Apple Fritter Pull-Apart Bread

Last week of school. My twenty-two students have been studying the water cycle for the last two weeks and on Thursday we released butterflies from the kit the science teacher sent and Marcus — Marcus who is in my class for the second year, Marcus who asked if I had a plan on my first day last year — stood watching the butterflies fly over the fence into the neighbor's oak tree and then turned to me and said "that was worth it, Ms. K." I said yes, it was. I said: I'm going to miss you, Marcus. He said: I'm going to come back and visit. He probably will. Some of them do.

The last day of school has its own ritual: goodbyes that have been practiced all week by children who know something is ending and feel it before they can name it. I hug every student twice on the last day. The last kid out the door this year was a girl named Lily who turned back in the doorway and waved and I waved back and then the room was quiet and I sat at my desk for fifteen minutes before I started packing up, which is the thing I do on the last day of school, fifteen minutes of quiet in the room that will no longer be mine until September.

I picked up Owen and Nora from Patty's at 4:30 and told them school was out for the summer and they looked at me without comprehension, which is correct, and I held them both and thought: ten weeks. Ten weeks of just them.

Summer cooking: the first night of summer I made breakfast for dinner. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, turkey bacon from the Aldi pack. Nobody had to be anywhere at any time. We ate on the couch. This is what summer is for.

Breakfast for dinner felt exactly right on the first night of summer — but the next morning, with nowhere to be and ten whole weeks stretching out ahead of us, I wanted something that felt like a celebration. I’d been eyeing this Apple Fritter Pull-Apart Bread for weeks, and that slow Saturday morning — Owen in his pajamas, Nora still half-asleep on the couch — was exactly the moment it was made for. All that warm cinnamon and apple, pulled apart piece by piece, no schedule, no rush. That’s summer.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 can (16 oz) refrigerated biscuit dough (8 biscuits)
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and diced small (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon brown sugar
For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2–3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan generously with butter or non-stick spray and set aside.
Cook the apples. In a small skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and add the diced apples, brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon, and the nutmeg. Cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples soften slightly and are coated in the spiced butter. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
Prepare the cinnamon sugar. In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar and remaining 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Cut and coat the biscuits. Separate the biscuits and cut each one into quarters. Toss the biscuit pieces in the cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated.
Layer in the pan. Arrange half of the cinnamon sugar biscuit pieces in the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Spoon half of the cooked apple mixture over the top. Repeat with the remaining biscuit pieces and then the remaining apple mixture.
Bake. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the top is deep golden brown and the center is cooked through. If the top begins to brown too quickly, tent loosely with foil after 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.
Make the glaze. While the bread cools, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth and pourable. Add milk a little at a time to reach your desired consistency.
Glaze and serve. Drizzle the glaze generously over the warm pull-apart bread. Serve immediately, pulling apart piece by piece.

Nutrition (per serving)

Apple Fritter Pull-Apart Bread — The First Morning of Summer