Cooler autumn temps mean I'm more inclined to turn my oven on and get my hands (and kitchen) covered in flour. I've rebooted my starter for more sourdough creations and nothing is more relaxing right now than baking sweet or savory treats.
It's also the season that many of us are either hosting and entertaining or traveling to friends or family for the holidays. When it's my turn to host, I like to have something inviting on the counter for people to munch on in between meals. And when you're traveling to someone else's home for the holidays, it's always nice to bring something along with you to contribute to the chaos. No one ever refused extra food when hungry, demanding relatives are around.
Enter: pull apart bread, a cousin of monkey bread and cinnamon rolls. The basic recipe of this dough is your classic cinnamon roll dough—a mix of flour, yeast and dairy, sweetened with a little sugar and left to rise. The process is incredibly easy, especially if you have a stand mixer, and is a great recipe to experiment with different fillings and toppings.
I partnered with Sprouts, who just introduced a new product that I'm obsessed with: Organic Hazelnut Spread with Cocoa. It's that chocolatey, Nutella goodness, at a much better price point and the stuff is completely slathered within this recipe. The spread itself is very sweet, but becomes incredibly balanced when incorporated into the lightly sweetened dough. If you want to amp it up, top the bread with whipped cream or a simple powdered sugar glaze (just add water to powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time until an icing consistency is formed).
What are you baking these days?
Pull Apart Bread With Sprouts Hazelnut Spread
Ingredients
2 ¾c. Flour
¼c Sugar
½t Salt
2T. Butter, melted
⅔c. Whole Milk, warmed to just above room temp
2 Eggs, whisked
1t Vanilla
2 ¼t. Active Dry Yeast
1 Jar Sprouts Organic Hazelnut Spread With Cocoa
Egg Wash
1 egg + 1tsp. Water, whisked together
Special Tools
9”x5” Loaf Pan
Parchment Paper
Stand Mixer With Dough Hook (optional)
Pizza Cutter or Knife
Pastry Brush
Instructions
Mix yeast, sugar and warmed milk in a bowl until yeast is frothy.
With a paddle attachment fitted to your standing mixer, mix flour and salt. Add yeast mixture, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Mix until all of the wet ingredients are fully incorporated.
Swap out the paddle with a dough hook and mix on low until dough comes together in a cohesive ball, about 3-5 minutes. Alternatively you can knead with your hands on a clean surface until the dough comes together.
Place dough into a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with seran wrap or a towel and let rise for 1 hour.
Turn out risen dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out into an oval that is about 12” x 20.”
Liberally spread Sprouts Hazelnut spread evenly over the surface of your rolled out dough with a spoon or spatula, leaving about a ½ inch border around the edges.
Cut the dough long-ways into five or six 3” strips, then stack the strips on top of each other. Then cut width-wise into six more section, forming little squares.
Grease a 9”x5” loaf pan and line with parchment paper making it easy to remove from the pan after baking.
Stack dough squares into the pan on their sides, cover and let rise an additional 30 minutes. While dough is doing its final rise preheat oven to 350 degrees.
After final rise, brush top of dough with egg wash and bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan. Serve Warm.
