Monday, November 5, 2012

Lemon Pull Apart Bread


 Lemon is one of my favorite flavors and while I was browsing
Pinterest the other day, I was drooling over
a lemon pull apart bread from The Whimsical Cupcake.
She got it from Leite's Culinaria who titled it a coffee cake.


We had relatives staying with us and so
we decided that now was the perfect time to try out
this new recipe on them.  
The Whimsical Cupcake described how she kept peeling slices
off and "shoveling it into my mouth".  Sounds yummylicious to me!


As I love to read recipes,I read lots of the comments 
and many people were confused so I are going to try and
simplify a few things.

You start with making this wonderful sugar and zest paste.
Alas, we had no orange rind, but that turned out fine.  We
used only lemon rind.


Their instructions said to roll the dough out to a 20x12 rectangle,
top it with butter, cut and then sprinkle.  Well, we just decided to
make things easier so we sprinkled the whole dough then
cut the rectangle into five strips - 4 inches wide and then stacked them.
They stretch a little as you stack, but that's not a problem.


Here are the five strips stacked.  You can barely see the bottom one, but
trust us, it is there.  I trimmed the ends and then cut this stacked strip
into equal pieces.


As you can see, they vary a little in width, but not a problem as
it rises.


Now, finally place those pieces on their sides with a cut side up
filling a greased bread pan.  We knew it would overcrowd the
pan if we put strip number six in, so we saved it and made a
roll out of it. (You will get a peek at that later.)



Oh my, if you love lemon and you love bread, you are going to love
this pull apart loaf.  I am usually not an end person, but this end is so
buttery and crunchy with the sugar, we had to divide it up so
there wasn't any fighting.

One of the readers suggested putting the cream cheese frosting
in a squeeze bottle.  We kept that squeeze bottle handy and
squeezed a little extra frosting on each piece.



Lemon Pull Apart Bread Recipe
(slightly adjusted)

2 3/4 C. flour
1/4 C. sugar
1 envelope yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 C. milk
1/4 C. butter
1/4 C. cold water
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Place the flour, sugar, yeast and salt into the large bowl
of a stand mixer.  

In a microwave safe bowl place the milk and butter and heat
until the butter is melted.  Add the cold water.  Test it to make
sure it is not too hot so you won't kill your yeast.  Pour the
milk mixture into the flour mixture - I poured it on top of the yeast
in the bowl and let it sit for a minute.  Add the two eggs and
vanilla and beat with the bread hook for about 5 minutes.

NOW, ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS PEOPLE
HAD WITH THIS RECIPE WAS THE DOUGH WAS SOFT
SO THEY ADDED MORE FLOUR.

DON'T ADD MORE FLOUR. 
 LET THE DOUGH RISE
AND IT WILL NOT BE STICKY AFTER IT HAS RISEN!!!
This is not one of those recipes where the dough will pull
away from the bowl.  It is going to adhere to the bowl,
but I promise you that it will handle really nicely after
you let it rise.

Just remove the dough hook, spray the top of the dough and
leave the dough in the same bowl.  Cover it with plastic wrap and
let rise until double.  This dough took a little longer to double.  It 
should take about an hour.

Meanwhile make the lemon paste.

Lemon Paste
1/2 C. granulated sugar
3 T. lemon zest (from 3 lemons)
1 T. orange zest (I found that to be optional!)

Mix the sugar and zest and set aside.  The sugar will
draw out the moisture from the zest and it will be a
sandy consistency.

Heat oven to 325. (There were lots of complaints
about the bread over browning so I dropped my
temperature 25 degrees from the original 350.)

Punch the dough down and sprinkle a little flour
on the counter.  Roll the dough out to a rectangle
that is 20x12.  This will be about as far as it stretches
so that is easy.  

Top it with 1/4 C. melted butter.  I didn't use all of my butter
or it would have been running off the dough.  Then sprinkle the 
lemon paste on top.  With the long side of the dough facing
you, mark it off into 5 pieces (length wise) and cut with
a pizza dough cutter.  Gently lift and stack them on top of
each other.  They don't have to be perfect.  

Now with a bread knife, mark the dough into 6
pieces and cut.  I trimmed the uneven ends off first.

