Saturday, June 19, 2010

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

The weather was unseasonably cold and rainy. I didn't need another loaf of bread, but turning on the oven sounded appealing. Might as well make a treat, I thought. And might as well make something fun, quirky, unfussy.

And the fact that it's nibble-able makes it even better.

The honey powder I used in this recipe is a fine powder that's coarser than powdered sugar, but finer than granulated. It's available from Savory Spice Shop, and probably other sources as well.

If you can't find honey powder, you could substitute sugar without any problem. Or, if you have honey powder and you want a stronger honey flavor, use all honey powder instead of sugar with the cinnamon.

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

1 cup lukewarm whey (water is fine, too)
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 ounces) bread flour, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, divided
1 tablespoon honey powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix the whey, yeast, sugar, and one cup of the bread flour in the bowl of your stand mixer. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes.

Add the rest of the bread flour and knead with the dough hook until it starts becoming elastic.

Cut 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) off the butter into small pieces. Add that butter to the mixer, along with the salt and vanilla, and continue kneading until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough is smooth, shiny, and elastic.

If the dough is still a little sticky, add a bit of flour, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough is tacky, but not sticky.

Drizzle some olive oil over the dough to coat it lightly on all sides, then cover the dough and let it rest until doubled, about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and spray some cooking spray into whatever pan, bowl, Bundt pan,or baking dish you plan on using. I used a round ceramic casserole.

Mix the sugar, honey powder and cinnamon in a bowl.

Flour your work surface and knead the dough briefly.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces, then divide each of those into 4 pieces. Now you have 16 pieces of dough. Divide each of those into 2, 3, or 4 pieces, however you choose; it's fine to have different-sized pieces. In fact, I think it's more interesting.

A few at a time, put the pieces into the bowl with the cinnamon-sugar mixture and roll them around to coat, then put the pieces into your prepared pan. Don't press them down, just pile them in.

Continue rolling an piling until all the bit are in the pan. Sprinkle any unused sugar-cinnamon mixture over the top.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Cut the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter into pieces and drop them onto the top of the risen dough.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 60 minutes, until nicely browned.

Remove the bread from the pan and set on a rack to cool.

Oh heck, forget the cooling. Pick away at it. You won't be able to stop yourself.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.
Yum

2 comments:

Jen Blacker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laura said...

This looks fabulous. I love pull apart bread.

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