Pumpkin Spice Pull-Apart Bread with Butter Rum Glaze

Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking, adapted from All Recipes, Joy the Baker, and Pumpkin Tart

Recipe Link
Yields: one loaf, about 8 servings
Prep Time: (including dough rising) about 3 hours

This sticky, sweet pumpkin pull-apart loaf is irresistible. It’s made from layers of fluffy pumpkin yeast dough coated with browned butter, cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg. Let it cool until it has just a hint of warmth left, drizzle on some glaze, and enjoy — preferably with the windows open to let in a crisp autumn breeze. Oh, and by the way, this recipe makes use of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, but there’s no reason you can’t knead this dough by hand. It’ll just take a little longer (and a little more elbow grease).

Pumpkin Pull-Apart Bread Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Butter Rum Glaze Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon rum (the original recipe called for extract, which I found too strong)

Directions:
Make the pull-apart bread dough: Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, brown the 2 tablespoons of butter. Let it bubble and foam and when you see it start to brown, stir it so that it browns evenly. When it’s the color of dark honey, remove it from the heat and pour it into a large heat-safe mixer bowl to cool. In the same saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the milk until it bubbles. Remove it from the heat and pour it into the bowl with the butter. Let these cool until they’re about 100-110 degrees F (use a candy thermometer to check). Set the saucepan aside for another use later. I use the same one throughout the entire recipe; why do more dishes?

Stir the sugar and yeast into the milk/butter mixture and let it sit for a few minutes. Stir in pumpkin, salt, and 1 cup flour. If you haven’t already, fit your mixer with a dough hook. Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring between each addition. When the dough is combined, knead on low speed with a dough hook until smooth and elastic (about 4 minutes with a mixer).

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Let it rise in a warm place for about an hour until it doubles in size (After it rises, you can put it in the fridge overnight to use it in the morning, but let it sit out for half an hour before rolling if you do.)

Make the filling: While the dough is rising, whisk the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a small bowl. Toward the end of the rising time, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter for the filling in the saucepan over medium-high heat and brown it as directed above. Put it in a small heat-safe bowl to cool for use later.

Shape and bake pull-apart bread: Knead a sprinkling of flour (about 1 tablespoon) into the dough, deflating it, and recover it. Let it sit to relax for 5 minutes. Flour a large work surface and turn your rested dough out onto it. Roll it out to a 20 inch long and 12 inch wide rectangle, lifting corners periodically to make sure it’s not sticking. If it seems to be snapping back, cover it with your damp towel and let it rest for 5 minutes before continuing (I had to do this twice during the process).

Spread the browned butter over the surface of the dough with a pastry brush and then sprinkle the sugar mixture over the top, patting it down to ensure it mostly sticks. Joy the Baker encourages you to use it all even though it seems like a ton, but I admit I got squeamish at the amount and only used most. It was fine despite my nerves. Go ahead and pile it on.

With the long edge of the rectangle toward you, cut it into 6 strips (do this by cutting the rectangle in half, then cutting each half into equal thirds. I used a pizza cutter). Stack these strips on top of one another and cut the resulting stack into 6 even portions (again, cut it in half, and then cut the halves into equal thirds). Place these portions one at a time into your greased loaf pan, pressing them up against each other to fit them all in. Cover the pan with your damp cloth and place it in a warm place for 30-45 minutes to double in size.

While dough rises, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or 325 if you have a glass loaf dish instead of a metal pan). When it’s risen, place the loaf in the center of the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until dark golden brown on top (if you take it out at light golden brown, it’s liable to be raw in the middle, so let it get good and dark). Cool for 20-30 minutes on a cooling rack in the loaf pan while you make the glaze.

Make the glaze: In your saucepan, bring the butter, milk, and brown sugar to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove it from heat, add the powdered sugar and rum, and whisk it to a smooth consistency.

Assemble and serve: Use a butter knife to loosen all sides of the bread from the loaf pan and gently turn it out onto a plate. Place another plate on top and flip it to turn it right side up. Drizzle glaze over top. Serve each piece slightly warm with a drizzle of glaze.

Bacon Egg and Toast Cups

In my mind, this recipe was the surprise favorite from my personal menu contributions for our Breakfast Themed Dinner Club.  Funny how that works since this one had such simple ingredients and was the easiest to make in bulk!  Or, maybe it's because this was a blog recipe (vs. All Recipes) and I generally have better luck with those.  You can bake up to 2 muffin tins (24 bacon egg and toast cups) at the same time so it's a great recipe to serve for to a crowd.  They're great snacking and finger foods which are generally popular in our dinner club crowd.  And, they can be saved and re-heated in the oven or toaster oven for later.  These made an awesome lazy breakfast the morning following our gorge fest.  Yum!

I'll say that I've always been slightly afraid of eating my eggs any way except for scrambled, hard boiled, or in an omelette because there's something about liquidy egg yolks that just gross me out...that and a fear of contracting samonella.  The eggs in this recipe when cooked as directed are still runny but you can cook them longer (watchout, this could result in a rubbery egg white though).  Since I did make this recipe, I gave the recipe a try...runny yolks and all.  I'm happy to report that I did not get sick and I actually enjoyed it!  This recipe has converted me..at least in this application.  I'm still not a sunny-side up girl and will stick to my fully cooked yolks, if at all, for other egg applications!

