Apple Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

I am not usually a huge fan of sweets, but I must say, I have an unfathomable weakness for anything baked with Apples and Cinnamon.  I love an Apple Pie just like the next person, but I wanted to try something else, incorporating similar flavors, but in a different form.  I always wanted to try making Monkey Bread (a sweet, sticky pastry consisting of pieces of soft bread with cinnamon sprinkled on it and with a glaze on top).  Instead I found a great recipe for Apple Pull-Apart Bread...I changed it up a little, using lower fat ingredients where I could, and it was a HUGE success!  I made it to bring over a friend's house and everyone was raving about it.  Now considering my baking skills are usually sub-par, I credit this bread's success to the delicious combination of flavors and the great texture of the dough.

Apple Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

Dough:

1 package of Active Dry Yeast

¼ cup warm water

3 cups All Purpose Flour (plus a little more, if needed)

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp salt

4 tbsp. butter, melted

1/3 cup Fat Free Milk

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

2 eggs

Filling:

¾ cup Light Brown Sugar

2 tsp. Cinnamon

3 tbsp Butter, melted

1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled and diced

Glaze:

2 tbsp. butter

½ cup Light Brown Sugar

2 tbsp. Fat Free Milk

1.     In a food processor, add your yeast and warm water.  Add in your flour, sugar, and salt on top of the yeast and mix.  While it’s mixing, add in your melted butter, milk, vanilla and eggs.  Mix until a dough ball starts to form.  If the dough is too wet, slowly add in teaspoons of flour, until it’s a better consistency.

2.     Set the dough aside in a bowl (sprinkle the dough with a little flour to prevent it from sticking to the sides of the bowl).  Let the dough rise for 90 minutes.

3.     While the dough is rising, mix together your filling ingredients thoroughly.

4.     Once your dough has risen, on a floured surface, roll out the dough into a large rectangle (about 1ft by 2 ft in size).  Cut the dough with a knife or pizza wheel from the short sides to create about 6 strips of equal length and width (so each strip is 1 foot by 4 inches approximately).

5.     To each strip, rub the filling on top until there’s no more filing left.  Make sure to equally distribute the filling to all strips and all part of the strips.

6.    Then, stack each strip on top of each other until it’s one thick strip.  With a knife cut every 3 inches to make about 4-5 square stacks. 

7.   In a greased loaf pan, stack the squares vertically.  Let the dough sit for another 30-45 minutes (this will allow more rising to occur to help fill out the bread).

8.     In a 350 degree preheated oven, cook for 25 minutes on the middle rack, take out, cover in foil, and then cook for another 10 minutes on the same rack.

9.     Take out of the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.  While cooling, make your glaze.  Add all ingredients into a small saucepan, and bring to a boil while stirring constantly.  Cook until the consistency becomes thicker.  Drizzle over the top of the loaf and serve!

 This is also delicious as a sweet treat for breakfast with a cup of coffee!