Lemony Snicket Pull-Apart Breads

My god… What a weekend! Friday: Farewell party with my girlies. Saturday: Farewell party with the boys from highschool. Sunday: Farewell Brunch with uncles, aunts, cats and bees… How I’m doing right now? I feel great! I got to eat delicious food all weekend, with lot’s and lot’s of dessert and unhealthy snacks! I couldn’t feel any better…

I made a pull-apart bread once with Cinnamon sugar. Although I baked the bread for a long time, the centre still felt kind of doughy and wet… So this time, on my second attempt, I decided to try something different! This was just THE best bread I had ever baked in my life! I swear… It was so good and cute!!! And I’m really trying hard not to sound cocky here… Just look at this beautiful piece of bread! Don’t you just want to take a bite out of your computer screen??

Ingredients

Adapted from: www.thekitchn.com

Sweet yeast dough

• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 fresh yeast (8g)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs at room temp.

Lemon sugar filling

• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 3 tablespoons grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and browned

Cream cheese frosting (optional)

• 3 tablespoons cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon whole milk
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, 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.  Break in the fresh yeast and stir well until the yeast has dissolved completely.

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. 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 how you want it!

Place the dough is a large,  slightly greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel.  Place in a warm place and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, lemon zest and juice.  Set aside.  Melt two tablespoons of butter until browned.  Set aside.  Grease a regular muffin pan.

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 of rectangular shape and be around 1/2 cm thick.  Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter across all of the dough.  Sprinkle with all of the sugar and lemon mixture.

Slice the dough vertically, into eight equal-sized strips.  Stack four strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again.  Do the same with the other four stripes.  You’ll have 12 stacks all together. Place the stacks into the 12 muffin forms so that the bread can puff up like a book! Place a kitchen towel over the muffin pan and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 170°C. Place muffin pan into the oven and bake the mini breads for 20-25 minutes. Cover the top for the last 5 minutes with aluminium foil, to prevent the outside from becoming too brown!

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes.  Serve them with coffee at breakfast or at a tea party! Mix the icing ingredients together and either brush over the top of the breads or serve on the side.