Eggnog Spiced Cinnamon Roll Snowflake

Directions

• Make the dough
• Start by making the sweet dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add warm eggnog and yeast. Whisk to combine. Add in sugar, eggs and melted butter. Whisk until well-combined. Next, stir in flour and salt until a dough begins to form. Mix with the dough hook at low speed for 5 minutes. The dough should not be sticking to the sides of the bowl. If the dough starts to stick to the bottom of the bowl, add more bread flour, one tablespoon at a time, until it no longer is sticking to the bottom. Your dough should not stick to your finger when you touch it. After 5 mins, I like to pinch off a piece of dough and hold it up to a window and stretch it until I can see the light come through. If you can do this without the dough tearing apart, it’s done kneading. Push dough to the side, add in a little olive oil, roll the dough in the oil, cover and let it rise for 2 to 3 hours, until it’s doubled in size. 
• Assemble and bake the snowflake
• In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
• Once the dough has risen, split it into two equal pieces on a lightly floured pastry board. Mine were 348 g each. You will work with one half of the dough at a time, so be sure to keep the dough that you’re not working with covered so that it doesn’t dry out.
• One at a time, on a lightly floured surface, roll out each section of dough into a circle of about 12 inches in diameter. Keep one dough circle on your work surface and keep the other to the side, lightly covered in plastic wrap so that it doesn’t dry out.
• Spread the softened butter evenly over the bottom layer of dough.
• Spread the brown sugar mixture over the butter.
• Place the top layer of dough over the brown sugar mixture and match up the edges as well as possible.
• Place a small cutter in the center of your circle. This will be a guide to cut around, so that you don’t cut all the way through to the center.
• With a sharp knife, start cutting through your dough carefully. Start each cut at the edge of whatever you’ve placed as your cutting guide, so you’re cutting from the middle out to the edge. I started at 6 o’clock, then cut at 12 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock. Once I had these 4 cuts, I cut each section in half to make 8 sections. Then I cut each of those in half so that I ended with 16 even sections.
• Next is the twisting process. You want to work the sections two at a time. I held one section in my left hand and twisted it 1 1/2 -2 turns counter clockwise and with my right hand, I twisted 1 1/2-2 times clockwise. It’s important to twist each pair away from each other and to not twist so far that your dough starts to tear. I found that my sections could twist anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 full turns. Once you’ve twisted, you want to then pull the ends together and pinch them so that the dough sticks together. You’ll repeat this process all the way around the circle. As I worked my way around, I noticed that some of the ends would want to pull away from each other, so I would just go back and pinch the dough back together.
• This is when I usually move the pastry to a rimmed full size baking sheet. The full sheet gives the pastry plenty of room to rise and to expand while baking. I move it using the parchment paper, then cover the pastry and allow it to rise a second time. I like to let it rise for about 30 minutes for this rise.
• While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place a rack in the middle.
• After the second rise, brush all over with eggnog, using a silicone pastry brush and then bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
• Make the frosting
• While the snowflake bakes, make the frosting. Add the cream cheese and butter to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat at medium-high speed with the paddle attachment until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the eggnog and beat at medium-high speed again until fully combined, about 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt and mix at low speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Once combined, increase speed to medium high and mix until completely smooth, about 1 to 2 more minutes. Transfer to a small bowl.
• Finishing touches
• Once the snowflake is done baking, let it cool for about 10 mins before frosting. Frost the snowflake however you like. I like to lightly frost it so that the swirls show through. Lightly dust with powdered sugar. Serve and enjoy! Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.