Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

Why This is the Best Recipe

This is the best cinnamon pull apart bread recipe because:

1. Bread Machine Prep: I love each of these delicious bread machine recipes but this one is especially fun because all you need to do is measure and dump. The prep should take you less than 5 minutes. The dough turns out perfectly!
2. Roll and Sprinkle: Pull apart bread is easier to make than cinnamon rolls. You just roll the dough flat and pile it up for the bread pan. So fun.
3. Crispy Cinnamon Edges: All those layers of dough are coated in crispy cinnamon sugar. The loaf practically sparkles when it comes out of the oven!
4. Soft Doughy Centers: The bread inside is similar in flavor to a cinnamon roll and has that soft chewy center.
5. Chewy Caramel Base: The cinnamon sugar bakes down into a gorgeous caramel-like filling that pools at the bottom of the bread. This not only helps the loaf to stick together but adds a wonderful flavor to each pulled slice.

Ingredients

Like most of my easy bread machine recipes, you need only a few ingredients to make this recipe!

• All-Purpose Flour
• Sugar
• Milk
• Egg
• Butter
• Kosher Salt
• Cinnamon
• Instant Yeast: You can use bread machine yeast, active dry yeast, or instant yeast.

How to Make the Dough

I think the easiest and fastest way to prep this dough is in a bread machine.

I always grab my Cuisinart bread maker when I want to make dough. I think it mixes the best out of the various bread machines we've tested.

When you use a bread machine to prep dough you plan to bake in the oven, you cut down on a lot of the work time that leads up to the rolling stage. It is a very hands-off process.

Just pop the ingredients into the bread machine and then you're free to do other things while your dough mixes and rises.

If you don't have a bread machine, you might be wondering if a bread maker is worth it. Spoiler alert: My answer is YES! but you can debate that for yourself with the pro's and con's in my list here.

And if you're excited about the idea of using a bread machine, you can read the best bread machine for beginners article here. We tested 5 major models and compared them for you.

Add the Wet Ingredients First

The first step to filling a bread machine bread pan is to add the ingredients IN THE ORDER THEY ARE LISTED.

This almost always means that you'll be adding the liquid ingredients to the pan first.

Add the milk and the egg. Cut the softened butter into chunks and scatter them into the pan like this:

Add the Dry Ingredients

Next, add the dry ingredients to the bread pan.

Simply spoon the flour right over the top of the wet ingredients.

Then, sprinkle the sugar and salt around the perimeter of the pan. Use a spoon to dig a shallow well in the center of the flour and that's where you'll add the yeast.

Your pan should look like this:

Choose the DOUGH program on your machine and let the break maker do it's thing.

Keep an eye on the pan as it mixes, you may want to scrape the sides to make sure all the flour is in place.

The dough setting will take about an hour to an hour and a half to finish.

Roll the dough out to a 20 x 12-inch rectangle.

Use a pastry brush to spread the melted butter evenly all across the surface of the dough.

You should reserve just 2 tablespoons of cinnamon sugar for sprinkling over the top of the loaf before baking first. Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar mix evenly over the top.

Use a pizza wheel to cut the dough into 5 equal strips.

The work in the opposite direction to cut the strips into 5 pieces each. You'll have a mat filled with small rectangles when you're done.

Stack those rectangles up on each other like a deck of cards like this:

Butter an 8 x 4-inch bread pan and then carefully transfer the stack of bread squares into the pan so they are standing on end like a file folder full of papers:

Second Rise

Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar over the top. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let it rise for one hour.

Baking Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Remove the plastic wrap from the bread pan and place the bread on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.

The sugar will cook into a delicious caramel and may bubble up over the sides of the pan. This will help prevent a sticky mess in your oven.

Bake the bread for 20 minutes and then loosely cover it with aluminum foil to prevent it from browning too much.

Continue to bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the center of the bread registers 195°F with a thermometer.

Let the cinnamon pull apart bread rest in the pan for just five minutes.

Run a spatula or knife around the perimeter of the pan to loosen the bread from the sides.

Then transfer the warm bread to a clean platter for serving.

TOP TIP:

If you let the pan sit too long, the caramel at the base of the bread will make it nearly impossible to release the pull apart bread from the pan. It will all stick firmly to the bottom.

If you try to remove the bread from the pan too soon, the pull apart slices will fall apart.

Set yourself a timer for those 5 minutes of rest time and just work carefully as you tip the bread out of the pan onto your platter.

More Cinnamon Recipes

If you're a huge cinnamon sugar fan, you won't want to miss these delicious recipes: