Chocolate Chip Pull Apart Bread

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day.

So pull apart bread has gotten a lot of mileage in this house. I'm still not done with it either, as I'm planning to make a garlic or perhaps garlic/rosemary combination at some point. For today, humor me with one more sweet version. This one is Kip's favorite.

Chocolate Chip Pull Apart Bread
Serves: not as many as it should because you'll tear through it
Prep time: 20-30 minutes, plus time to rise (2 hours or so)
Cook time: 30 minutes
Cost: 3.20-->Bread: .95, filling: 1.25, Frosting: 1.00
(butter: .30, milk: .05, yeast: .10, sugar: .05, eggs: .20, flour: .25)
(filling-->butter: .60, sugars: .15, chocolate chips: .50)

Start with the dough recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread. I'll post the recipe below, but if you want pic's, have a look here.

1/4 C butter, melted
1/3 C milk
1/4 C warm water
1/4 C sugar
1 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
2 3/4 C flour

Chocolate Chip Filling:
1/4 C butter, melted
1/4 C white sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1/2 C chocolate chips, chopped into oddball sized pieces

Heat milk and butter in microwave or on the stove until the butter melts (30-45 seconds in the microwave.) Add water (if the milk/butter is very hot, use cooler water; if not, use warm water--you want it to be about 110 degrees when the liquids are all added).

Mix in sugar, then yeast. Add eggs (it's helpful if you've beaten them before you add them). Add vanilla.

Stir in 1 C flour. Then add the second cup. I turned mine out here to knead. If yours needs a little more flour to be firm enough, add a little more flour. Add about 1/2 C flour and knead it in. Your dough will be slightly different than regular bread dough due to the high butter content of the rolls. When it's ready you'll be able to make a nice impression with your hands in the dough and your fingers won't get dough stuck to them when you pull it out. It'll be a nice soft, slightly oily ball of dough.

Put it in a bowl and let it rise till doubled, about an hour.

Once it's risen, pull it out, punch it down and then put it on a lightly floured surface and roll it out to about 12x20 inches. It should end up a few milimeters thick.

Now add your 1/2 C of melted butter and smear it around evenly with your fingertips. Combine the sugars and cinnamon and sprinkle it about evenly. Sprinkle on your chopped chocolate chips.

Then you're going to cut it into five 12x4 inch strips. Stack these strips on top of one another.

Mine kind of stretched this time (they didn't last time) I think because I didn't flour my surface and because I let the bread rise too long while I ran errands this morning. I just squished and patched as necessary and all was well. 

Then cut your log of strips into 6 equal chunks. And place these in a greased 8x5 inch bread pan with the cut sides up.

Let rise till doubled--40 minutes or so. The slices will get nice and cozy and touch all the sides (sorry I forgot this picture--too eager to get mine in the oven I guess.)

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Take it out of the oven. Let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Then loosen the sides and turn it out onto a plate to cool completely. When it's still a tinge warm, you can frost it. I recommend the Best Cream Cheese Frosting Ever. Which I'll post below.

Best Ever Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 package cream cheese (4 oz)

2 1/2 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 Tbsp sour cream

1/2 C plus 2 Tbsp powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

Beat together cream cheese, butter, and sour cream. Add vanilla. Beat in powdered sugar.

PRINTABLE RECIPE