Baked apple pull-apart bread from the Thermomix® combines yeasted dough, spiced apples and nut brittle in one tin. We have been baking it every festive season and on Sunday mornings for years.
The key is in the filling: marzipan is emulsified with butter at 70°C into a spreadable paste. Lower temperatures leave the marzipan lumpy, higher ones make the butter too liquid. At 70°C you get a smooth cream that spreads evenly over the dough and does not run out during baking.
Baked Apple Pull-Apart Bread, Thermomix® with Nut Brittle
Ingredients 0 / 17 ✓
- 160 g milk
- 1 cube fresh yeast
- 380 g flour
- 90 g brown sugar
- 50 g butter
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 100 g hazelnuts
- 3 apples e.g. Boskoop
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 20 g brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 50 g butter
- 100 g marzipan
- 30 g sugar
- 60 g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp milk
Instructions 0 / 7
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1
Knead the dough.
Add milk and yeast to the mixing bowl and warm for 2 1/2 min / 37°C / speed 1. Add flour, sugar, butter, salt and cinnamon and knead for 3 min / kneading mode to form a dough. Transfer to a bowl, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 1 hour. Rinse the mixing bowl.
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2
Chop the nuts.
Meanwhile add the nuts to the mixing bowl, chop for 5 sec / speed 6 and set aside. Peel the apples, quarter them, remove the cores, then add to the mixing bowl with the lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon, chop for 5 sec / speed 6 and transfer to a sieve.
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3
Warm the marzipan mixture.
Add butter and marzipan cut into pieces to the mixing bowl, chop for 5 sec / speed 5 and warm for 3 min / 70°C / speed 1.
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4
Preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 200°C top and bottom heat (fan 180°C, gas mark 3 to 4).
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5
Spread and fill the dough.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle of 15 x 25 cm and spread with the butter and marzipan mixture. Press the apples firmly in the sieve with a fork, then distribute over the marzipan layer and scatter with 70 g of nuts. Fold the dough in from the long side to the halfway point, then fold the other side over the top.
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6
Fill the loaf tin and bake.
Line a loaf tin with baking paper and stand it upright. Cut the dough into 10 pieces and layer them on top of one another in the tin. Bake on the middle shelf for 40 to 45 minutes. After about 20 minutes, cover with aluminium foil.
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7
Make the caramel and finish the pull-apart bread.
Melt the sugar in a frying pan, add 30 g of nuts, caramelise and spoon over the hot pull-apart bread once it comes out of the oven. Stir icing sugar and milk together in a cup and drizzle over the bread.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why Boskoop apples are the only sensible choice
Boskoop apples stay in pieces after 40 minutes at 200°C rather than turning to mush. Their firm structure and high acidity hold up to the heat. Elstar or Jonagold break down to puree and make the dough soggy.
The apples are chopped with lemon juice, brown sugar and cinnamon at speed 6. Five seconds gives even pieces without turning them to a puree. We then press them in a sieve. The juice that runs off would soften the dough and make the result soggy.
The yeasted dough and its proving time
Bringing 160 g of milk to 37°C activates the yeast without damaging it. Warmer temperatures kill the yeast cultures, cooler ones delay fermentation unnecessarily. After 2.5 minutes at speed 1 the temperature is reached.
Then 380 g of flour, 90 g of brown sugar, 50 g of butter, a pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon go in. Kneading mode works everything into a smooth dough in 3 minutes. The dough then needs 1 hour to prove under a cloth. During that time the volume doubles as the yeast produces CO2.
How to make the marzipan spreadable
100 g of marzipan cut into pieces, plus 50 g of butter, go into the mixing bowl. Five seconds at speed 5 breaks up the marzipan roughly. Then 3 minutes at 70°C on speed 1: the butter melts, the marzipan softens and the two combine into a smooth cream.
Without this emulsification the marzipan stays firm and tears when you try to spread it. At 80°C or above the butter separates from the marzipan again and the mixture turns oily. 70°C is the point at which the consistency is just right.
Filling and folding the dough
Roll the dough into a rectangle of 15 x 25 cm. Spread the marzipan and butter mixture evenly over it, distribute the pressed apples on top and scatter with 70 g of chopped hazelnuts. Fold in from the long side to the halfway point, then fold the other side over.
Cut the folded dough into 10 even pieces. Line a loaf tin (25 x 9 cm) with baking paper, stand it upright and layer the pieces on top of one another. The layers create the classic pull-apart pattern once baked.
Baking with an aluminium foil cover
Preheat the oven to 200°C top and bottom heat (180°C fan). The pull-apart bread bakes on the middle shelf for 40 to 45 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil after 20 minutes. Without the cover the top burns before the centre is fully baked.
The foil reflects direct heat from above while the base continues to receive heat through the baking tin. This ensures the bread bakes through evenly without a burnt crust.
Nut brittle straight onto the hot bread
Melt 30 g of sugar in a non-stick frying pan without any fat. Once the sugar is liquid and light golden, add 30 g of chopped hazelnuts and stir briefly so the sugar coats the nuts and caramelises.
Spoon the brittle straight over the hot pull-apart bread. It spreads better on a hot surface than on a cold one. Then stir 60 g of icing sugar with 2 tbsp of milk and drizzle over as a glaze. The glaze runs down the sides and sets as it cools.
Our guide to caramelising sugar describes the process step by step. You can make your own icing sugar in the Thermomix® and keep a batch in the cupboard.
Serving and storing
The pull-apart bread keeps fresh at room temperature in a cake tin for 2 to 3 days. The individual layers pull away easily. Freezing works only without the brittle and glaze as both go soggy on thawing. The bread itself can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Goes well with: butter, vanilla ice cream and apple sauce.
Other sweet yeasted bakes from the Thermomix® include mini cheesecakes and our savoury alternative: chilli cheese swirls, or the version with a spinach and cheese filling.
