Portuguese Sweet Rolls

These were soooooooooooooooo good.  They are really not all that sweet but are so good right out of the oven or used for making a sandwich.  I will make these again for sure.  
 To make the knot affect on the roll you simply take a piece of dough roll it into a rope shape then tie it into a knot with one of the ends tuck it under and the other put it up and tuck into the middle.  Once you get the hang of it they go really quickly and look so nice when they are done.  May do this more often. 

Printable:
Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter
5 TBL  warm milk
3 eggs, slightly beaten
5 3/4 oz sweetened condensed milk
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
zest from 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 package of yeast (2 1/4 tsp) 
1 egg for egg wash
sesame seeds or sugar (optional)  I didn't use any sugar, just used white and black sesame seeds.  You can find the black sesame seeds in the Asian section of your grocery store.

Instructions:

Warm up the 75 ml of milk in a bowl, just so that it’s warm to the touch, you don’t want to boil it. Add the yeast and brown sugar to it and stir it well with a fork. Let the yeast activate, if the yeast is good, the mixture will bubble and rise.
Add the flour to the bowl of the mixer and add the lemon zest and salt to it.
In another bowl, add the melted butter, eggs, condensed milk, yeast mixture and stir everything together.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix using the dough hook for about 3 minutes on medium. The dough will be pretty sticky and elastic.
Let the dough rise and double in size in a warm place.
Turn the dough over onto a clean surface, use flour if you need to, but I didn’t really need any extra. The more elastic and sticky the easier it is to work with. Knead the dough a bit and form it into a long roll which you have to cut into 12 pieces. Now you can make just plain round rolls, they will be just as good, but I wanted to get a little fancier so I rolled each piece into a long rope, about 15 inches long. Make a knot with the rope of dough, then take one end that comes from underneath and roll it over and press it in the middle, and the other end fold it under and pinch it in the middle. Repeat with remaining pieces.
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
Let them sit for a few more minutes, so they rise a bit more, then brush them with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds or sugar.
Bake at 350 F degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes.
Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day and Remember to Find the Time to DO ALL the Things YOU Love.
Donna