Homemade Cinnamon Swirl Bread

My second BrunchWeek recipe is homemade cinnamon swirl bread. I used to be afraid of baking with yeast. I fit isn’t proofed properly, your dough won’t rise and what ever you are making will be ruined. Honestly, it still makes me a little nervous. I mean, it’s a lot of work between the shopping, preparation, and rising for the recipe to fail. If you don’t work with yeast a lot you may not know all your hard work was for nothing. You may think the dough has risen enough, continue, bake only to realize a flop. The liquid has to be the perfect temperature. Too hot and you will kill the yeast, to cool and the yeast won’t wake up, so to speak. This is how yeast should look, all bubbly, when it’s perfectly proofed. I used Red Star Platinum Superior Baking Yeast. I’ve used other yeast brands in the past and I’ve had no where the success I’ve had with Red Star. I was very pleased with the result.

You know you have a good rise when your dough looks like this:

Now it’s ready for the oven. I promise your house will smell divine while it’s baking. I couldn’t wait for it to cool completely. I had to cut it and taste. It was great but it had to pass the kid test. My son’s love cinnamon bread. I must buy 2 – 3 loaves a week. Well, this homemade cinnamon swirl bread passed!

Homemade Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 4 hours

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours 40 minutes

Your house will smell delicious as this bread bakes.

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Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 1/2 teaspoons (1 1/4 ounce packet) Red Star Platinum Superior Baking Yeast
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup Dixie Crystals sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Dixie Crystals sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• Egg and milk mixed together for brushing
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• Softened butter for greasing pan

Instructions

1. Melt butter with milk. Heat until very warm, but don't boil. Allow to cool to approximately 110 degrees F. Sprinkle yeast over the top, stir gently and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
2. Combine flour and salt.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix 1/3 cup sugar and eggs with paddle attachment until combined. Pour milk/ yeast mixture into egg mixture and stir to combine. Add half the flour and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the remaining flour and beat until combined.
4. Switch to the dough hook attachment and knead dough on medium speed for 10 minutes. If dough is too sticky, add 1/4 cup flour and beat 5 minutes longer.
5. Heat a metal or glass bowl so it's warm and drizzle a little vegetable oil. Place the dough in the bowl and toss to coat in oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for at least 2 hours until doubled.
6. Turn dough out onto the work surface. With a floured rolling pin, roll dough into a rectangle no wider than your loaf pan and about 20 inches long. Brush surface of dough with melted butter. Combine the 1 cup sugar with cinnamon. Sprinkle over dough. Starting at one of the short ends of the dough, roll the dough, keeping it tight. Peach seam to seal.
7. Grease loaf pan with softened butter. Place dough, seam side down into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 hours until doubled.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
9. