Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

Pull apart bread is one of the most fun things to bake. It is almost impossible to mess up and it looks amazing when it comes out of the oven. Totally perfect for a hopeless baker like myself. I like to make a couple of loaves when I make it, because usually I am making it as a gift or a contribution to a brunch or tea but then once I make it I don’t want to give it away. The same thing happens with my “Debaucherous Brownies”. Most of you who have received them didn’t know until now that you got a half batch…

This pull-apart bread takes a bit of time, but it is totally worth it. Especially for the feeling that you get when your contribution to the brunch is the first thing to be devoured. Or the feeling that you get when someone asks where you bought it. Yes, it’s that good.

Makes you hungry just looking at it, doesn’t it?

Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

Bread:

3 cups all purpose flour plus a little extra

scant ¼ cup sugar

2 ¼ tsp dry active yeast – one envelope

heaped ½ tsp salt

3 ounces unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

¼ cup water (room temp to warm)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:

1 ½ cup sugar

1 ¼ tbsp. cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 ounces unsalted butter (melted)

Whisk together 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In another bowl whisk eggs.  In a small saucepan on the stove heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and add vanilla and water. Let mixture stand and cool a little bit.

Add the dry ingredients into the milk mixture and stir well. Then add the eggs. Make sure the mixture is cool enough that the eggs don’t cook. Stir until the eggs become fully incorporated – this takes a while. Add the remaining cup of flour and stir. The mixture will be sticky.

Place the dough in a greased bowl (don’t skip this part because otherwise it’s a nightmare to get out) and cover with plastic wrap and a clean tea towel. Allow to stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size (about an hour although you can do this overnight in the fridge).

While dough rises combine the cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar for the filling. In another bowl melt 2 ounces of butter. Set aside.

Grease your loaf pan

Sprinkle some flour over your kitchen counter, rub some on your rolling pin, and roll out the dough until it’s about ¼ inch thick. Paint on the melted butter onto the dough and sprinkle liberally with the filling. Then cut the dough into small rectangles, about 3 ½ inches by 2 inches.

Stack the rectangles of dough in small piles and squish them (standing on the long side) into the loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with any cinnamon sugar you have left. When the pan is full set aside for ½ an hour in a warm, dry place until the dough is about half again as big.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the top is very, very golden brown. Serve warm. This bread does not keep well so it is best eaten the day it is made or the day after.