Most bakery goods with layers are quite “evil” – I mean, usually, it has a lot of fat to create those layers. Like puff-pastry, or croissant, or this layered pull-apart bread! It uses so much butter for these few tiny pieces of bread, but trust us, this bread is so soft, fluffy, buttery that you would like to finish them all once they are out of the oven! (At least we did!)
We are still trying to understand exactly what “Danish” is because, in Hong Kong, we will easily call bread like this a “Danish” bread. However, while I was doing some research, I learned that what we called the “Danish pastry” is actually originated from Austrian bakers. It was when the Danish bakers were on strike back then, and Austrian bakers invented what is known as Danish pastry nowadays. Anyway, since we are not sure, we rather not calling it “Danish” bread, but just describing it as layered pull-apart bread… still works, right?
We like to make mini-size food, because it is only the two of us in the household, and it is not easy (also not healthy) for us to finish too many delicious goodies! So we tend to cook/bake things that we like in smaller portions, so it’s less heavy for our body. Therefore instead of making one big loaf of pull-apart bread, we have made these mini-versions. And recently I read that “Cruffins” are very popular, have you heard of it before? Apparently, it is croissant + muffins = cruffins! Are these actually a kind of cruffins? I have tried any before, so I need to check it out before randomly calling our bakes something new!
Maple syrup is one of the staples we use in our cooking and baking. And what’s better than adding an extra touch to our bread! On top of the buttery flavor, now there is a slight hint of maple in our bread too! This bread is so delicious that we highly recommend you to try it, perhaps just make sure you are not eating it every day!
Mini Maple Layered Pull-Apart Bread
Equipment
- Muffin tin
- Baking paper
Ingredients
Bread dough
- 155 g Bread flour
- 20 g Sugar
- 1 g Salt
- 2 g Active dry yeast
- 10 g Condensed Milk
- 25 g Egg
- 70 mL Milk
- 10 g Butter
- Egg wash
- Maple Syrup
Butter layer
- 60 g Butter 10cm x 10cm
Instructions
Knead the dough
- In a large mixing bowl, add bread flour, sugar, salt, active dry yeast, condensed milk, egg, and milk.
- Use a hand mixer with a dough hook or you can also hand knead the dough, knead the dough until it becomes smooth.
- Add 10g of butter and knead until it becomes a smooth dough again.
- Cover and leave at a warm place for first proof for around 45-60 mins or until the dough doubles in size.
- While waiting for the bread to rise, prepare the butter layer. Fold a 10 x 10 cm area on baking paper, it is for wrapping the butter.
- Cut the 60g butter into thin slices, and fill the 10 x 10 cm area. Cover it, and use a rolling pin to flatten and spread to all the corners. Leave it in the freezer until ready to use later.
- Brush the muffin tins with butter. We will make 6 in total, so brush 6 muffin spaces.
- When the dough is ready, take it out from the bowl, and flatten it to a square around 18 x 18cm. (It doesn't have to be accurate, as long as you can wrap the 10 x 10 cm butter in it.)
- Put the butter on top of the dough, and wrap it with the dough. Use the rolling pin to press it down, then roll it out to a rectangle. Roughly divide it into 3 parts, fold the outer parts towards the middle. Repeat this folding step 3 times - flatten to a big rectangle and fold it. Tips: Whenever the dough is bouncing back when you try to stretch it, you need to rest the dough - wrap it up and put it in the freezer for 15 mins. You can also do it every time after you fold the dough.
Shape the dough
- After the last time of folding, flatten the dough into a big rectangle. Then divide it into 24 strips.
- First, take 2 strips to inter-wrap with each other like a "U" shape. Then add 2 other strips wrapping outside. Put it in the muffin tin.
- Cover it with cling film, and leave it in a warm place to rise for 30 mins.
Bake the bread
- Pre-heat the oven at 180°C.
- When the 30 mins are up, add some egg wash on top.
- Bake it for 15 mins or until it's golden.
- Once it's out of the oven, brush a layer of maple syrup on top, and it's ready to serve!