Spray your bread pan generously with Pam.

Lay the cut pieces, cut side up into the pan.  Do not
squeeze them too tight or when the dough expands
it will push pieces up and  over the top of the loaf.
I found for my size of pan it was going to be one 
section too many, so I placed that in a jumbo
muffin cup and baked it separately.

Bake for 35-40 minutes.  It should be golden but
not too brown.  That's why I switched the temperature
to 325.  Slightly separate one of the middle pieces 
to be sure it is baked all the way through. 

Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes.  Use
a knife if necessary to loosen from the sides of
the pan.  Let cool.  Top with cream cheese frosting.

Tangy Cream Cheese Frosting
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 C. powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1 T. fresh lemon juice

Beat until creamy.  You need the cream cheese softened 
or you will get lumps.  You can't have any lumps if you are
going to put it in a squeeze bottle.

Drizzle the frosting on top and serve extra frosting with
each slice, if desired.


Here is my cute little "extra" that we cooked in a jumbo muffin cup.
It was really nice to have this to taste test.

Posting with




Jacqueline
Jacqueline

Chocolat - French for Chocolate. I adored chocolate from a young age when I had to sneak in the cupboard to find where my mother had hidden the Nestle's Chocolate Chips. Having read about the famous chocolat shoppes in Paris, when I finally got there I was determined to try a chocolate from every Paris shoppe. I invite you to share my adventures in creating, in travel, and in life.

21 comments:

  1. J, this is perfect as I'm in a baking mood. I think it's looking forward to the holidays! What a beautiful sight this bread is, and it doesn't look at all difficult. Sending love, cookie...

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  2. Oh my! I'm saving this one for Christmas. Lemon is The Great Dane's favourite flavour, and since there will be no children here this year we'll forgo the usual cinnamon bun pull-aparts and try this!

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  3. Oh My! This bread looks divine! I love anything lemon (and bread : ) so I will definitely try this. It seriously looks amazing!!!

    Danielle xo

    PS this is why pintrest is dangerous....

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  4. OMG I'm a lemon lover and this has my taste buds in overdrive! I'm definitely trying this one out!
    YUM YUM YUM!!

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  5. OMG this looks so yummy! I adore anything lemon, anything! I think this will definitely be on our Christmas morning menu. Thanks for the recipe and all the tips..........Sarah

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  6. Oh my, I'm making this one! I'm a bit intimidated, but I'm making it anyway. Thanks for the recipes. Cherry Kay

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  7. This looks so delicious !!...yammie !!...love Ria...xxx..

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  8. This looks heavenly! I love anything with lemon! Thanks for the recipe, I hope I have the courage to try it...yours looks so perfect! :)

    XO,
    Jane

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  9. Yummy - it will be out with the baking trays this weekend! Warm wishes

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  10. Thank you:-)
    I WILL make this one day:-)

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  11. Absolutely gorgeous! This looks like a very special treat Jacqueline:@)

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  12. Oh, how lovely! I'd be peeling and eating, peeling and eating.....

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  13. Excellent! It looks and sounds fabulous! I'd take lemon over chocolate any day and have to try this. Thanks for the recipe and I love your blog! Pretty cool!

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  14. Oh my, this dessert sounds perfect more my tastebuds! Love lemon! It made a pretty dessert, too! Thanks for sharing! :)

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  15. The lemon sugar and zest paste looks amazing, and the end product has me drooling! I need to wait until I have a crowd over or I'll eat the whole thing:)

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  16. What a luscious, lemony treat! You know lemon is my favorite (after chocolate).

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  17. This bread is absolutely gorgeous! I've been drooling over it on Pinterest too. Thanks for all of your clear explanations and hints for making this. We are lemon lovers here. :)

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  18. Yummy! I love a homemade treat like this on Sunday mornings when I can take time for an extra cup of coffee and a little reading time. If it's lemon I know I'll like it.

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  19. What a delicious looking recipe. I too enjoy lemon flavor and could really use a slice of your bread right now. Thanks for sharing!

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  20. What a pretty bread this is! I'll bet it tastes wonderful too. Thank you for sharing the recipe.

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