Orange Pull Apart Bread with Orange Cream Cheese Glaze

Bakingyummies
For #Twelve Loaves

Couple of months back, I had laid my hands on the newest cookbook from The Hummingbird Bakery, titled Home Sweet Home. While flipping through the pages, I came across this wonderful and tempting photograph of Lemon Pull Apart Bread. With the cream cheese icing dripping through the sides, the bread looked so delicious! Ever since then I've been wanting to make it but somehow wasn't able to. So when this month's theme for the Twelve Loves challenge was declared as Orange, I knew I couldn't miss the opportunity of trying my hand at a pull apart bread, something that I hadn't baked before.


The original recipe in the book uses lemons. However, I replaced them with an orange to keep up with the theme.


To make a pull apart bread, you need to cut the dough into squares and then arrange them horizontally in a loaf tin. Well, it's quite hot and humid out here and this kind of weather doesn't quite help with the baking process, does it? The heat just made the dough too soft to be cut up nicely and I had a very tough time doing this job. But somehow I managed to produce a sweet and delicious citrus loaf of bread :D


As the name suggests, the best part about this bread is the tearing up you do to eat and enjoy it. You can replace the oranges with lemons if you want. While baking, all the sugar, butter and orange zest in the filling had filled the sides of the loaf tin, bubbling like a lava. At that point I thought, this experiment is going tobe a failure and I would get a wet and sticky bread. But amazingly, all the mixture caramelized and gave the bread an almost toffee like texture that when combined with cream cheese glaze tastes.....heavenly!

Recipe Source: Home Sweet Home by The Hummingbird Bakery

Ingredients
For the Dough
350 grams / 12 ounces / 3 cups plain or all purpose flour
50 grams / 2 ounces / 1/4 cup caster or superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 plus 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
75 ml / 2.5fl ounces / 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon whole milk at room temperature
55 grams / 2 ounces / 1/4 cup unsalted butter,  melted and lukewarm plus extra for greasing
2 large eggs beaten and at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
60 ml / 2fl ounces / 1/4 cup water at room temperature

For the Filling
60 grams / 2 ounces / 1/4 cup unsalted butter
100 grams / 3.5 ounces / 1/2 cup caster or superfine sugar
grated zest of 2 oranges

For the Topping
90 grams / 3 ounces full fat cream cheese, such as Philadelphia
40 grams / 1.5 ounces / 1/3 cup icing or confectioners sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons orange juice
grated zest of 1 orange
1 tablespoon whole milk or as required
a little orange zest or candied orange peel to decorate (optional)

Method
In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flour, sugar and salt. Add the yeast and mix. Add in the milk, butter, eggs and vanilla. Add water and mix with a large metal spoon (or on low speed of the electric mixer with the paddle attachment) until all the flour is absorbed and the dough forms a ball. If the dough seems very stiff and dry, trickle in more water until the dough is soft and slightly sticky.

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter and knead (or mix on medium speed with the dough hook) adding more flour if necessary to create a dough that is soft, smooth and even.

Lightly butter a large bowl and rotate the dough in the bowl so as to coat the dough with fat. Cover the bowl with a cling film and let it rest at room temperature until the dough has doubled in size.

While the dough is proving, make the orange sugar filling. Melt the butter. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, orange zest and the melted butter together. Set this aside for later use in a warm place so that the butter doesn't set.

Lightly grease and flour a 23 x 13 cms / 9 x 5 inches loaf tin.

Once the dough is double in size, remove from the bowl and gently knead for a min. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until it's about 30 x 38 cms / 12 x 15 inches. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough lengthways into four equal strips.

Using a pastry brush, coat each strip with the orange sugar filling. Carefully lift the strips and pile them neatly one on top of another, and then cut the pile of strips into six equal square stacks. Carefully lift each stack and place it into the tin,cut side facing up. Place each stack next to one another to fill the length of the tin, packing them together like a sliced loaf.

Loosely cover the tin with cling film and set for the dough to rise again until it has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C / 325 degrees F. Bake the loaf for about 35 to 40 mins or until it's golden brown throughout. Place the tin a wire rack to cool for about 2 mins.

Meanwhile to make the topping, using a free standing electric mixer or a hand held one, whisk together the cream cheese and icing sugar just until smooth. Add the orange juice, zest and mix. Add enough milk to make a topping with a thick pouring consistency and mix until creamy and smooth.

