Sweet Saffron & Orange Pull-Apart Bread
This sweet Saffron pull-apart bread with almond paste, butter and orange zest is golden and crunchy on the outside, with pillowy soft and sweet layers inside.
A few weeks ago I had a little baking session with the kids. We made a large batch sweet saffron dough that I cut in three pieces so we all could do our own shapes. I wanted to try a pull-apart bread idea that I pinned from Joy the Baker more than 10 years ago. So I rolled out the dough and filled it with a mix of butter, almond paste, orange zest and juice and raisins. It came out fantastic. The bitter orange zest combined with the sweet almond filling is the bomb. The good thing about baking it in a tin instead of individual rolls is that the bread stays moist and juicy for days. I've been trying the recipe a few times since then with varied results because our oven door leaked out heat (and then fell off!) but now I have tested it in two other ovens and feel very comfortable about the result. So, here it finally is!
- 75 g (5-6 tbsp) butter, plus a little extra for greasing
- 250 ml / 1 cup milk or oat milk
- 85 g sugar, (about 100 ml /1/2 cup)
- 1 g ground saffron (2 sachets), or 0.5 g strands saffron
- 1 tbsp dry yeast
- 1 egg, whisked
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 450 g / 3 cups / 7-8 dl flour, plus a little extra for dusting
- 150 g / 5 oz almond paste (buy or make your own)
- Zest from 1 orange and juice from 1/2 (save the other half for the glaze)
- 75-100 g butter, room tempered
- 50 g / 100 ml / 1/3 cup raisins
- A splash of plant milk, to brush the bread
- 1 tablespoon boiling water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp orange juice