St. Elizabeth Rose Cinnamon Twists

History

In our post about St. Elizabeth’s day, we shared the legend of the loaves and roses:

It is said that St. Elizabeth was discreetly on the way to deliver a basket of bread loaves to the poor when she ran into her husband, who asked her what she was concealing under the basket cover. Amazingly, when she revealed its contents, there were no longer loaves but roses! For this reason, St. Elizabeth is often depicted holding a basket of roses.

While we were not able to find historic folk traditions for St. Elizabeth’s day, we thought that we would propose a new one that would remind us of St. Elizabeth’s incredible acts of service as well as her humility. On the basis of this long-standing legend, we decided that something rose-inspired was the perfect thing to help commemorate this saint’s day.

St. Elizabeth’s Rose Cinnamon Twists Recipe

These twists take a classic recipe, cinnamon rolls, and alter it to give it a more rose-like appearance. The process is similar to that of normal cinnamon rolls until after you spread the sugar filling over the dough.

Next, you will fold the dough over itself twice to create a total of three layers. Because this might be difficult to visualize, we included a few images below to provide more guidance. As you will see, once the dough is layered, you simply cut off a strip and twist it around your fingers to form a “rose.” Pretty simple!

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Ingredients

Dough

2 cups milk warm

1 packet of yeast

⅓ cup oil

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

4½ cups all-purpose flour

Filling

1 stick of butter

1 cup brown sugar

¼ cup cinnamon

Sugar Glaze

¼ cup hot water

½ cup granulated sugar

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the warm milk and the yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes or until the yeast has bloomed.
2. Next, add the oil, salt, and sugar, giving the mixture a stir.
3. Add 3 cups of the all-purpose flour and mix using the dough hook attachment, then add the rest until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Lightly flour a working surface, remove the dough, and knead by hand until smooth.
5. Let the dough proof in a greased bowl until doubled in size.
6. Meanwhile, melt together the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Once the dough is doubled, roll it out on a floured surface into a large rectangle.
7. Using the back of a spoon, spread out the cinnamon filling and leave ¼ inch uncovered on each side.
8. Next, fold the dough over itself by taking a short end of the rectangle and laying it halfway over the dough, then doing the same thing to the other side so that there is a total of three layers of dough. Use a knife to cut long strips of dough off of the rectangle. Twist the strip of dough around two fingers to form a rose shape and place on a greased baking sheet.
9. Bake at 350°F for about 20-25 minutes until the dough starts to turn golden brown.
10. Dissolve the granulated sugar in the hot water and drizzle over rolls as soon as they come out of the oven. Enjoy!