
Lemon and cream cheese have long been classic companions in American baking, and this fun-to-assemble, sweet-tart filled coffee cake makes it easy to see why. Showcasing the lively flavors of fresh citrus, the sweet, buttery filling is made with fluffy, fragrant lemon and orange zest. The warm loaf is brushed with a cream cheese icing, whose tangy flavor marries marvelously with the citrus.–Flo Braker
Lemon Pull-Apart Coffee Cake
Ingredients
For the pull-apart sweet dough
- About 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (1 envelope)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 4 tablespoons (2 oz) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
For the lemon filling
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest, (from 4 to 6 lemons), preferably organic)
- 1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest, preferably organic
- 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
For the cream cheese icing
- 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Make the pull-apart sweet dough
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together 2 cups (9 ounces) of the flour, the sugar, yeast, and salt.
- In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter over low heat just until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat, add the water, and set aside until warm (120 to 130°F [49 to 54°C]), about 1 minute. Add the vanilla extract.
- Pour the milk mixture over the flour-yeast mixture and, using a rubber spatula, mix until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Attach the bowl to the mixer, and fit the mixer with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing just until incorporated after each addition. Stop the mixer, add 1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) flour, and resume mixing on low speed until the dough is smooth, 30 to 45 seconds. Add 2 more tablespoons flour and mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth, soft, and slightly sticky, about 45 seconds.
- Sprinkle a work surface with 1 tablespoon flour and turn the dough onto the flour. Knead gently until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky, about 1 minute, adding an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons flour only if the dough is unworkably sticky. Place the dough in a large bowl, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise in a warm place (about 70°F [21°C]) until doubled in size, 45 to 60 minutes. Press the dough gently with a fingertip. If the indentation remains, the dough is ready for the next step.
Make the lemon filling
- While the dough is rising, in a small bowl, mix together the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest. Set aside. (The sugar draws out moisture from the zests to create a sandy-wet consistency, so don’t be alarmed when you see this.)
Assemble the coffee cake
- Adjust the oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan.
- Gently deflate the dough. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough into a 20-by-12-inch rectangle with a short edge facing you. Using a pastry brush, spread the melted butter generously over the dough. Cut the dough crosswise into 5 strips, each about 12 by 4 inches. (A pizza cutter is helpful here.) Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons of the zest-sugar mixture over 1 of these buttered strips. Top with a second strip and sprinkle it with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the zest-sugar mixture. Repeat with the remaining strips and zest-sugar mixture, ending with a stack of 5 rectangles. Work carefully when adding the crumbly zest filling, or it will fall off when you have to lift the stacked pastry later.
- Slice the stack crosswise through the 5 layers to create 6 equal strips, each about 4 by 2 inches. Fit these layered strips into the prepared loaf pan, cut edges up and side by side. (While there is plenty of space on either side of the 6 strips widthwise in the pan, fitting the strips lengthwise is tight. But that’s fine because the spaces between the dough and the sides of the pan fill in during baking.) Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place (70 °F [21°C]) until puffy and almost doubled in size, 30 to 50 minutes. Press the dough gently with a fingertip. If the indentation remains, the dough is ready for baking.
- Bake the coffee cake until the top is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Place on a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.
Make the cream cheese icing
- In a medium bowl with a rubber spatula, vigorously mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the milk and lemon juice until the mixture is creamy and smooth.
- Tilt and rotate the pan while gently tapping it on the counter to release the cake sides or simply slip a thin knife or spatula between the coffee cake and the pan. Invert a wire rack on top of the coffee cake, invert the cake onto the rack, and carefully lift off the pan. Invert another rack on top, invert the cake so it is right side up, and remove the original rack.
- Slip a sheet of waxed paper under the rack to catch any drips from the icing. Using a pastry brush, coat the top of the warm cake with the icing to glaze it. (Cover and refrigerate the leftover icing for another use. It will keep for up to 2 days.)
- To serve, you can pull apart the layers, or you can cut the cake into 1-inch-thick slices on a slight diagonal with a long, serrated knife. If you decide to cut the cake rather than pull it apart, don’t attempt to cut it until it’s almost completely cool.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
GOOD GRAVY! THIS RECIPE IS DANGEROUS! I made this yesterday on a whim. I didn’t have any expectations. I like lemon desserts but don’t love them. I’m great at making enriched dough, but it isn’t my favorite to make. But I had an abundance of lemons and needed something sweet.
This is the perfect not-too-sweet coffee cake for afternoon tea or even breakfast, especially if served warm! The flavor of the citrus comes through nicely, and the overall appearance is impressive. Although there are many steps, the recipe is straightforward and manageable.
This soft, sweet bread is delicious, and very easy and enjoyable to put together. It is perfect in the morning with coffee, or as an afternoon snack—or both! Like the cheese danish recipe on the site, It has some lovely, sugary, crispy bits, but the inside is pillowy and light. A great addition to your sweet bread recipes.
Baking with citrus can be delicious. This Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake is a must-have for Easter or any springtime breakfast or brunch. It has all the elements of a prized sweet bread, with drizzles of cream cheese frosting over a buttery rich interior. Each bite has flecks of fragrant lemon and orange zest in it, uniting all the flavors of the bread perfectly. Be patient with this recipe, though. Cutting and stacking layers of dough is a technique that departs from forming it into a traditional loaf. But the look is unique, and the taste…simply lemonlicious! Who can resist?
This is an advanced recipe in terms of construction. Is it worth it? Yes. Because the bread dough is made with milk and butter, it retains a very soft, beautiful texture. The pull-apart aspect is a lot of fun and the resulting bread, with and without the cream cheese glaze, is lovely. The smell throughout my house was fantastic. I love the citrus tones.
This recipe turned out well but might not necessarily be for someone who hasn’t made a lot of bread before. This is more like a sweet bread recipe rather than a traditional cake. The flavor was really good.
“Lemon,” “pull-apart,” “coffee cake,” and “cream cheese icing”—really, there is no bad there. This bread-like cake is tender and moist, full of bright citrus flavor both in the cake and the icing, and just darn fun to eat. It’ll delight you all day long, from breakfast to midnight snack, I promise. Since it’s going to take almost 4 hours of your time to make it, I tested this recipe twice in order to work out all the kinks before writing this review. (Oh please. The pleasure was all mine and my tasters’.)
Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe, Flo! I made this tonight, but my yeast was off — the dough barely rose. It yielded a much tougher, not quite so flakey, but still very delicious bread. I’ll have to test the temperature of my milk, and let the eggs come to room temperature. It was a cold day, and our heat is broken, so I have a feeling that had something to do with it.
I’m looking forward to trying it again!
Sounds as if the fates were contriving against you, Anna. Yes, please try it again and do let us know how it goes….
I made this tonight, and it was absolutely golden and wonderful and turned out just like I wanted it to.
I used my Cephalon non-stick pan AND sprayed it, and had no issues with it sticking at all.
As usual, if one follows the instructions closely, it turns out great. Thanks for a wonderful recipe for the arsenal.
You’re more than welcome, Sarah! This is one of the most insanely popular recipes on the site–for obvious reasons. We look forward to hearing which recipe on the site you try next…
This is circulating Pinterest, so I’m imagining more and more people will be trying it! I took pictures of your steps 6 and 7, in case people need a visual and posted them here: This recipe is INCREDIBLE. Thank you, thank you.
Kirsten, you’re welcome. And thank you for the images.
Note: Readers, Kirsten used a wider pan than Flo Braker, the creator of the recipe, calls for. If you use the specified loaf pan, you’d have one row of slices. Of course, you can always use a wider pan and do as Kirsten does. No harm, no foul.