Lemon Brioche Pull Apart Loaf
This delicious lemony brioche bread is the perfect bread for special occasions or weekend bakes.
Servings: 8
Equipment
- stand mixer
- 8x4 loaf pan
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
- ½ cup warm milk It should be about 100 degrees, just warm to the touch.
- 3 eggs
- 2 ½ teaspoons instant yeast you can also use active dry. The amount will be the same.
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 ¾ cup whole wheat flour I used white whole wheat, but you can use red, spelt, rye, einkorn, or kamut.
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose four
- 1 teaspoon salt
Lemon Sugar
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons lemon zest
- 4 tablespoons melted butter this is for brushing the brioche with after rolling it out.
Instructions
- Read through all instructions before starting.
- Add all ingredients for the dough into your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. Make sure and start with 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour. You can add more later if needed.
- Mix for about a minute. Then start adding the softened ½ cup butter in a tablespoon at a time. This will take a while to mix all the way, so don't rush the process. It should take 10-15 minutes all together.
- Once all the butter is added and it is mixed well, it is time to chill.
- I like to store mine in a sprayed ziplock bag. If you do it this way, make sure not to take all the air out of the bag, give it room to rise. If you don't want to use bags, you can grease a large bowl and place the dough in it. Cover tightly with saran wrap.
- I like to let this have a cool rise for at least 12 hours.
- On the day of baking, mix your lemon zest with the granulated sugar and set aside. Spray your loaf pan and set it aside as well.
- Lightly flour your surface and roll the dough to a 12x18 inch rectangle. It will still be a little stiff, but jist roll it anyway. Pat it back together if it tries to break apart at all.
- Brush the top with the melted 4 tablespoons of butter, then sprinkle with the lemon sugar.
- Now, cutting the dough into 4 sections widthwise. So they will be about 4+x12 inches. Stack the strips on top of each other, then cut each one into 4 sections.
- stack them layering up into the pan. They will not fill the pan right now, but don't worry after the rise and bake, it will be perfect. I usually lean mine to the side just a touch.
- Cover the loaf and let it rise until doubled. At the end of the rise, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Place the risen loaf into the oven. This will take about 50 minutes to bake. If it starts to get too brown about 30 minutes in, tent a pice of tinfoil over the top, that is what I did with mine.
- Now, to know when it is done, I like to check the temp of the bread. 190 degrees is what you are looking for with the bread.
- When it is done, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for about 5 minutes in the pan. Then gently remove it from the pan. If you need to, you can slide a butter knife around the edges to loosen it where the sugar caramelized.
- That is it! The bread is done and ready to be enjoyed!
Notes
This bread is best with a cool rise. Don't be tempted to cut corners here. This type of rise not only makes the dough easier to work with but it also hydrates the bread and enhances the flavor of the dough.
Make sure you allow the bread to rise the second time until it is doubled in size. This will take time as the dough is chilled, to begin with.
Prefer brioche rolls? It works great! You can check out the recipe for lemon swirled brioche rolls to see this variation.
Take the temperature of the loaf to decide on doneness. It is really hard on a loaf like this one to go by time and color so taking the temperature is more accurate. You are looking for 190 degrees internal temp.
Be sure to read through all the instructions before starting!