I am a huge fan of cinnamon! A long time ago now I made a cinnamon quick bread and I while I was enjoying it I remember thinking that I wanted to try a yeast bread version. Before I got a chance to try it, things came up, I got distracted and I forgot… and here we are 3 years later and I finally remembered! Being unable to resist the calls of thick swirls of sugary cinnamon in a light and fluffy bread I had to make it right away!
After searching for recipes for a while I decided to go with this recipe for a cinnamon swirl bread from The Pioneer Woman . This recipe starts off as a pretty standard white bread recipe with a bit of extra sugar and then you add the swirls of cinnamon. Adding the cinnamon swirls is pretty easy with you simply rolling the dough out, sprinkling on the cinnamon and then rolling it up to form a log. The hardest part about this recipe is all all of the waiting, especially when the bread is in the oven filling your place with the those amazing fresh baked bread aromas.
The cinnamon swirl bread turned out amazingly well! It has a solid crusty outside and a light, soft, fluffy and moist inside. The cinnamon swirls turned out perfectly and the aroma of the cinnamon was exhilarating! As soon as the loaf had cooled down a bit, I got into it, cutting off a slice and slathering it with butter that started melting into it right away. It is seriously hard to beat that first bite of a still warm, freshly baked bread with melted butter and the cinnamon in this bread seriously takes it over the edge!
After that freshly baked bread euphoria wore off, I could not help but thinking that the sliced cinnamon swirl bread reminded me of cinnamon buns! With that thought I knew exactly what I was going to be having for breakfast the next morning, cinnamon bun bread. I made a simple cream cheese frosting and slathered it on some toasted slices of the cinnamon swirl bread. What an amazing way to start out the day!
Cinnamon Swirl Bread
A light, fluffy and moist bread with swirls of cinnamon.
ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 1/3 cup butter, salted
- 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3-3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1/3 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1/2 cup raisins and/or walnuts, optional
- 1 egg and milk
- 1 tablespoon milk
directions
- Heat the milk in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat, melt the butter into it without boiling, remove from heat and let cool until it is luke warm
- Mix in the yeast and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Mix the eggs and sugar in a large bowl.
- Mix in the milk.
- Mix the flour and salt and beat half of it into the milk mixture until combined.
- Beat in the remaining flour until combined.
- Knead the dough until smooth, adding more flour if it is too sticky.
- Place the dough in a large greased bowl, cover and let it rise until it has doubled in size, about 2 hours. (Tip: Warm the bowl first by filling it with hot water and drying it out just before use.)
- Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out so that it is as wide as your baking pan and about 18 to 24 inches long.
- Spread the butter over the dough.
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it over the dough.
- Roll the dough up into a log.
- Place the dough into a greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan, cover and let it rise until it has doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Mix the egg and milk and brush it over the top of the loaf.
- Bake the loaf in a preheated 350F/180C oven until golden brown on top, about 30-40 minutes.
I dont think I have ever seen a more perfect loaf of cinnamon swirl bread. It's beautiful and oh so tempting!
Beautiful bread. The swirl is perfect! I can never get mine that perfect, I guess that means I need more practice 🙂 I love the icing idea. My hubby always just sprinkles more cinnamon sugar on top of it but I'll make some icing for him next time 😀
Your cinnamon swirls look so perfect! I've seen another version I think from Cooking Illustrated. This seems pretty simple and I can't wait to try it!
Que pasada, esto es una delicia.
Saludos
Beautiful and surely divine!
Cheers,
Rosa
I also am a big fan of cinnamon. But I never ate cinnamon bread. Looks very tasty.
What a *perfect* swirl you got, well done.
Looks fantastic and yummy. I also like cinnamon very much.
This bread look amazing! Picture perfect. I wish I could make my own cinnamon bread!
I made it a few months ago and agree that it was DELICIOUS! http://alittlenosh.blogspot.com/2010/09/cinnamon-bread.html
looks fantastic!
Kevin, this is easily one of the best-looking loaves of homemade cinnamon swirl bread I've ever seen! I might try it with a combination of white & whole wheat flour.
I think I can almost smell the fresh bread-nothing smells better when baking. Your cinnamon bread looks perfect!
The swirl looks perfect. Very nice!
oh my – this looks so delicious!!
Kevin I love this type of bread look amazing like always!!! regards, gloria
Your photos are making my mouth water. I'm sure this would make awesome French toast, too.
That looks beautiful!
The swirls look perfect.
I'd agree that this is an amazing way to stary your day Kevin!!!
That looks obscenely delicious!
The swirl looks so beautiful and the bread looks so soft and moist! It's the kinda of bread I would want for breakfast! I don't think I can stop for just one slice. 😉
Look at those swirls! And I don't think I've seen such an even color on any crust! Great job, Kevin!
Gorgeous!!! I must make this somewhen soon.
Kevin, I too am a huge fan of cinnamon and put it in almost every dessert (and tagine). And I love cinnamon swirl bread and yours is absolutely stunning! Gorgeous! A must-try recipe for me!
I've totally been meaning to make this bread as well! Anything with that much cinnamon has to be delicious.
This looks super tasty and gorgeous! Will have to try it!
That sounds delicious! Your bread is also so pretty. Amazing.
Did you ever tried this?
Roll the dough and cut it in two long pieces and than swirl it.
It looks funny…
There must be something in the air; I just made cinnamon bread and cinnamon rolls too! Anything to help get through the last weeks of winter…
If only I had this right now! Great looking bread 🙂
I wish everyone would love cinnamon as much as I do. This is a great looking bread.
