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Layers of light, fluffy sweet bread sandwiched with sweet, fragrant lemon sugar, then drizzled with a tart lemon glaze.
My sweet friend, Tiffany, Food Finery, and her adorable daughter came over and we had fun whipping up these beautiful lemon loaves. Tiffany teased me a little bit about measuring the dough with a ruler so my layers would be exactly the right size, but that’s one of the things I love about baking – the challenge of getting it just right, but I also think using a ruler makes it easier.
Red Star sent me packages of their brand new yeast, Red Star Platinum Superior Baking Yeast to try. It’s a premium instant yeast with added dough enhancers used by professional bakers. It’s especially effective for baking whole grain and sweet breads that are bigger and light and airy. Sweet breads are one of my favorites, so I couldn’t wait to put the new yeast to the test.
This Lemon Pull-Apart bread has been on my must try list since I first saw it. I changed the recipe significantly to take advantage of my KitchenAid stand mixer and the Platinum instant yeast.
We made two loaves and put the yeast to the test by letting one loaf rise until it was puffy and doubled in size before baking it. The second loaf only rested for 15 minutes after we shaped it, then we popped it in the oven.
Both loaves rose beautifully in the oven. In fact, the second loaf that I only proofed for 15 minutes expanded so much, the last stack of dough seemed to crawl out of the pan and landed on the oven rack. I just left the pieces there to bake and they browned up beautifully on the rack. (The glass loaf pan was smaller and I shouldn’t have squished the layers together to get all the dough to fit in to the pan.)
My family devoured this bread. It’s a gorgeous loaf, but really not complicated or scary to make. It’s a very forgiving yeast and I’m looking forward to more fun baking adventures using it in my kitchen.
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Lemon Pull-Apart Bread
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoons 1 package Red Star Platinum instant yeast
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs room temperature
Lemon Sugar Filling
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest 4 lemons
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter very soft
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.
- In saucepan or microwave safe dish, heat milk and butter until warm (120° – 130°F; butter does not have to be completely melted).
- Add liquids to flour mixture. Add vanilla. Blend at low speed until moistened. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed.
- Switch to the dough hook and mix in the remaining flour a little at a time, to make a soft dough, adding more or less flour as needed. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm place about 15 minutes.
- While the dough is resting, make the lemon sugar filling. Mix the sugar and lemon zest.
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a 9×5″ loaf pan, and line with parchment or foil, leaving a 1-inch overhang on each long side; butter paper. (For easy removal of the bread from the pan.)
- Punch down the dough. On a floured surface, roll the dough into a 20″ x 12″ rectangle. Spread the butter evenly over the dough with a rubber spatula or pastry brush.
- Cut dough in to five strips, each about 12″ by 4″ with a pizza cutter.
- Sprinkle 1 ½ tablespoons of the lemon sugar over the first buttered rectangle. Top it with a second rectangle, sprinkling that one with 1 ½ 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.
- Cut the stack into 6 rectangles (each should be 4″ by 2″) Carefully transfer the rectangles of dough into the loaf pan, cut edges up, side by side. You might have some extra room around the edges but the bread will rise and expand during baking. Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until puffy, 30 to 50 minutes. When you gently press the dough with your finger, the indentation should stay.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes until the loaf is golden brown. Cover the top with foil if it’s browning too quickly. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.
- While bread is cooling, make the lemon icing. Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth.
- Use the parchment paper to help remove the loaf from the pan. Flip the loaf over onto a cooling rack, remove the parchment paper, then flip onto another rack so that it’s right side up.
- Drizzle icing over bread. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Marybeth Mank
I follow both you and Red Star Yeast on Twitter. My ID is eclecticindiv.
Cindy B.
I watch the Red Star Platinum Yeast Video.
Marybeth Mank
I follow both you and Red Star Yeast on Pinterest. My ID is gr8chefmb.
karen fallin
The pull apart lemon bread is great with hot tea. I like it better than scones.
Cindy B.
I subscribe to Barbara Bakes by email.
Cindy B.
I follow Barbara Bakes and Red Star on Pinterest.
Cindy B.
I follow @BarbaraBakes and Red Star on Twitter.
Marybeth Mank
This recipe looks so delicious!!! This is almost like monkey bread except you don’t have to roll dough into balls.
Michelle S
I subscribe to Barbara Bakes 🙂
Cindy B.
I tweeted.
Michelle S
Great giveaway and yummy recipe! Thank you 🙂
The Contessa
I subscribe to Barbara Bakes. I love your recipes! It is time to get baking for our cookie exchange blog hop. Hope you can join us! We will post it on Facebook and our website. Would love to try the Red Start Premium yeast.
Cindy B.
I love lemon, your bread looks delicious 🙂
The Contessa
I followed Red Star on Pintrest. I guess I will look online. Their products don’t see to be available in West Texas. Can’t wait to try it.
The Contessa
I followed you on Pintrest. I’d love to try this yeast. Is it available for sale to the public?
Barbara
It is available to the public. Here’s a link to where you can find it. http://www.redstaryeast.com/sites/default/files/images/Platinum%20Store%20List%20by%20State%2009182012_0.pdf
Karen
Can’t wait to try this recipe! Sounds really good!
Lori powers
Looks so yummy!,,
AA
I follow your Barbara Bakes blog!
Deb
I am a happy subscriber of your blog!
Deb
Oh my! I adore lemon, what a scrumptious bread and giveaway!