In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.
Over low heat, just barely warm butter and milk in a small saucepan (120 degrees F, 48 C), then mix in vanilla.
While stirring, slowly pour milk mixture then whisked eggs into the flour until a loose dough is formed (if it’s a bit wet, it’s okay!)
Transfer dough to a clean, floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Add more flour, a spoonful at a time, as necessary if dough is too sticky.
Set dough in a greased bowl and cover with either plastic wrap or a warm, wet towel. Set somewhere warm and allow dough to rise. Dough won’t double in size, but it should get nice and puffy. Let it do it’s thing for about 1 to 2 hours.*
In the meantime, combine orange zest and sugar. Place butter out at room temperature to soften.
On a floured surface, roll dough out to about 20’’x12’’ (50 x 30 cm), then decide if you want to make muffins or a loaf (ah, decisions!)
To Make Bread Loaf
Grease a medium-sized bread pan.
With a circle cookie cutter (or a mason jar or really anything round) cut out about 3 inch (7.5 cm) wide circles from the dough.
Grab one of the circles. If it feels a bit thick, feel free to wang jangle it to be a bit thinner and wider. Then, using your fingers or a spoon, rub a touch of softened butter onto one side and scoop a bit of the orange sugar mix onto it. Fold in half and set curvey side up in the bread pan (like a taco, right side up).
Repeat this process until you’ve cut out as many circles as you can, then smoosh the remaining dough into a ball, knead a few times, roll out, and start again until you’ve used all you can. You can set the dough tacos in a straight line down the pan or in two intertwining columns (see picture above).
Cover with plastic wrap and allow dough tacos to rise and get to know each other for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 C) for about 20 minutes, until top is browned. Let cool 15 minutes before topping with pomegranate.
To Make Muffins
Grease the wells of a muffin tin.
Rub softened butter over your dough rectangle (2 to 4 Tbsp, as much as you’re comfortable with), then cut rectangle into about 3 inch (7.5 cm) wide strips.
Sprinkle a strip with the orange sugar mix then top it with a naked strip. Sprinkle that strip with orange sugar, layer with a naked, sprinkle, layer, you get it. You’ll end up with a long stack of alternating dough and orange sugar mix.
Eyeballing how wide your muffin tin wells are, cut your long layered stack into mini stacks about as wide as the wells.
Gently pick up your mini stacks and set them vertically into the muffin wells so the layers are facing up like an accordion (see picture above).
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 C) for about 20 minutes, until tops are browned. Let cool 15 minutes before topping with pomegranate.
Garnish
Whichever route you go, you’ll need to garnish it with this tasty pomegranate finish. Combine powdered sugar and pomegranate juice, whisking until smooth.
Gently mix pomegranate seeds into icing (as many or few as desired).
Pour or scoop pomegranate icing over your warm bread or muffins. Pom appetit!
Notes
*To postpone baking, you can refrigerate the dough. Let it rise for about an hour, then punch down the dough, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for up to three days. When you’re ready to use the dough, set it out at room temperature about an hour before you’ll be using to let it warm back up. If you’re impatient (me), you can also run your oven as LOW as it will go for a few minutes. Turn it off and set dough in there to warm up quicker.