Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

Happy Monday Friends.  I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend. I was a cooking/baking machine this past weekend.  I tried 3 new recipes and they were all hits!  One of them was this cinnamon pull apart bread.  I know the weekend is a few days away, but please put this on your menu.  This cinnamon bread was excellent.  I served it warm out of the oven, and wow we ate the whole loaf.  The dough was light and fluffy and laced with cinnamon sugar. Yum! I would suggest you make the dough the night before, unless you are an early riser on Saturday mornings. If you would like a step-by-step tutorial check out Annie's Eats.  Have a great week!


For the dough:
2¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
¼ cup granulated sugar
2¼ tsp.  yeast
½ tsp. salt
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/3 cup skim milk
¼ cup warm water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temperature

For the filling:
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Combine the butter and milk in a small saucepan and heat just until the butter is melted.  Set aside and let cool briefly.
To make the dough, combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.    Add the milk mixture, water, vanilla and eggs to the mixer bowl.  Mix on low speed until a cohesive dough forms.  Continue to knead until it is smooth and elastic, adding additional flour as needed 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough clears the sides of the bowl and is tacky but not sticky. I added 2 additional tablespoons, but could have probably used 1 more.  Knead about 3-5 minutes.  Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat, and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.  (After the dough has doubled, it can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight.  Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before continuing.)

While the dough rises, melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave.  Set aside.  Combine the sugar and cinnamon  in a small bowl and mix well.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate. 

Roll into a ball, cover with a clean towel and let rest for 5 minutes.

Roll the dough out into about a 12 x 20-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the butter.  Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the dough in an even layer. Please do use all of the sugar mixture, as some of it will come off when you cut the dough.

Lightly grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan ( I sprayed mine with Pam and it worked great).   Slice the dough vertically into 6 even strips.

Stack the strips on top of each other and again cut again into 6 equal slices.

Stack all the squares on top of each other and set into the prepared loaf pan.  Cover loosely with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place, 30-45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Transfer the loaf to the oven and bake 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden brown.  (If the top seems to be browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil at the end of baking.)  I covered mine after 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let rest in the pan 20-30 minutes.  Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen and carefully turn the loaf out, transferring to a serving plate.  Serve warm.

Source: Annie's Eats