Ok. I am seriously jet lagged. I feel like I don’t even know which end is up right now.

I have been home from Greece for 48 hours, (teeny tiny picture montage coming soon!!) and am just trying to get back into the swing of things here in Seattle. We are still in the midst of the longest, driest summer ever, with several months of no rain. But since I got back there is a definite change in the air. It is much cooler in the mornings and late afternoon and the light is getting this warm, haziness that leaves everything kind of pink and beautiful at dusk. There are even leaves beginning to change and fall. Autumn is really here.

You know what that means…

Pumpkin.

I’m gonna put it in everything for a while. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Like this Pumpkin Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread with Maple Glaze.

I have been seeing pictures of pull-apart breads on line for the last year or two, and I am OBSESSED with it. I also have a deep, creepy love for it that goes back to my first pregnancy with Pia. Where the majority of the 60 pounds I gained (yes, I said 60) came from cinnamon rolls and cinnamon pull-apart bread. Seriously.

For this to-die-for bread, I just took my cinnamon roll dough recipe and adapted it to include pumpkin. And then I drizzled some lovely creamy maple glaze over the top.

It is sort of like pumpkin bread and cinnamon rolls had a baby. And then that baby married a maple bar and they had a baby. And that baby was named Pumpkin Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread with Maple Glaze. You get the idea.
Make this and you will be so happy you did.

1) In a small saucepan over low heat, heat 1/4 cup of the milk and the 1 tablespoons of sugar until the sugar has disintegrated. Transfer to a small bowl. When the milk cools to 110°, sprinkle in the yeast. Set aside for about 20 minutes, for the yeast to rise and puff.

2) In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining sugar and 1/4 cup milk, butter, pumpkin and salt and cook, stirring until everything is melted and well combined, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook.

3) With the mixer on low, add the egg and mix well. Add the yeast mixture.

4) With the mixer running on low speed, add the flour, one cup at a time. After you have added all of the flour, increase the mixer speed to medium and keep mixing until you have a smooth dough, 3 to 4 minutes.

5) Grease a large mixing bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl. Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and put the bowl somewhere warm and draft free for the dough to rise. Leave for at least 1 hour, and up to 3 hours.

6) For the filling, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until melted. Set aside.

7) On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick.

8) Brush the butter over the dough evenly. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and then sprinkle over the butter. Slice the dough into 12 pieces. Make 4 stacks of 3. Cut those in half, so that you have 24 pieces.

9) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

10) Brush a loaf pan with a bit of melted butter (whatever is left in the melted butter pan). Put the stacks of bread in the loaf pan and squish them all in. Leave somewhere warm and let rise another 30 minutes.

11) Bake the bread at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until deep golden brown. Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar,
cream and maple extract until smooth.

12) As soon as the pumpkin cinnamon bread comes out of the oven, gently ease the bread out of the loaf pan and drizzle them with glaze, which will melt over the hot bread. Serve immediately or at room temperature.