My crazy life is a bit of a whirlwind right now with a zillion things going on. Busy things. Things that make me want to pull my hair out sometimes. Things that are turning out to be great opportunities that are good and exciting and fun. And a few things that aren’t so good. All of these things make me feel stressed out and want to eat carbs… lots of them, because that’s my downfall when I’m stressed out. Not chocolate. Not french fries or milkshakes, but plain old, good-old fashioned carbs: like this Cinnamon Swirl Bread.
It’s a yeasted bread, but don’t be afraid. I’ll show you how easy it is to make…
Into a bowl, place sugar, salt and cinnamon. Pour melted butter and warmed milk over; stir. Dissolve yeast in warm water and pour that in there too. Add flour; mix. Pretty easy so far, right?
Dump the dough out onto a floured surface, add more flour and knead it for a few minutes until it’s smooth and no longer sticky. Place the dough into a greased bowl, cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place (I use a slightly warmed oven). Take it out and punch it down. Still pretty easy…
Dump it onto a floured surface again, knead it for a minute or so and then roll it out into a rectangle. Spread with butter and sprinkle w/ cinnamon & sugar. It’s here that you may want to begin nibbling pieces of dough that are coated with butter and cinnamon/sugar. Maybe not, but I’m always tempted to do it. You must be strong. Resist.
Start at one end and roll it up. Yum yum yum yum yum.
Look? It’s all cute and snuggly all rolled up like that. Keep the seam underneath…
…because then you’re going to transfer it to a bread pan, seam-side down. Cover the pan, and let it rise in a warm place one more time. Soooooooo, what you’re probably realizing at this point is that making bread is really pretty darn easy. You just have to be patient with the rising times. Your patience will be rewarded soon. Promise.
Cut some slits into the top of the loaf.
And bake it up into a perfectly golden loaf.
Technically, you could slice it up right away and sample it with some melted butter all sunken into those cinnamony crevices. It’s good like that.
But probably you should let it cool, then slice. It’s just as good sliced and popped into a toaster in the next day or two. And it’s even more incredible when used as French Toast. This Cinnamon Swirl Bread is also useful for satisfying carb cravings and relieving stress (and I speak from personal experience).
Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Ingredients
BREAD
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 envelope (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast
- ¾ cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
- 3 cups all purpose flour, divided + more for surface work
TOPPINGS
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a microwavable cup, heat butter and warm milk in short bursts; stir together until butter is melted.
- In a large bowl, stir sugar, salt and cinnamon. Pour warm butter/milk mixture into the bowl and stir.
- In a glass measuring cup or small bowl, mix yeast and warm water until yeast is dissolved; pour into the bowl and stir.
- Mix in 2½ cups flour. Turn out dough onto a floured board (dough will be sticky). Sprinkle remaining ½ cup of flour onto the dough and knead until the dough is soft and smooth (4 to 5 minutes). Add additional sprinkles of flour, if needed.
- Put dough into a greased bowl; turn the dough over so the top of the dough is greased too. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, or until doubled in size (see tips below).
- Punch down the dough in the bowl with your fist. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 1 minute.
- Roll dough out into a basic rectangular shape. Use a butter knife or your clean fingers to spread 2 tablespoons softened butter on the surface of the rolled out dough. In a small bowl, mix white sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the butter.
- Roll up dough and form into a loaf. Place into a buttered 5x9 inch bread pan, seam side down. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Score risen dough in the pan by cutting 3 slashes diagonally across the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Bake bread for 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Fully baked bread should sound hollow when tapped.
- Turn out bread and let cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- I like to use the oven as a place for rising. Turn the oven to 400 degrees and heat for one minute. Turn the oven OFF, turn on the light, and now you have a nice, warm place for rising. Make sure the oven is turned off!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I was reading these comments and I was wondering if i should add the sugar to the yeast mixture?
I don’t think that’s necessary… I didn’t make it that way.
The yeast was about 6 months old, but the expiry on it was 2013 so I thought it would be okay. It turned out okay, tasted great and will make it again, but will try letting the yeast foam a bit, and mixing the sugar with the yeast to see if that makes a difference. Thanks for your feedback!
The bread turned out…okay. It did not double in size, but it did rise bit. Maybe next time I will let the yeast sit until it foams, then mix with the other liquids?? Or maybe I will add the sugar to the yeast mix and let sit for a few minutes. What do you think?
perhaps lack of foaming was the culprit. I didn’t have any trouble w/ rising as you can see from the pics, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t bother much with foaming in this recipe. Are you certain your yeast was fresh? Sorry you had trouble…
Do you allow the yeast to foam before you mix with the milk or do you mix right away? I mixed right away and it doesn’s seem to rise very much!
Did the recipe turn out for you? I usually let it sit for a couple of minutes.
Hi Lori,
Thanks so much for answering my previous question. One more question: can you make any part of the recipe IN ADVANCE, THEN FREEZE? For example, could you make the dough and get to the part of scoring it after it has risen and you’ve rolled it out…and then FREEZE it (for a month or so)…then bake? Just wondering if any parts can be done ahead, then frozen, and if so, do the recipe directions change in any way? Thanks!
I don’t know! I can’t really say since I haven’t tried…
THANK YOU!!!!! for making a simple understandable recipe I searched for a good 30 minutes different sites even famous food websites this was the simplest one I found! Thanks!!!
Thanks for the recipe! Do you actually bring your oven all the way up to 400 degrees? So – you keep it at 400 degrees for one minute, then turn off the oven, and then immediately put the bread in to rise, correct?
No! Don’t bring it all the way to 400 degrees. Just set if for 400 dg, then turn on the oven for 1 minute only. Then turn it OFF. That just gets a little bit of heat in there for rising.
Wow – I just pulled the bread out of the oven and I can’t wait to cut it. I looks and smells amazing….. and it was soooo easy to make. thanks a lot
By far the BEST recipe for cinnamon bread–this replaces all the breads we used to buy at the bakery and grocery stores…I made a few changes though…I didn’t have butter or margarine so I used 2 T oil in the batter, added 2 t of vanilla extract, added one egg, and instead of spreading butter, I just patted some vegetable oil on the dough then added of course lots of extra light brown sugar, sugar and cinnamon. I don’t even own a loaf pan so I doubled the recipe and put two loaves side by side in a 13×9 cake pan. Turned out great! Thanks soooo much!!!
Excellent- great to hear of your success and your changes!
This was my first attempt at a yeast bread and it came out perfectly! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Yahoo!