Mini King Cakes

One night Doug said he had never hear of King Cakes, and Mardi Gras was coming. I decided to make some mini ones.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 2.25 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115°F)
• 8 ounces of sourdough starter (or 1/2 cup warm milk and 4 ounces more flour)
• 2 tablespoons powdered milk (not needed if not using sourdough starter)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (1.75 ounces/50 grams)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (2 ounces/57 grams)
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1.25 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour (5.5 ounces)
  (Use 9.5 ounces flour total if not using sourdough starter)
• Egg wash (1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon milk or water)

Filling:

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (3.75 ounces/105 grams)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (1.25 ounces/35 grams)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup chopped slightly toasted pecans (2.5 ounces/70 grams)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (2 ounces/57 grams)

Icing:

• 1 cup powdered sugar (4 ounces/115 grams)
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened (1 ounce/28 grams)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk or water
• optional - a few drops food coloring to make gold, purple and green, or colored sugarrs in gold purple and green
  

Instructions:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water in the bowl of a bread machine. Stir in 1 teaspoon sugar and let stand until foamy, 5 minutes or so or while you measure other ingredients,
2. Add sugar, butter, eggs, flour, cinnamon, and salt to bread machine. Set on dough cycle, let it knead and proof dough.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in the pecans. Drizzle the butter over top and mix until crumbly.
4. Divide the dough in half,
5. Roll each half into a 16- by 5-inch rectangle, divide into eight pieces. Spread the filling evenly on the pieces.
6. Beginning from a long end on each piece, roll up jellyroll style into a log.
7. Split each log in lengthwise in half with a sharp knife.
8. Braid the two pieces together, leaving cut ends up, and form into a donut shape.
9. Place eight cakes on a Silpat line baking sheet,
10. Repeat with second piece of dough.
11. Cover with plastic wrap spritzed with cooking spray and let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
12. Position two racks centered of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F near the end of the second rise.
13. Brush the dough with the egg wash.
14. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
15. In a medium bowl, stir the confectioners' sugar, butter, vanilla, and enough milk until smooth - you want a thick paste to brush on.
16. Optional - Divide the icing into thirds, and tint each third with one of the food colorings.
    
17. Brush the colors on the cakes, and let the frosting set.
    (Or thinly spread icing, and sprinkle with colored sugar.)

 

Carole's Notes:

We liked this! I thought breaking them into sixteen pieces made reasonable sized pieces.
I probably will use colored sugar next time on white icing.

The recipe is lightly adapted from https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/king-cake-recipe-history/