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lemon & coconut pull-apart bread

Ingredients

for the dough:

  • 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup white sugar
  • 2 ½ teaspoon instant yeast 1 package
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • cup milk I used whole but you could use 2% or 1%
  • 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • ¼ cup water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond or coconut extract
  • 2 eggs at room temperature

for the lemon coconut filling:

  • 2 tablespoon unsalted butter melted
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • zest of 3 lemons
  • ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut

for the lemon coconut icing:

  • 2-3 tablespoon coconut milk
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • ⅓-1/2 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

To make the dough:

  • In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Stir well to combine.
  • Melt milk and butter over low heat in a small pot on the stove until melted.
  • Add water, vanilla, and almond/coconut extract and let cool until temperature is 120-130F degrees. Mine was 125 degrees immediately after I added the water.
  • Pour milk and butter mixture over flour mixture and stir with spatula, mixing to combine.
  • Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until combined. The dough might look a bit separated at times, but it will all come together, trust me!
  • At this point you can use a stand mixer with dough hook attachment to add the remaining flour, adding ½ cup at first and then remaining ¼ cup, kneading until smooth.
  • Continue kneading for another minute.
  • Place dough in large greased bowl and place in a warm spot to let rise for 1 hour, or until it's about double in size.
  • Deflate the dough. At this point you can place it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it (so you can do this the night before) or just continue on.
  • In a small bowl, rub the sugar for the filling with the lemon zest.
  • Stir in the coconut, and set aside.
  • Lightly grease or line a 9x5" loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving some hanging off the edge. Set aside.
  • On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough forming a large rectangle that is approximately 12"x20". It doesn't need to be exact.
  • With the rectangle horizontal, brush the melted butter (from the filling ingredients) over the rolled out dough.
  • Now, cut the dough into six ~3" wide strips.
  • Sprinkle the lemon-coconut sugar mixture down the middle of each strip. Be generous with the filling...the more the better!
  • Now, lay all of the strips on top of each other, forming a stack of the six strips.
  • Cut the stack of strips into 4-5 equal sections.
  • Now, take each stack and place into the prepared loaf pan, as shown in the middle picture. You may have to zig zag your stacks to get them all to fit.
  • Cover and let rise for another 30-45 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until top is golden brown.
  • Let cool for 10-15 minutes.
  • Once cool, remove from pan.

Make the icing:

  • Combine coconut milk, lemon juice, and powdered sugar.
  • Whisk until well combined. If too runny, add more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more coconut milk.
  • Drizzle over warm pull apart bread.
  • Pull apart and enjoy!