I’m sorry. I know it’s Monday morning and you probably came here for some pretty pictures of food that you could glance at, and then move on with your day… and here I go thrusting warm, soft cinnamon sugar bread in your face.
It’s not fair. I know it’s not fair. I know that now you’re craving cinnamon rolls, and cream cheese frosting and chili fries and hot dogs. I am too… and I already ate half of this warm bread.
You don’t deserve this sort of torture.
This bread hits all the comfort spots in my soul. It’s yeasty and soft. It’s filled with cinnamon and sugar. AND! You pull it apart in sheets. And you eat it… all. Eat it all. Make this. Make it and eat it all. Make it and eat it all all all all all… then the torture will be done.
I’m sorry and you’re welcome and I love you.
Let’s start at the beginning. We’re making a yeasted dough, rolling it out flat, covering it in butter, cinnamon and sugar, and slicing it into little squares. The squares are then stacked into a loaf pan and baked.
I did this all without the use of a stand mixer and dough hook. I stirred and kneaded by hand… it was way easy.
This dough can be made and left to rise , then refrigerated overnight for use in the morning. The cold dough is a bit easier to roll out than room temperature dough… but I made this recipe without chilling the dough overnight, and I had success.
This is the dough just before it’s left to rise. It looks a little wet, right? Yea… this is a bit of a sticky dough. Try to resist loading the dough up with a ton of flour… it should be sticky.
After the dough has rested and risen for an hour, I knead it in a few tablespoons of flour. It’s soft, and no longer sticky… and just a little pillow of heaven.
This is the part in the bread process where you can wrap the dough and place it in the fridge to rest overnight. Once you’re ready to work with it, let the dough sit on the counter for about 30 minutes before rolling out.
I worked with my dough right away. I rolled it 12-inches tall and about 20-inches long. Then I slathered it with browned butter, cinnamon, and sugar.
I can’t even deal.
I sliced the dough, vertically, into six long strips. I stacked em. I sliced em into six little stacks of dough squares. I drooled a little.
This is the dough stacked into a greased and floured 9×5-inch loaf pan… then I prayed for the patience to wait for this dough to rise again.
After 30 minutes in the oven… oh man…. bread heaven.
I carefully took the bread out of the pan while still warm. It sunk and oozed just a bit, but it was so delicious warm. Incredible. Warm pull-apart yeasty sugar dough. I don’t know what other words you want me to say.
Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread
Makes: one 9x5x3-inch loaf
Recipe adapted from HungryGirlPorVida
For the Dough:
2 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the Filling:
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted until browned
In a large mixing bowl (I used just the bowl of my stand mixer) whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside.
Whisk together eggs and set aside.
In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted. Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract. Let mixture stand for a minute or two, or until the mixture registers 115 to 125 degrees F.
Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. Add the eggs and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter. The eggs will feel soupy and it’ll seem like the dough and the eggs are never going to come together. Keep stirring. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes. The mixture will be sticky. That’s just right.
Place the dough is a large, greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour. *The dough can be risen until doubled in size, then refrigerated overnight for use in the morning. If you’re using this method, just let the dough rest on the counter for 30 minutes before following the roll-out directions below.
While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling. Set aside. Melt 2 ounces of butter until browned. Set aside. Grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Set that aside too.
Deflate the risen dough and knead about 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out. The dough should be 12-inches tall and about 20-inches long. If you can’t get the dough to 20-inches long… that’s okay. Just roll it as large as the dough will go. Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter across all of the dough. Sprinkle with all of the sugar and cinnamon mixture. It might seem like a lot of sugar. Seriously? Just go for it.
Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You’ll have six stacks of six squares. Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book. Place a kitchen towel over the loaf pan and allow in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Place loaf in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is very golden brown. The top may be lightly browned, but the center may still be raw. A nice, dark, golden brown will ensure that the center is cooked as well.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto a clean board. Place a cake stand or cake plate on top of the upside down loaf, and carefully invert so it’s right side up. Serve warm with coffee or tea.
I think this bread is best served the day it’s made, but it can also we wrapped and kept at room temperature for up to 2 days.
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This is very creative!
Hi. Delicious sight. I am not a cook, but I will definitely give it a try. I’ll let you know results!
Thanks for sharing.
Ruth
Made it….LOVED it!
Jeez, this is enough to make me gie up on my diet, and you make it sound fun to bake. I’d love to try this out as soon as I get back from holidays :) Thanks!
WOW…. Thanks for this awesome recipe! I’m eating this super delicious bread right now!
Good!!!!!!!
