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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.
Cathy at Wives with Knives
Considering the fact that I can’t resist anything lemon I know this will be on my baking menu very soon. Each piece gets lots of that luscious lemon sugar filling. Heavenly.
Kimi
This looks great. Love lemon dessert. Great giveaway.
Alice C.
Yum, that looks delicious! I have a ton of lemons I need to use, so maybe I will make this!
Kate
Looks great! I just made your Pumpkin Monkey Bread this morning- out of this world! Thanks for the recipes and giveaway!
Annalise
I’ve had pull-apart bread, either lemon or cinnamon, on my to-bake list forever. Thanks for the reminder to move it to the top of the list. Love this post, especially the pieces that jumped out of the pan! 🙂
kellypea @ sass & veracity
What a great recipe! It caught my eye immediately so I had to stop by to see how you did that. And I hadn’t heard of the new yeast, so I’ll have to check that out as well. Would LOVE to try this recipe. 🙂
Yvette Novak
Barbara,
You have definitely piqued my interest with this new yeast.
Your Lemon Pull-Apart Bread looks like a real keeper!
Debbie Santos
I need to be YOUR neighbor! This looks fabulous and I am going to try the recipe. You site in Pinterest is so great, so much to pick from!
Mary Ann Stewart
I love following your blog. I will be trying this bread soon!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
Mum your bread baking is always amazing (I still remember the candy cane kolache) but this is perfection! 😀 Hehe I would have measured it out too-it has to fit after all! xxx
Barbara
Thanks! Hope to share a loaf with you some time.
karen
Beautiful bread, even the suicidal loaf! I love everything lemon!
karenreichmann@hotmail.com
mary jane
I would love to bake the recipe you shared it looks so yummy…I could use the giveway gifts oh yes I could to bake your recipe..I would serve it early for my husbands 65th birthday on october 21. 2012!!!! Love your blog…yummeee recipe!!!!!!!!!!!!
Barbara
Thanks Mary Jane! Happy Birthday to your husband on the 21st!
Loretta E
I now subscribe!
Loretta E
This is perfect. I’ve been wanting to start working more with sourdough, but I’d probably use the yeast method…
Ye Z
Yum! That looks delicious.
Awesome giveaway!
Vicki F
Yummy looking bread – great tutorial. I’ll give it a try and let my co-workers be the judges (my vote is a great big yes!).
treva
looks delicious!
teresa
that bread looks INCREDIBLE! must either make or have my husband make, haha!
great giveaway!
Sylvia Hutchins
I really want to try this yeast! Looks so easy.
Jessica
This sounds delicious! Maybe I’ll make it one of the weeks I have to bring in breakfast to my office “pod”. I wonder if lemon curd or apple/pumpkin/chestnut butter would work in place of the lemon sugar….
Barbara
Hi Jessica – I don’t think lemon curd nor apple butter would be a good substitute. I’m afraid they may just pool at the bottom. You could substitute cinnamon. Or I pinned an Apple Fritter Bread recipe that I can’t wait to try. http://pinterest.com/pin/215680269625887025/