Iced Danish Christmas Braids!

Hello, this is Lori Fiechter on a very foggy day for Christmas Eve in Indiana! I was glad to spend my day in the kitchen baking instead of venturing out on the roads. Danish Christmas Braids are one of the few Christmas traditional foods I make. I used to sell them, but they are too much work for that! Instead of the normal sized braids, I made 4 mini-braids; still enough for about 6 slices each.

Here is the recipe for the ingredients:

Danish Christmas Braids --I mix the dough in the bread machine to begin, then use the "folding method" to gradually incorporate the rest of the flour.

for the dough:

1/3 c. sugar
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup water
1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
4-5+ cups bread flour

1 T. yeast (1 T. dough conditioner, opt.)

filling:
1 cup brown sugar
1 T. cinnamon
1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butter

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

icing:
1/2 cup hot milk
4 T. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
~2 pounds powdered sugar