Remove the loaf from the tin and place on a wire rack. Immediately top it with the icing and scatter some additional orange zest or candied orange peel. Serve warm.

Storage Suggestions: It's best to enjoy this bread the day it's made.

Happy Baking!!!


Can't get enough of Oranges? Let's see what the other talented bakers have baked:

The month of March was filled with gorgeous strawberry breads! We have chosen ORANGES for our April theme! Choose a recipe including oranges.

Your bread of choice recipe must include in the recipe: oranges, orange marmalade, orange zest. In addition to being in the dough, it could also be added to a glaze. Whatever you bake, (yeasted, quick bread, crackers, muffins, braids, flatbreads, etc) have fun and let's have a delicious month of bread with ORANGES.  Let's get baking!

If you’d like to add your bread to the collection with the Linky Tool this month, here’s what you need to do!
1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone's posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme! 2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme. 3. Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this April, 2014, and posted on your blog by April 30, 2014.

#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess. #TwelveLoaves runs so smoothly thanks to the help of the lovely Renee from Magnolia Days and Heather from girlichef.



34 comments

  1. I try too to bake something new for Twelve Loaves. Your bread is wonderful to look at and to taste (I suppose).
    I haven't The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. I'm currently in love with Bea's of Bloosmury cookbook.

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    1. Thank you Rosella! The bread does tastes delicious! I should try to get that book too.

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  2. What a gorgeous crust your bread has, Deepti! I would love to bite into that caramelized toffee exterior! I have a particular weakness for all things toffee. :)

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    1. Thank you Stacy, I agree toffee tastes so good...

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  3. My stomach is seriously growling in an out of control sort of manner - this looks SO amazing!

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  4. Oh, my! That sweet, thick topping looks incredible!!! What a marvelous loaf!!!

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  5. Oh my goodness look at the pretty orange flecks of color in the fluffy texture of the bread. Wow. I think it would be hard to stop eating this one and just keep peeling off another piece to enjoy.

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    1. Thank you Renee. Oh yes we just kept pulling one slice after another, had most of it for breakfast and the rest for it with our evening cup of tea :)

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  6. I've not yet made one of the pull-apart breads, but clearly, I need to. Thanks for giving me the nudge! Nice baking with you this month for #TwelveLoaves!

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    1. Yup you should, you'll enjoy baking and eating it for sure! It's been a pleasure to bake with all of you :)

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  7. This pull-apart bread looks so soft *_*
    I really loved this months theme, I can almost smell the orange dough scent in my kitchen!

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    1. Thank you! the bread turned out to be really soft and moist.

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  8. I LOVE pull apart bread. . it's one of my favorite things to bake plus it's soooo pretty!!! and love The Hummingbird Bakery. . have never been since it's in London but I have one of their cookbooks!

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    1. I know, it's such fun to make a pull apart bread. I've been so wanting to visit the Hummingbird bakery, lets see when I get lucky!

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  9. That topping sounds so delicious! I think I would need to make sure that there were several people at my house when that bread came out of the oven so I wouldn't eat it all by myself!

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    1. Yeah right. It's really hard to keep your hands off this bread :)

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  10. I can never get enough of homemade bread. This pull apart bread looks fanfreakingtastic!

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  11. I love that we both baked a pull-apart loaf, and were both inspired by one that was lemon to begin with but we changed it to orange - great minds think alike :). The exterior looks delicious and it looks so soft on the inside of the bread.

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  12. Fantastic job for our oranges challenge, Deepti! I adore pull-apart breads! Yours is just perfection (and lovely glaze on top!)

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    1. Thank you Laura, I love being a part of this group!

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  13. I saw this when you posted the teaser to the fb #twelveloaves page and I said I couldn't wait to see it in it's completion. May I say, this did not disappoint!!!
    Renee - Kudos Kitchen

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    1. Thank you Renee. I was just waiting to share my pull apart bread with everybody.

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  14. Deepti, this is flat out gorgeous! I have only tried making pull apart bread once but loved the texture. Yours looks so dreamy, and I love the orange!

    Amy | Club Narwhal

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  15. Pull apart breads look perfect to share and irresistible to stop eating! You made a wonderful orange bread!

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  16. I was just looking at the recipe in The Hummingbird Cookbook!! Is this serendipity or what?!! I love the book and I promised myself that I will bake as many recipes as I can! By the way your bread looks even better than the one in the book ;)

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    1. What a compliment! Thank you Maria :) I love the book, have already made a couple of cookies from it and loved all of them

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