Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

A friend of mine posted a recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread on Facebook the other day and I immediately wanted to veganize it. It’s been a while since I made a yeast bread, so I was a little nervous. I’ve definitely gone through some bread-baking phases and, in addition to some really delicious loaves, I’ve had some utter fails (imagine a loaf of challah so dense and hard you could use it as a brick-like building material). Needless to say, when I pulled the yeast out of the fridge on Sunday, I felt at least a little bit of trepidation. In the end, it turned out that this was quite an easy recipe.

Cinnamon rolls and Christmas go together in my family. My mom makes cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve every year and heats them up in the oven on Christmas morning. When I was a kid, she would make a set of cinnamon rolls for all of our neighbors and my sister and I were charged with delivering them around the neighborhood. I thought making the pull-apart bread would be a nice tribute to my mom’s cinnamon rolls since I wouldn’t be in Pittsburgh this Christmas to enjoy them.

For the past few years my dad has come out to Seattle for a few weeks at winter break. Each year is a little different. One year he brought his girlfriend (Grace). Eric and Grace are both Jewish and so the four of us had a Chanukah-appropriate meal on Christmas (latkes, applesauce, sour cream, etc.). Sometimes Eric and I go to his family’s Chanukah celebration. One or two Christmases we’ve gone to Portland to spend the holiday with my grandmother and uncles. And sometimes we just stay here and we make a nice dinner and chill out. We also usually try to do something nice for the winter Solstice. This year, we had Eric’s mom and her husband over for a dinner celebration.  My dad went down to Portland a few days before Christmas and Eric and I stayed in Seattle. I got up in the morning on Sunday, made the cinnamon bread, and then we vegged out on the couch, watched some TV, took a nap, ate the cinnamon bread until we were both completely sugared out, and in the evening we made dinner (mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, mushroom gravy). We Skyped with my mom and sister and all the extended family on Christmas Eve, and then we opened presents together (via Skype) with my mom and her boyfriend and my sister and her girlfriend on Christmas Day. My mom, dad, and grandmother chipped in on a camera Eric and I have been lusting after for a couple of years. It’s a Canon DSLR and we’re just getting started learning how to use it–so hopefully the pictures will improve (all the blog pictures before this camera were taken with my cell phone!). We also received some great new vegan cookbooks from my aunt and Eric’s mother-in-law and some cookies and beautiful fabric from our neighbor.

And now, what you’ve been waiting for… the recipe.

The Recipe

Makes one 9×5-inch loaf

For the dough:

2 3/4 cups plus 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup vegan granulated sugar

1 Tbls active dry yeast

1/2 tsp salt

4 T Earth Balance (or vegetable shortening), melted

1/3 cup non dairy milk

1/4 cup water

1 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used cinnamon applesauce)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the filling:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegan granulated sugar

1 Tbls cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

3 T Earth Balance, melted

Warm milk to 105-115 F and add to a large mixing bowl. [Note: The milk should feel warm, not hot. Too much heat will kill the yeast and your bread will not rise]. Add 1 tsp of the sugar and add the yeast. Stir well and let rise (about 10 minutes). While the yeast is propogating, in a separate bowl, whisk together 2 cups of flour, the rest of the sugar for the dough, and the salt. Set aside.

When the yeast mixture looks all foamy and puffy, add the melted shortening, water and vanilla and mix with spatula. Add the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add the applesauce and mix until fully incorporated in the dough. Add the remaining 3/4 cup flour and combine. The mixture should be slightly sticky, but kneadable (add more flour if you need to). Place the dough in a mixing bowl with a little oil coating the sides. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise for 1 hour (until double in size). While the dough is rising, mix together the dry ingredients for the filling. Melt the shortening in a separate bowl.

When the dough has risen, knead an extra 1/4 cup or so of flour into the dough until it is no longer sticky. Flour a countertop or cutting board and use a rolling pin to roll out dough into a large rectangle. Brush the dough with the melted shortening and sprinkle generously with the sugar mixture:

Slice the dough lengthwise in four long strips and stack them one on top of the other:

Cut the strips into stacks of squares of dough. Stack the piles of squares sideways into a greased bread pan. Brush the top with the last bits of melted butter if you have some leftover on the brush:

Cover with a dish towel and let rise for 30-40 minutes in a warm place. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350F. When the bread has risen and the oven is at temperature, place the bread in the oven ON A DRIP PAN. IMPORTANT: The sugar mixture will drip onto your oven and make a big burny mess. Place a cookie sheet or roasting pan under the bread pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until very golden brown (the top needs to be very golden because the inside takes much longer to cook than the top). Remove from the oven and let sit for 20 or so minutes. Use a knife to run around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread. Turn out and let cool. Alternatively, you can just eat it straight out of the pan–just be careful not to burn your mouth.

How do you celebrate the holidays?