just fine)

For the Cinnamon Pecan Filling:

1 cup brown sugar, softly packed

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

For the Icing:

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

dash o'salt

1 Tablespoon 1/2 and 1/2 or milk

Directions:

For the pasty dough:

In a medium bowl, mix the water and yeast. Frisk with a fork until slightly foamy, and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
Add milk, egg, salt and sugar. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, slice or grate the butter into small pieces. Add in the sifted flour. With a pastry knife, *partially* work the butter into the flour until the flour is only partly incorporated. Do not over mix. Do not allow the dough to incorporate the butter like you would a pie crust. Allow large chunks of butter to remain. They will work themselves out later, and will make your pastry taste better.
Make a well in your flour/butter mixture.
Pour your liquid ingredients into the well, and *very, very gently* stir, allowing your dough to become a ball. Do NOT over work the dough.
Spread out a large piece of Saran Wrap. Plunk your dough in the center, and wrap completely.
Allow dough to rest for at LEAST 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Preparing your pastry dough:

Clean your work surface (obvs), and then lightly flour the work surface and your rolling pin.
Plunk your ball o'dough onto your work surface and roll it out into a rectangle about 15 inches long.
Fold the bottom third up, and the top third down.
Rotate your dough, and repeat. Roll it out into a rectangle about 15 inches long. Fold the bottom third up and the top third down.
Repeat.
And again.
Okay, so I know this is getting old. However, you have to rotate and repeat at *LEAST* 8 times. Your dough may get stiff. It may be a challenge. But TRUST ME on this. Your dough will be lovely and gorgeous and have delicious, laminated layers when you're all finished. Besides, you probably needed the extra arm work out. I mean, really, who doesn't? Besides, you're going to be snarfing all this lovely goodness down in just a wee bit, and the work out now will make you feel less guilty later when you gobble up your fourth and fifth and sixth piece.
Okay, so you made it! All eight times! Yay you! Now, it's time to wrap up your dough, and let it rest for about 1/2 an hour or so, while you make your pastry innards.

For your cream cheese goodness:

In a mixing bowl, plunk in your softened cream cheese. Whir that around for a bit until the inside of your mixer is lovely and messed up.
Add in the salt and vanilla. Then whisk in the powdered sugar. Taste it after you've added about 2/3 of a cup. If you want it to be a wee bit sweeter, add a wee bit more powdered sugar. For this pastry (with the cinnamon pecan filling), I opted for less powdered sugar, because there's a lot of sugar in the cinnamon pecan filling. But for my berry fillings, I tend to add a wee bit more sugar. Set aside until you're ready to put it on your pastry. You don't have to refrigerate it, but you can if you want to. 'Sup to you.

For the Cinnamon Pecan Filling

This is pretty much a no brainer. In a smallish bowl, add in the sugar, cinnamon, flour, and nutmeg. Mix together with a fork.
Toast your pecans and dice them up in to wee pieces. Mix them with rest of the cinnamon goodness, and set aside until you're ready to use it.

Rolling out and filling your Pastry:

So now that your innards have all been made, and your pastry has had a chance to rest again, it's time to roll everything out, and slice everything up.
Rip off a nice long piece of parchment paper and lay that down onto your clean working surface.
Open up your Saran Wrap, and cut half a hunk o'pastry dough. Put half onto your parchment paper. The other half, you should rewrap and plunk back into the fridge to await its moment of destiny.
Lightly flour your rolling pin, and roll that sucker out one more time into a rectangle about 15 inches long or so.
Now it's time to fill. I found that it's easiest if you take a knife and lightly score the area that you're going to use to fill, so that you still have ample space on either side to cut the dough for the pastry's braids. You should mark an area about 1/3 of the width of the dough, right down the center, leaving 1/3 on either side of your fill zone for the braid strips on either side. (There are pictures below, should you have trouble imagining what I'm describing here.)
Split your cream cheese goodness into two blobs, so that you can use one blob for each of your two pastries. Spread out a fairly decent layer of cream cheese goodness into your fill zone. If you don't use it all, that's fine. I never have a problem using it all. But I like a good layer of cream cheese goodness in my pastries.
Split your cinnamon goodness innards into two, fairly even, sections. (One for each of your two pastries).
With a fork, gently scooch out the cinnamon goodness innards into your fill zone. Try not to let too much of the innards fall out of the zone. Some will, and that's okay. But keep as much on the inside as possible.

Cutting and braiding your pastry:

Don't be afraid. This part of the recipe is a lot easier than it seems. Take a very sharp knife, or a pizza cutter, and cut strips at a 45º angle on either side of your fill zone. Remove the final two "triangles" of dough that remain at the top and the bottom of your dough, and discard.
Alternating between the two sides, pick up a strip off the side, and gently lay the strip down across the fill zone. Then, go to the other side, pick up the strip, and lay it down on top of the fill zone, so that the two strips form a bit of an x shape, slightly crossing over each other. If they don't cross over, the pastry may open up completely, and the filling may ooze out. That would be sad.
Repeat the process until the entire pastry has been covered.
Now it's time for the egg wash! In a small bowl, whisk the egg until frothy. Add in the milk, and whisk again. With a pastry brush, gently brush each strip with the egg wash so that your pastry will have a pretty color when it's done baking.
Slip your parchment paper onto a baking sheet. Bake at 400º for 16-18 minutes or so, or until the top is lovely and golden.
Slide your parchment paper off the baking sheet directly onto a cooling rack. Once your pastry is cooler, then you can drizzle on the icing, slice, and serve.

Enjoy!!!

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For those of you who like pictures, here you go!