Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread with Orange Zest and Glaze
This pull apart bread is easier to make than a cinnamon roll! It has thin layers of dough sandwiched between a cinnamon sugar and orange zest filling, with a higher filling to dough ratio than a traditional cinnamon roll. The dough uses a tangzhou roux to keep it fresh longer but I have instructions above in a section on how to skip that step if you don’t want to. The dough does need to rise twice, so keep that in mind and plan accordingly.
Make the tangzhou by placing the milk and flour in small pan. Cook on medium heat, for a minute or two until a thick paste forms. Set aside to cool slightly.
Make the dough by placing the eggs, honey, butter, and salt in the bowl of stand mixer. Beat together with a balloon whisk to break up the eggs. Then sprinkle the yeast over the mixture and stir in. Add the tangzhou (it’s OK if it’s still warm, but make sure it’s not hot) to the bowl and use the whisk to break it up. Don’t worry if there are still some small lumps in the mixture. Just break up the tangzhou as much as possible.
Add the flour and then mix the dough with the dough hook. Mix on low, occasionally stopping to scrape down the sides until all the dry ingredients are incorporated, then increasing the speed to medium. Knead the dough for 4 to 5 minutes or until it is smooth and slightly tacky to the touch. It should not be too sticky or wet. If it is, add a tablespoon of flour.You can also knead this dough by hand. See the section above for instructions.
Spray a bowl with cooking oil and then pull the dough into a smooth ball. Place the rough side down in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Put in a warm place and let rise until double in size, about 60 to 90 minutes.
While the dough is rising, lightly coat a loaf pan with cooking oil (preferably a straight sided one like a pullman loaf, but any standard loaf pan will work). Place a piece of parchment paper inside the loaf pan, with about 1-inch of paper overhanging the sides of the pan.Set pan aside and make the filling by combining the white sugar, brown sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl. Place the melted butter and vanilla in a different bowl and stir to combine.
Once the dough has risen, dump it onto a clean surface. Roll the dough into a 12 by 20-inch rectangle.
Brush the rectangle with the melted butter mixture, then sprinkle the filling all over the dough, going all the way to the edges.
Cut the dough into 5 even strips, about 4-inches wide. Then stack the dough strips on top of each other. The filling might spill off or shift on the strips but just redistribute it as best you can as you stack it, no need to be perfect about it.
Once all the strips are stacked on top of each other, cut through all the dough strips with 6 even distributed cuts, making 4 x 2-inch squares. Stack half the dough squares together.
Place the stacked dough vertically in the loaf pan.. Then repeat and stack the other half and do the same. The dough should fit tightly into the pan but don't worry if there is a little wiggle room. It will rise and expand to fill the space.Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place in a warm area to rise again. Let rise for 60 minutes or until the dough is puffy and roughly double in size. About 15 minutes before the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 350°F.Remove the plastic wrap and bake the dough in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is a deep golden brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 195°F. If the top of the bread seems to be browning extra fast, cover the loaf pan with aluminum foil to prevent burning.
While the bread is baking, make the glaze. Sift the powdered sugar into a medium-sized bowl and then add 2 tablespoons of orange juice, melted butter and vanilla. Stir and then add more orange juice until you have a glaze with a consistency that you like. I found 3 tablespoons was perfect for me. Cover the bowl until ready to use.
Once the bread is done, immediately spoon half the glaze over the warm bread still in the pan. Spread the glaze all over, making sure it gets into the nooks and crannies of the top of the loaf.Then let the loaf cool in the pan for 15 minutes on a wire rack. Run a thin butter knife or offset spatula around the parchment paper and the pan and lift it up and out of the pan using the parchment paper like a sling. Move the loaf onto a wire cooling rack. Carefully remove the parchment paper and then spoon the remaining glaze over the bread.Serve warm or let cool completely if you wish.