I cut the strips smaller and made individual cinnamon pull apart buns and they were fantastic!
I am going to try making this today!
On my! I am afraid I would eat it all. I’ll be making it this weekend!!!!
Looks delicious. Sunday morning here i come!
Joy…I can’t stop making this! Help!
I just made this recipe… it was A-Mazing!! I did all the assembly last night, saran wrapped the loves, put them in the fridge, let them sit at room temp about 20 mins before baking for about 40 mins. Oh my goodness! We have a new recipe for Christmas breakfast! Thank you!
Just made this and a little TIP for everyone… Somewhere between slicing, stacking, and putting in the pan, a lot of the sugar mixture seemed to fall off these little squares and onto my counter. What I did: before allowing the ready to bake “flipbook” to rise for 30 mins, i swooped up all the sugar on my counter and swept it right on top of the “flipbook”… Nothing goes to waste this way and its oh so much tastier!!
What can I say but WOW? Not much compares to warm cinnamon rolls… this however, I think will be even MORE fun! Rather than just that doughy, sticky center of the roll, almost the whole loaf will have that bit of heaven!
I was on a mission to try to eat healthier, and drop a bit of weight… I think I’ll wait until NEXT week now!
NICE! and i appreciate that you’re funny lol. will be reading more!
hi, this was surprisingly easy, following your directions, and it produced really great results. i think the next time i will try the refrigerating it over night to stiffen the dough a bit more upon cutting the strips, i think it will definitely help in the stacking and cutting.
thanks for this!
Did you use warm water for the yeast??
Lady this is fabulous.
I was a little nervous about changing anything in your recipe as I loved making the original so much, but found that using some apple beer instead of the water (plus a little extra) and liberally stuffing apple slices in between the adorable dough slices actually worked out pretty nicely!
Now I just need some more practice for mine to look half as lovely as yours!
I just made this and I love it! :D
Even my mum thought that I used ready made bread to make it… *Proud!* :)
“Heaven” “Awesome” “Best thing EVER”–just a sampling of the [with mouths full] compliments I received after I made this for the first time over the weekend… I mixed up the dough on Saturday afternoon, let it rest in the fridge overnight and then baked it Sunday morning before taking it immediately to work on a group project, where it was promptly devoured warm in a matter of seconds by a few university hockey players, who were fascinated by the fan-shape. I had to literally grab a small piece before it was gone, just to try it! The recipe should say: “barely serves 4 hungry 20-something-year old athletes!!” Let’s just say that as the lone girl in the group project, I became a great asset to the group in a matter of minutes ;) WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND and will MOST DEFINITELY be making again soon! I followed the dough recipe exactly (which is a rarity for me!) and the dough was very tender, although I was very worried with the initial stickiness. I had to add about an additional 2 TBSP of flour to make myself comfortable with the consistency before I refrigerated it. The nutmeg was an awesome touch, and I am a huge cinnamon fan, so I increased the cinnamon to a heavy TBSP and decreased the sugar to 3/4 cup! Thanks, Joy, for an awesome recipe–I will be trying many more of your recipes soon after the success of this one (and my group members thank you too ;) )! Black bean brownies…here I come!
This is SO good. It lives up to all of the promises that were made. Thank you for sharing this recipe! I had to skip the last round of rising, and my loaf dish was a little too long. But, it came out amazing anyway, and next time I’ll do it 100% right so that it’s even better. I’ll be keeping this recipe close to my heart for life, and I can’t wait to play around with it a little too. Orange bread, maybe?
For those dying to give this a try, be aware that it takes TONS of patience. I made the dough last night, but it still wasn’t ready to eat until two hours after I started this morning. It’s totally worth it, but this isn’t something to whip up on a whim.
Found your recipe this morning, made it this afternoon. All eaten within an hour of coming out of the oven (not all by me, I promise I shared…)! Posted photo on Facebook and had many requests for the recipe so have shared it there too! Really is as good as it looks. I felt there was a lot of sugar so didn’t use quite as much in covering the dough and it worked out well – think it would’ve been just a bit too sweet for me otherwise. Will def be coming back to you for more inspiration!
I am new to baking bread of any kind and am having trouble making the dough. This may be a rookie question but do I need to activate the yeast first with warm water?? The recipe says it is dry ingredients but I’ve made the dough twice and it hasn’t risen either time so it has to be the yeast.
Thanks!
I just made it and it tastes wonderful! I needed more flour than stated to get said sticky ball of dough but it turned out excellent. I took a picture and everything :) http://i.imgur.com/thbUU.jpg
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