Cream Cheese Stuffed King Cake

Ingredients

milk, active dry yeast, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, AP flour, cinnamon, lemon, nutmeg, cream cheese, sanding sugar for decorations

Bloom yeast, then add flour, salt, cinnamon, and lemon zest. Start on low and work your way up until a dough ball has formed.

Knead dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes, until it becomes elastic.

Transfer ball of dough to a greased bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Dough should double in size.

After 1 hour of sitting in a warm spot, the king cake dough should have double in size. Next mix together ingredients for cinnamon filling, and cream cheese filling.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and cut in half. Roll each piece into a rectangle, about 10 x 18 inches and ¼ inch thick.

Spread half of the softened butter onto each rectangle. Using a silicone spatula helps to spread the butter evenly.

Next sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar mixture over each rectangle evenly. Then, pipe half of the cream cheese filling along one long end of each rectangle.

Roll the dough into rolls. Seal the seam well by wetting and pinching. Gently stretch out each roll to about 24 inches long, this will make it easier to twist them around each other.

Lay the two rolls side by side on a greased baking sheet with parchment paper, and gently twist together, forming an oval. Seal the ends of each toll together and tuck seam under the other roll.

Cover again with a damp cloth and put in a warm place to rise again, this time for 30 minutes. Dough should almost double in size again.

Roll a ball of foil into an oval shape, spray generously with cooking spray, and put in the center of the cake to prevent it from spreading inward.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush with egg wash, and bake for 30 minutes, until dough is golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Mix milk, lemon juice, and vanilla together, and sift in powdered sugar. When king cake has cooled slightly, pour icing over, and sprinkle with sanding sugar.

Happy Mardi Gras!!

Lauren shares Cajun cuisine and impressive homemade recipes. She loves teaching people how to make the good stuff, from scratch.

@Laurenfromscratchblog

@Laurenfromscratch

www.laurenfromscratch.com