I can also see this recipe with a variet of twists - added ham bits, peppers, onions, mushrooms, different types of cheese and/or bread.  The possibilities are endless!

The Noshery, the blog from which I found this recipe, also has a version that is french toast cups stuffed with sausage and apples that I'd like to try sometime.  I think I'd have more luck with Chris eating that one over this one which is clearly eggy.  Of course, with all the other stuff I was making for this round of dinner club, that recipe will have to wait for me to make it another time!

Bacon Egg and Toast Cups
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Yields: 6 cups (can easily be doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled for a crowd!)

Ingredients

• 6 slices of bread (I used wheat)
• 6 slices of bacon
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheese
• salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin pan with butter non-stick spray.
2. Using a cookie cutter or a wide-mouthed glass, cut circles out of bread slices about 3 inches in diameter.  Take bread circles and press them into the muffin pan, set aside.
3. Heat a large skillet on medium-high. Cook bacon on the skillet until partially cooked but still pliable, about 3 minutes. 
4. Shape bacon strips into the toast cups, fill with 1 Tablespoon of shredded cheese. Place in the oven for 5 minutes, allowing the bacon to toast just a little more. Remove from oven.
5. Crack an egg and drop a whole egg into the cup, sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste.  Repeat for remaining cups.  Place back in the oven and cook until white begins to set, about another 8 – 10 minutes. The yolk should be creamy.  If a more fully cooked yolk is desired, continue cooking until desired done-ness is achieved.
6. Remove from oven when done and pop out using a spoon, serve warm.

Source: The Noshery

Brummy Bread (aka "Breakaway Coffee Cake")

Note - we doubled the below recipe (I've never only made the serving size below! :))

2 loaves frozen bread dough
1 stick butter or margarine
1 small pkg. regular vanilla pudding (NOT instant!)
1-cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1-teaspoon cinnamon

Thaw bread but do not let rise.

Cut one loaf into small pieces and place in 9” X 13” greased pan (use large pan).

Combine remaining ingredients in saucepan over low heat until butter/margarine is melted.
Pour over bread pieces in pan.

Spread chopped nuts over top if desired. (Who would do that?!)

Cut second loaf of bread into small pieces and drop over mixture in pan.

Cover and let rise to twice its size and refrigerate overnight (we usually just let it rise overnight in the basement).

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes.

When done, cool slightly and then turn upside down onto rack, into large serving dish or large box.

Serve warm. (Um, yeah. Clearly)

Fruit Bruschetta

Ingredients:

16 ½-inch-thick slices crusty Italian or French bread

2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

1½ tablespoons sugar

1½ tablespoons cinnamon, or to taste

1 peach, peeled, pitted, and cut into fine dice

½ banana, cut into fine dice

8 large strawberries, cut into fine dice

3 to 4 tablespoons plain yogurt (I used vanilla for added flavor)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Arrange bread slices in one layer in a shallow baking pan.

Bake in middle of oven until golden, about 10 minutes.

Brush toasts with butter on one side.

1. In a small bowl, stir together 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.

2. Sprinkle mixture evenly over buttered side of each toast.

3. Broil toast about 5 inches from heat under preheated broiler 30 seconds, or until tops are bubbling.

4. Let the toast cool.

4. In a bowl, stir together prepared fruit.

5. Add remaining ½ tablespoon sugar and ½ tablespoon cinnamon to the fruit and stir.

6. Mound about 1 tablespoon of the fruit/sugar/cinnamon mixture on each toast.

7. Drizzle each toast with yogurt.

Source: Peach, Strawberry, and Banana Bruschetta from Gourmet August 1994; As seen on Crumbly Cookie.

Pao de queijo - Brazillian Cheese Bread

"Pao de queijo"- Brazillian Cheese Bread

Adapted from comments from whats4eats

If you've ever been to Brazillian steakhouse/meat buffet, you've had these awesome cheese balls before eating and know they are addictive. Here they are in your own kitchen!

Actual picture!!

Ingredients:

1 lb (450 - 500 g) Polvilho azedo (Sour or fermented Tapioca/Cassava flour)

[We found this in Jungle Jim's as Manoic flour in the Brazil/Hispanic section, whatever that is]

1 cup (240 mL) whole milk

1 cup (240 mL) filtered water

3 medium eggs beaten

1 tsp (5 mL) common salt

1/2-cup (120 mL) cooking oil

6-8 oz Parmesan cheese (grated)

Procedure:

1. Mix milk, water, oil, and salt well in a large metallic container.

2. Bring it to boil. Turn off heat.

3. Mix polvilho well with a wooden spoon/spatula. Let it cool so you can knead. [At least 10-15 minutes, if you can let it cool longer, it will be easier to handle and the puffs turn puffier]

4. Add beaten eggs and knead until smooth. It'll be too sticky. Have patience.

5. Gradually mix cheese until the dough stops sticking in your hand. Knead well.

6. Make 1-inch balls and place them on a baking pan with some space between them for expansion.

7. Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and put the pan on the bottom rack.

8. Let it cook for 20 to 30 minutes depending on the size of the ball until slightly brown.

[Made about 40 puffs]