by Andrea
I think many of us who bake bread at home nowadays rely pretty heavily upon breadmakers – I know I do! However, when I saw this Cinnamon Swirl Bread recipe, I decided to take a leap and foray into the world of bread making without a breadmaker. I am a sucker for Cinnamon Bread, and it’s rare that I can find a bakery that makes it.
The recipe I am using is from the Better Homes and Gardens Favourite Bread Recipes cookbook. The Cinnamon Swirl Bread is a variation on the Egg Bread recipe.
- 6-3/4 to 7-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 packages active dry yeast
- 2 cups milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter or margarine
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 eggs
- In a large mixer bowl, combine 3 cups of the flour and the yeast.
- In saucepan, heat milk, sugar, butter and salt just till warm (115° to 120°) and butter is almost melted; stir constantly.
- Add to flour mixture; add eggs. Beat at low speed of electric mixer 1/2 minute, scraping bowl. Beat 3 minutes at high speed.
- Stir in as much remaining flour as you can mix in with a spoon.
- Turn out on to lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total)
- Shape into a ball. Place in lightly greased bowl, turn once to grease surface. Cover; let rise in warm place until double (about 1-1/4 hours)
- Punch down, divide loaf in half. Cover, let rest 10 minutes.
- Roll each half of dough into a 15 x 7 rectangle. Brush entire surface lightly with water.
- Combine 1/2cup sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; sprinkle half the sugar mixture over each rectangle.
- Beginning with narrow end, roll up jelly roll style; seal edge and ends. Place, sealed edges down in a greased loaf pan.
- Cover; let rise until nearly double (35 to 45 mins).
- Bake in 375° for 35 to 40 minutes or till done, covering with foil for the last 15 minutes to prevent overborwning.
- Remove from pans, cool on wire rack. Makes 2 loaves.
Here’s the finished loaf in the cookbook – looks delicious, no?
Here’s my finished dough after mixing. It was easier to mix up than the recipe seemed to imply.
And here’s my risen dough. The one thing that I usually like about the breadmaker is that it keeps the dough at the right temperature to rise (it’s still winter here and my house is often cold). However, I turned on the oven to 200°F for a few minutes, just to warm it up a little, and then turned it back off, and let the dough rise in there. This seemed to work really well.
And here’s my dough, covered with cinnamon-y goodness.
All ready for the oven!
Mmmmm … If there was a way to send how the bread smelt at this point, I totally would. It smelt absolutely heavenly!
And so pretty when you slice into it!
Soooooooo good! This bread beat out any Cinnamon Bread I’ve had before, hands down! I will definitely be making this bread again and again!
WOW! That looks like a giant loaf of golden goodness 😀
Love the glasses by the by
It absolutely was – sooo good! And thanks! 🙂
Looks great! I have never seen a recipe like this that has you brush the dough with WATER instead of butter – I think I will pop some sweet dough in the bread machine, then shape it using this technique. Thanks for sharing!
The water actually works surprisingly well! Moistens the dough enough for the cinnamon sugar to stick. I didn’t miss the butter there at all!
You can actually skip putting anything on the dough and the cinnamon sugar will stick. This was discovered in an accident involving the words “too late, it’s already in the oven!”.