CINNAMON PULL APART BREAD

Time for the Secret Recipe Club....love, love. This month I was assigned to the tasty cheapskate, Jean. The part I like about The Secret Recipe Club is checking each post and then make that decision "What do I make?" Jean is a wife, and mommy to a house full of  4 little people. And amazingly she feeds her family on less than $10 a day.......Not sure how she does that.  I have a hard enough time to balance the ATM slips. Jean has to be organized with her busy daily life. I had a few recipes that I was interested in then I decided on the "Orange Pull apart Bread" I did mine with cinnamon. Reminds me of the monkey bread, but I had to make the sweet dough. The kitchen was happy that day, bread rising, the wonderful aroma of cinnamon, nothing could be better. Jean's cinnamon bread. Happy Baking.

Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread
tastycheapskate

Yeast dough:
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp yeast (1-1/4 oz. package)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


Filling: for orange pull apart bread
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 Tbsp of grated orange zest ( one orange)

Filling: for cinnamon pull apart bread
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup softened butter

1. Heat milk and butter until butter melts either in microwave or on top of stove. Add cool water

2. Pour this into a good size bowl. Allow this to cool to a temperature of 110-115 F. use your thermometer to get the correct temperature, add sugar, yeast, eggs and vanilla and mix this all up. Then continue adding flour 1 cup at a time, for a total of 2 3/4 to 3 cups. Turn the dough out onto a bread board and knead till the dough is soft, and not sticky. When its ready you should be able to put your hand in the dough and it leaves a imprint and you should be able to pull your hand away without the dough sticking to your hand.

3. Lightly grease your large bread bowl and put the shaped dough in the bowl. Cover with a towel and allow to rise. This will take about 1 hour depending on the room temperature. You can turn on the oven to warm it slightly then turn off and put your bread bowl in the oven. This will help it to rise.
You want this first rise to be doubled from the original size.

4. Flour your bread board, punch the dough down when its ready, and roll it into a rectangle that is about 12x20 inches.
Roll to about 1/4 inch thick.

5. Make the filling for either the orange zest or cinnamon.

6. Combine the filling ingredients and mix. Spread this onto of the bread.

7. Cut the bread into 5 12x4 strips. Carefully stack them on top of each other. They will stretch when you pick them up, that's ok, just tuck and crease them if needed. Cut this stack into 6 x2 inch strips. Lay them in the well-greased bread pan cut-side on its side. It's like laying the cut dough with the bread pan sitting on the short end upright. Cover your bread and let rise again.

8. Can you smell it, oh, so yummy. Allow it to rise up and almost over the edge of the bread pan. It may appear that it's a little crusty, but don't worry its ok, that is caramel-y sugar forming on top. Bake at 350 degree for 30-40 minutes. If not sure if done, then use a fork and gently pull the slices apart to peek inside. Allow to cool, frost with a cream cheese icing or eat as is while warm. Enjoy, hot pull apart bread. Nothing is any better.