Lemon Pull Apart Bread

I am what you call a bad friend.  I am bad about sending gifts and cards on friend’s birthdays.  I don’t know why because I always have great gift ideas to send to my friends, but it never happens.  (SORRY!).  One of my bestest friends and I share our birth month together (July if you are keeping track) and for my birthday she sent me some funny gifts.  I had the ultimate gift to send her, but it involved taking a video to show it worked and I didn’t see it being successful unless I was there.

Then my life got extremely busy.  No excuse but I could barely breathe it was so busy.  One weekend I found this recipe for lemon pull apart bread and knew she would love it.  While I was reading the directions I was a little nervous to tackle something that seemed so complicated. Have you seen all the directions? I knew I would screw this up.  The one thing that discouraged me a little bit was there were no pictures for the steps that I felt needed pictures. 

 A few weekends ago while we were refinishing our kitchen table (hooray to soon having a place to eat dinner) I started prepping to make this “complicated” bread.  Let me tell you a little something….it was easy AND I took pictures of the directions that needed pictures.  Just for you.  Because I love you all.

The plan was to only make 1 pan for my friend and send it to her in Wisconsin, but I was lucky because the recipe made two.  One for little old me!

Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake
From 17 and Baking
Makes a 9″x5″ pan (mine made 2 8x4 pans)

Sweet Yeast Dough
About 2 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (2 1/2 fluid ounces) whole milk
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/4 cup (2 fluid ounces) water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract ( I used a little more bc that is what I do)
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Lemon Sugar Filling
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest (3 lemons) (I think 1 lemon was enough)
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted

Cream Cheese Icing
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup (1 1/4 ounces) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon whole milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Making the Dough
Mix two cups (nine ounces) flour, the sugar, yeast, and salt in a medium bowl with a rubber spatula. 

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan or in the microwave, combine the milk and the butter and heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat, add the water, and let rest a minute until just warm (120 to 130°F [49 to 54°C]). Stir in the vanilla extract.

Pour the milk mixture over the flour-yeast mixture and mix until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Attach the bowl to the mixer, and fit the mixer with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition just until incorporated. Stop the mixer, add 1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) of the remaining flour, and resume mixing on low speed until the dough is smooth, 30 to 45 seconds. Add 2 more tablespoons flour and mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth, soft, and slightly sticky, about 45 seconds.

Lightly flour a work surface and knead the dough gently until smooth and no longer sticky, about one minute. If the dough is still too sticky, add a tablespoon of flour.  Place the dough in a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place (about 70°F [21°C]) for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size. An indentation made with your finger should keep its shape.

Meanwhile, make the lemon sugar filling. Mix the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest. Easy right?

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease your bread pan (I had 2-8x4' pans)
Gently deflate the dough with your hand. Flour a work surface and roll the dough into a 20″ by 12″ rectangle. [I hope you like my technique of using the tape measure to measure out the dough..I like to add class to my baking] 

Use a pastry brush to spread the melted butter evenly and liberally over the dough.
Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough crosswise in five strips, each about 12″ by 4″. Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon sugar over the first buttered rectangle. Top it with a second rectangle, sprinkling that one with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon sugar as well. Continue to top with rectangles and sprinkle, so you have a stack of five 12″ by 4″ rectangles, all buttered and topped with lemon sugar. 

Slice this new stack crosswise, through all five layers, into 6 equal rectangles (each should be 4″ by 2″.) Carefully transfer these strips of dough into the loaf pan, cut edges up, side by side. The bread will rise more after this point.  Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until puffy and almost doubled in size, 30 to 50 minutes. When you gently press the dough with your finger, the indentation should stay.

Bake the loaf until the top is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. [Mine took a little longer than this.  I was nervous because the inside was a little doughy, but a little doughy is ok...IMO] Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.

Now make the cream cheese icing. Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth, then add the milk and lemon juice. Stir until creamy and smooth. [I added milk until I got the texture I was happy with, so there may have been a little more than recommended]

Flip the loaf over onto a cooling rack.. Spread the top of the warm cake with the cream cheese icing, using a pastry brush to fill in all the cracks. 

This bread was amazing!  I think I ate half of mine in less than 30 minutes.  The amount of lemon was perfect and the icing gave the bread a nice texture. 

Now I had to get this bread up to my friend.  The bread I was not worried about.  The cream cheese frosting…I had doubts.  I bought a small plastic container and an ice pack in hopes I could keep the icing cool.  I put the icing in the freezer wrapped in the ice pack (because that is what my research told me to do) and wrapped it in tin foil.  I shipped it as quickly as I could (I think 2day) to avoid sitting on a truck or in a warehouse.  The bread made it perfectly and she said it was delicious.  The icing did not make it, was sour and curdled. YUCK!

Bright side: she got the bread!

Back to the drawing board to figure out how to ship baked goods.  Especially because I made a KILLER king cake this past weekend that I know I am ready to take orders on.  More on this cake later!

Next post: my big fail and just another reason I am not a good sending birthday gifts friend.  One day I will nail this.  

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