Cinnamon Bread

This buttery cinnamon bread, with an extra gooey cinnamon swirl is like a giant cinnamon roll that you can slice, toast, & slather with butter. 

My husband and I recently spent some time in Southern California with some of our closest friends. One day we found ourselves standing in line at Dudley's Bakery, mouths drooling over the selection of decadent looking pastries we were about to purchase.

The folks at Dudley's are smart. The line to the pastry case and registers winds through shelf after shelf of freshly baked bread and sweet rolls. It's nearly impossible to not purchase at least one loaf or package of rolls. 

While (unsuccessfully) doing my best to not succumb to temptation, our friend lamented that cinnamon bread never contains enough cinnamon. He wanted a cinnamon swirl that was downright gooey - kinda like a cinnamon roll. He also pointed out, while picking up a loaf of Dudley's cinnamon raisin bread, that it's rare to find a package of cinnamon bread that does not contain raisins.

He has a point. There are few things I love more than thick slices of toasted cinnamon bread, dripping with butter. However... the slices of packaged cinnamon bread are never thick enough, always include raisins, and rarely contain a swirl of cinnamon and sugar that you could rightfully call "gooey".

And so, I decided to just bake a couple of loaves myself. Now, if you're not a bread baker, this might sound overly ambitious. But baking bread is not a difficult task. Most simple loaves - like this homemade white bread recipe - require very little hands on time and, honestly, very little skill.

What I'm trying to say is that a lot of bread baking is pretty basic.

What's NOT basic is the flavor and texture, and pure pleasure of eating homemade bread. It's one of those things for which the reward far outweighs the actual work. If you're a seasoned bread baker, you know of what I speak. If you're new to bread baking, this is a great recipe to start with.

The magical versatility of this cinnamon bread dough

This cinnamon bread is made from the same dough as my favorite dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls, yeast doughnuts, doughnut holes, and apple fritters.

It gets around. I'd been using it to make dinner rolls for years when I realized that it would probably make incredible cinnamon rolls. And, it does. From there, I used it to make caramel rolls. Then doughnuts and apple fritters. All delicious.

So, it was a simple decision to use it for loaves of cinnamon bread as well. The dough is rich and buttery, slightly sweet, and deeply flavorful. After mixing it in a stand mixer (you can also knead it by hand), you simply leave it alone to rise, shape it into rolls, or loaves, or whatever, let it rise again, and bake. Depending on the temperature of the room, the whole process will take less than 4 hours and the actual hands-on time is about 20 minutes.

Homemade Cinnamon Bread, step by simple step

I nearly always use a stand mixer to make bread dough because it makes the process so incredibly easy. Simply add the ingredients to the bowl of the mixer and let it do the work of mixing and kneading.

Having said that, you certainly can make the dough by hand. Use a wooden spoon to begin mixing the dough and then switch to your hands when the dough begins to get to stiff to stir with a spoon. Knead the dough on a lightly floured work surface until smooth, pliable and only slightly tacky.

A note about the yeast: Adding the yeast to the milk before the rest of the ingredients and waiting for it to get a bit foamy is simply a way of checking to make sure the yeast you are using is still active.

If you suspect that your yeast might not be active (perhaps it's old or was exposed to high heat), stir it into just a half cup of room temperature milk to test it. If it gets foamy, then it's fine to add the rest of the milk and proceed with the recipe. If it doesn't get foamy, you should assume that the yeast is inactive and start over with a new package.

A note about the consistency of the dough: Start by adding only 5 cups of flour, then add as much or as little flour as you need to create a smooth, slightly tacky dough. Whether you will need to add all of the 6th cup of flour or just a bit of it depends on a lot of different factors - the humidity of the air, how tightly packed your flour is, the size of the eggs, etc. 

What you want is dough that does not stick to the sides of the bowl while the dough is mixing, but DOES stick slightly to the bottom of the bowl. It should feel smooth and elastic, and a bit tacky. If it's so sticky that it immediately sticks to your hand when you touch it, add a bit more flour and keep kneading.

After the dough has kneaded for about 10 minutes, let it rise in a bowl that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. (You can also use a bit of melted butter or oil to coat the inside of the bowl.)

Let it rise, covered with a piece of plastic wrap that has also been coated with non-stick spray (or butter or oil), until it's doubled in size. Depending on the temperature of your room, this will take between 1 and 2 hours. 

Shaping and filling the loaves of cinnamon bread

After the dough has risen (doubled in size), dump it out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough in half, into two equal portions and shape each portion loosely into a ball. Cover with the greased piece of plastic wrap and let rest for about 5 minutes. This will allow the gluten in the dough to relax a bit, making the dough easier to roll out.

Coat the inside of two loaf pans with a bit of melted butter. Then mix the cinnamon and sugar together. Roll one of the balls of dough out into a rectangle that's approximately 18 inches long and 10 inches wide. Use a pastry brush to cover the dough with melted butter, spreading the butter within about a half inch of the edges, then sprinkle the surface of the dough with cinnamon sugar.

Starting on one of the short ends of the rectangle, roll the dough into a log, rolling as tightly as you can without squeezing out all of the cinnamon sugar filling. Secure the edge of dough to the loaf by pinching the seam together with your fingers. Roll the log of dough over, so that it's resting on your work surface seam side down, and gently pat the ends of the loaf together to compress it slightly. 

Place the loaves into the loaf pans, brush with melted butter, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise until nearly doubled in size before baking.

How to tell when cinnamon bread is done

The loaves will take about 35-40 minutes to bake, at which point they should be a rich golden brown. But, it can be tricky to know for sure that they are baked through. To test, remove one of the loaves from the oven. Plunge a meat or candy thermometer into the center of the loaf to see what the temperature of the inside of the loaf is. If it registers between 195 and 200 degrees, the bread is done baking and can be removed from the oven.

If you don't like the idea of punching a hole in the center of the top of one of your loaves, gently turn one of the loaves out of the pan and plunge the thermometer into the bottom of the loaf to check for doneness.

Let the loaves cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. This will allow the bread to firm up a bit before slicing. If you attempt to slice it right away (soooooo tempting), you're liable to smash it.

More recipes that begin with this bread dough:

• Homemade Dinner Rolls
• Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
• Overnight Caramel Rolls (Sticky Buns)
• Homemade Yeast Doughnuts 
• Doughnut Holes Filled with Salted Caramel Pastry Cream
• Homemade Apple Fritters {Overnight Recipe}

Two simple everyday homemade loaves:

• Simple Homemade White Bread
• Simple Homemade Whole Wheat Bread

Used in this recipe:

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6-Quart KitchenAid Stand Mixer

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.