I have found a great resource for cinnamon….and other wonderful spices…..which is Penzeys Spices in Wauwatosa, WI. (penzeys.com) The Vietnamese cinnamon is amazingly fragrant and has such a depth of flavor. I put it in my coffee, too…along with any recipe that calls for cinnamon.
This would make excelent french toast or bread pudding. Thank you for not adding raisins!
You had me at cinnamon! 🙂
The overall look is truly awesome,
and I got to tell you I dream of the day when my breads' crusts will be like that.
Definitely trying it tomorrow!
Cheers!
I love Pioneer Woman! This bread looks fantastic. It would be so yummy as a late night snack with decaf coffee, or as french toast! Mmmm
You have the perfect swirl going on there! Mmmmm…drool!
La girandola è perfetta, ciao 🙂
that shot of the butter all over the bread is insane! that's the piece i want.
This bread looks outstanding I'm going to give it a try!!
Perfect swirls! lovely bread
Absolutely compelling! I think you had me at the butter 🙂
Hi Kevin,
Could you tell me how you shape your bread? I've seen a few techniques and the one that (usually) works best for me is rolling it up in a log, as you say. Do you tuck the ends in? Any special technique you could share? The crumb is just so perfect!
-Jennifer
Jennifer: I normally try to tuck the ends in a little but this loaf just fit barely in the pan so I did not get the chance to.
Great looking bread that makes me salivate! I was wondering if it would be possible to combine the ingredients and put it in a breadmaker? I've got wrist injury so kneading is definitely very hard to do. Thanks!
– Jen
Anonymous: I am not too familiar with bread machines but I image that you could use the bread machine up until the time when the kneading is done or maybe even the first rising is done and then take it out and continue with the recipe as normal.
hi Kevin,
I want to try this recipe, could you please give me the size of the pan but in cm? thanks
Hi Kevin, I came across your blog and like what I see so far. I'm still looking through all your recipes. I actually made this bread yesterday and it didn't quite come out looking like yours. haha The bread stuck to the pan and I even buttered it up pretty good, any thoughts on what went wrong. Also the top seemed to pop off? Anyways, it is still edible and very tasty. I love cinnamon and sugar and was out of bread so thought I'd give it a go. Thanks!
Anonymous: The pan that I use is 22cm X 12cm X 7cm, though a pan that is a little larger will also work as the loaf barely fit in it. 🙂
JR/Mike: What kind of a pan were you using? Next time you can try lightly dusting the inside of the pan with flour after greasing it and then dump any excess flour that does not stick to the sides.
I've also had good results with using water to moisten the dough before layering on the cinnamon sugar.
Heresy, I know, to use water instead of butter.
But it does keep the swirl sticking to the next layer – and the top doesn't pop up, so no holes for the butter leak through the toast and leave puddles on the plate.
Not that I'm opposed to puddles of butter…obviously. I just like them on my toast, instead.
Hey Kev,
I did this and it was great! I made a bread for the first time woohoo!
But, there is one very bad thing. The taste of yeast it was in it. Why? It tastes yeasty all of it. It kindda ruined the taste to be honest 🙁
Did yours tasted too?
Sandra
Sandra: Homemade breads will have more of a yeasty aroma and flavour than store bought breads but it should definitely not be overpowering. You can reduce the amount of yeast but the dough will take longer to rise.
The swirl pattern lured me in. Another thing to put on my must try out list 😀
Kevin, our diets are shot!! it's divine! i used walnuts and raisins too, an irresistible result. thanks for your wonderful blog!
carole s.
I just made this and even substituted in 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour. It turned out perfectly! The I went a little over board on the rolling so, there are a lot more swirls and they are closer together. The more cinnamon sugar the better, right!?
Question: do you make the saran wrap tight when you put the loaf in the pan to rise for another 2 hours?? Mine rose RIDICULOUSLY! (after 1/2 hour of the second rise it was exploding out of the saran wrap), finally after 1 hour of rising I decided to bake it b/c it was starting to flop over the sides of the loaf pan. So do I make it really tight & even though it reaches the saran wrap in 1/2 hour, do I let it keep rising for the full 2 hours & b/c it's super tight it won't flop over the sides, or should i make 2 loaves instead?
update: so it turned out perfectly even with only 1 hour rise, perfect swirls & oh so good tasting! I had to cut the parts off that were over the edge. Next time, Maybe I'll just do tight saran wrap to stop it from going over the edge?? (and the 1 hour second rise turned out, no problem, so may do that next time to cut back some time!)
Anonymous: I am glad that every thing worked out! What size of loaf pan did you use? I normally use a 9x5x3 inch pan and although the dough does rise a lot it does not spill over the sides. (The loaf in the photos above rose a good 2 inches above the edge of the pan.)
I didn't realize there were different sizes 😉 I used a glass 9×5 as well. must've just been the yeast! It rose obviously higher than the pan, but it was the fact that it started to spill over the sides that had me worrying. I ended up trying to stuff the sides back in before baking & then cut off the parts that still fell over once it was cooked (b/c otherwise I couldn't get the loaf out of the pan!)
Just made your recipe and it was almost perfect. I just had a massive gap between the top two layers of dough! Do you have any suggestions about how to reduce the gap?
karenintheory: I am glad you liked it! You could try poking the top layer with a fork a few times, penetrating down into the second layer, to prevent it from separating too much on the top.