Orange Bowknots

This recipe of orange bowknots are taken from my old cookbook , it was from Christmas Cooking from the heart vol.12 . I think this was one of my first time trying to make bread , which i found back then very intimidating , because i heard if you don’t get the water / milk into the right temperature then the yeast will die , or will not grow . Either way , it’s bad , it’s like , well what do i do ? Back then i had to have cooking thermometer . I still have cooking thermometer , but i don’t use it  for bread baking , to check water or milk temperature anymore . I used it for checking if my meat is done or not most of the time 🙂 So , if you are very new with bread baking , i think it’s a good idea to get a thermometer , to make sure you get the right temps , once you’re used to it , you just know it , and you can touch it and you will know if you get the right temps or not for growing your yeast needed for bread baking .

SO , here it goes , recipe for Orange Bowknots

You need :

5 1/4 – 5 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

1 stick of butter

1 and 1/4 cups of whole milk or 2% milk , 1% is also okay , just don’t use skim milk

2 1/4 tsp. of dry active yeast

1/3 cups of sugar

2 eggs

pinch of salt

1/4 cup of orange juice

2 tbsp . orange peel

1 recipe of orange icing

In a small pot , warm up the milk , butter ( until melted ) , sugar and salt , to about 110 F . If you accidentally warm it up too long and gets too hot , let it sit to cool off , Add beaten eggs , and whisk in the orange juice too . Mix well .

Meanwhile , add the dry yeast into the well of flour , it would be better if you start with 5 cups of flour and adding as you go , because if you use all the flour , your dough might end up too dry and bread will be tough . Start with 5 cups of flour , add your yeast in the center , then add the milk mixture with butter , and yeast , orange juice into the well . Start beating with your dough hook or wooden spoon until the dough gets heavy and hard to mix with mixer or spoon anymore ( if you use kitchenaid mixer , you can keep doing this with the dough hook and add little flour as it needed , becareful not to add too much flour ) . If your dough is too sticky , start adding little flour at a time while mixing it with your hand , your hand will be sticky at first , add little flour , after a while your hand will not be sticky anymore and the dough starts cleaning the side of the bowl . Therefore there is no more crumbs , not too sticky , but not too dry either . Take it out from the bowl and knead on a counter top , for about 8-10 minutes . Knead with the heel of your hands , use your strength .

Then once you’re done kneading , then butter a bowl , place the dough in there , cover with plastic wrap for 1 hour . Then take it out , don’t punch the dough , just take the dough out from the bowl . And divide the dough into 2 balls , then roll out each ball into rectangle , 12×7 , and cut into 12 – 7 inches strips . Then starts making knots with each strips , place cookie sheet with parchment paper , cover with cheese cloth or plastic wrap , in a warm place , let it double in size again . For about 45 minutes to an hour .

Then bake at 400 F for about 10-12 minutes , watch it !

Cool the bowknots , while prepare the orange icing – 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1-2 tbsp. of orange juice , mix well . Drizzle the icing on the bread when the bread is already cool off .