Mardi Gras Pull Apart Bread
Every year for fun, I like to try a new Mardi Gras themed recipe to celebrate the vibrant colors of this traditional event of green, gold, and purple. Purple, I think is my favorite out of this fun trio. This year, I took a favorite recipe for cinnamon pull apart bread and showcased it with a Mardi Gras theme making a super easy and delicious Mardi Gras Pull Apart Bread.
Last year, I made these fun Mardi Gras cupcakes and these slick Mardi Gras Whoopie Pies.
Pull Apart Dough
The dough is super simple to whip up and rises so nicely. Super user friendly and the nice thing is you don’t have to make it perfect when placing in the pan to rise. The rising step kind of creates its own unique form and it turns out perfectly each time. Rustic is the word that comes to mind.
I love pull apart bread in how it makes its own slice by simply just pulling on it for your custom made slice. Of course, always hoping to pull off a hefty slice!
Flour of Choice
As mentioned above, this is a super user friendly dough enriched with butter that makes is super delish. For structure, bread flour is used but you can also use All Purpose as well. King Arthur is my go to flour of choice for all varieties. I think they make a terrific product!
Pull or Slice-You Decide
Simply pull a piece off or slice it and enjoy. Since it is enriched with butter and has butter dredged in and on top of the dough, nothing extra is needed to enjoy this great bread.
If you love bread and baking it as much as I do, check out some of my other favorites:
- Easter Brioche bread that is decorated simiarily with pastel sanding sugars.
- Citrus Challah Bread loaded with orange zest
- Blueberry Babka celebrating my favorite fruit
- Glorious Milk Bread Rolls light and absolutely delicious
Mardi Gras Pull Apart Bread
Delicious bread wth a hint of sweetness celebrating the colors of Mardi Gras
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 38 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf 1x
- Category: Breads
Ingredients
- 2 TBS warm water (105 degrees)
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup milk (warmed)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 TBS butter (melted)
- 2 1/2 cup bread flour
- 2 TBS butter (melted)
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, place the yeast, sugar, and water and mix well. Allow to activate for about 5 minutes.
- Add to the bowl, the milk, egg, sugar, and butter and mix well. Add the dough hook and add in the flour. Mix on low till it comes together then increase the speed to medium to knead till a smooth and not sticky dough comes together.
- Grease a bowl and add the dough, cover with plastic wrap tightly and allow to rise for about an hour till doubled in size. (I like to turn my oven on for 1 minute, then turn it off and place the dough into the oven to rise). Being careful not to get the oven too hot. A good proofing temperature is about 90 degrees.
- Punch down the dough and let it sit for a minute.
- Lay a piece of parchment paper out on the table.
- Flour the paper lightly and roll the dough out to cover the entire piece of parchment paper.
- Brush the dough with melted butter. Give it a good bath of butter.
If desired, sprinkle some organic sugar or regular sugar here on top. - Grab a loaf pan and use it as your guide to cut columns horizontally and vertically. I place the pan alongside the dough and cut the same width as the side of the loaf pan for get equal squares throughout the dough.
- Stack the square dough pieces on top of each other.
- Grease your loaf pan and lay the sliced dough horizontally in the pan and just let it fold over naturally like an accordion. This gives it a rustic look as well. The dough squares do not have to fill up the length of the pan. When the dough rises it will fill in any gaps.
- Place a clean cloth over the top and let it rise till doubled, about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle sections of gold, purple, and green sanding sugars on top of the dough. Have fun with it!
- Bake the dough about 15-20 minutes till lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and cool 10 minutes.
- Pop out of the pan and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
This recipe was adapted from Southern Living
