Apple Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread

I know I've told you this before but I'm going to tell you again. I live a tough life. I spend at least an hour a day browsing the food blogosphere. For months now I've seen this recipe for Pull Apart Cinnamon Sugar Bread everywhere in the foodie world. Like literally. Everywhere. It sat on my list of recipes to make, which on a side note is getting ridiculously long since I do so much recipe browsing for you guys. Yeah right, for you guys. Okay so I mainly do it for myself, but you are definitely in my mind also.

Anyways. When Stan's mom brought us a bushel of fresh picked apples I knew exactly what I'd be doing to them... Making Apple Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread. Bam! Best. Decision. Ever.

In regular fashion this bread finished cooling around 11 at night. So Stan and I sat down to the table of a late night snake and devoured this bread. We ate at least 3/4 of it in that single sitting alone. So good. I can't even come up with the words to explain how amazing this is. Just make it, with or without the apples. But in my opinion the addition of the apples made it crazy good. Don't question. Just do. You can thank me later.

Apple Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread
(Recipe Adapted from Joy the Baker)


For the Dough:
2 3/4 cups plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp. (1 envelope) active dry-yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
2 oz. unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla

For the Filling:
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 oz. unsalted butter, melted until browned
2 or 3 medium sized Honey Crisp Apples (any red apple should work)

In a large mixing bowl combine 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside. Whisk together eggs and also set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine milk and butter and heat just until butter has melted. Remove from heat and add water and vanilla. Let stand for a minute or two.

Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. Add eggs and stir mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter (the eggs will take a while to incorporate into the batter, so don't worry just keep going it'll come around). Add remaining 3/4 cup flour and stir with the spatula for 2 minutes. What results is a nice sticky dough, this is perfect.

Place dough in a large greased bow. Cover with plastic wrap and kitchen towel, place in a warm space and allow to rest for about 1 hour, or until dough had doubled in size.

While dough is rising, whisk together sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg for the filling. Set aside. Melt 2 ounces of butter in small saucepan until browned. Set aside. Cut apples into small quarter-inch chunks, set aside. Grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Also set aside

Deflate the risen dough with your fist and knead 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough using a rolling pin. Try to roll out your dough to be about 12-inches tall and 20-inches long. If you can't get it this size, no worries. Just get it as close as you can.

Use a pastry brush and spread melted butter all across the dough. Sprinkle with ALL of the cinnamon sugar mixture. 

Sprinkle cut up apples over cinnamon sugared dough.

Doesn't that look pretty?

Slice dough vertically, into six equal(ish) sized strips. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack again into six equal slices again.

You will have six stacks of six squares. 

Layer the dough squares in the load pan. This can be kind of tricky as the apples may want to fall out, if they do just put them back into the pan once you get all your dough squares in the pan. Place a kitchen towel over the filled loaf pan and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, or about 40-45 minutes.

Place oven rack in center of oven and turn oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Place loaf in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is a deep golden brown. (You need to ensure the top is a deep golden brown because if you take the dough out while the top is only a light golden, the center of the loaf will still be raw.)

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 plate. Invert again, and place on plate. Serve bread while still warm. If you have more self control than Stan and I and you don't eat the entire loaf in one sitting (which I dare you to have once this bread is baked and sitting in front of your face), double wrap any remaining bread in plastic wrap. 

 SOOOOOO

 FREAKIN

 OOEY GOOEY

 DELICIOUS

DO IT. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!