Almond Butterhorns
With Love and Butter
Makes 12 butterhorns

Keep in mind that the dough needs to be prepared a day before you want to bake and serve them.

Dough
1/2 cup warm water
4 tsp. (2 packages) quick-rise yeast
2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup (1 1/2 cubes) butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. salt
5 cups unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour

Filling
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup whole natural almonds
1/4 cup (1/2 cube) butter, melted

Blend the water and yeast in a mixer bowl fitted with the dough hook.  Add the eggs and egg yolk, brown sugar, milk, butter, vanilla, and salt.  Mix until combined, then add the flours.  Mix until the flour disappears – just a few turns of the hook – and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Sprinkle a handful of unbleached flour over the dough and mix until the dough starts to form a ball.  The dough will be very soft.  Scrape into an oiled bowl or plastic container about 3 times as large as the ball of dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, line 3 cookie sheets with baking parchment or grease lightly.  In a food processor fitted with the steel knife blade, chop the brown sugar and almonds together until the almond pieces are about the size of peas.  Reserve 3/8 cup filling for the glaze and set the rest aside.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and turn ont a lightly floured work surface.  Sprinkle the top of the dough with a little flour and shape into a rectangle with your hands.  Now roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 12 by 24 inches and 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick.  Check the underside of the dough frequently for sticking and sprinkle on more flour as needed.

Position the dough with the short sides at top and bottom, and brush the entire surface with the 1/4 cup melted butter.  Distribute the almond filling over the lower 2/3 of the buttered dough, covering all the way to the edges and pressing gently into the dough to hold in place.  Fold the top (uncovered) portion of the dough to cover 1/2 the almond filling.  Fold once more to cover all the filling.

Now roll the dough to about 3/4-inch thickness, keeping the rectangular shape but with the long sides at top and bottom.  Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut the dough into 12 even strips along the short dimension.

Take up a strip of dough, one end in each hand, and twist 3 or 4 times in opposite directions.  (Or, place the strip on your work surface and use the palms of your hands to roll the ends in opposite directions.)  Now gather both ends in one hand, maintaining the twist, and loop the middle of the dangling strip up over the ends.  Place the butterhorn on one of the prepared cookie sheets.  Repeat with the remaining pastries, spacing them at least 1 1/2 inches apart.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until puffy and 50 percent larger.  This may take 5 minutes on a hot day or a half-hour or longer on a cold day.

Before the pastries finish rising, preheat the oven to 350 F with the rack in the center position.  One pan at a time, bake the butterhorns 10 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake another 5 minutes or until the tops are barely brown and the bottoms golden.  Don’t overbake – they’re much better moist.

While the butterhorns bake, combine the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan.  Heat on medium-low until just warm, stirring constantly.  (DT: I reheated the glaze as each pan came out of the oven because it tends to get too thick if too cool.)  Dribble the glaze onto the butterhorns as they come out of the oven.  Let them cool a bit before serving.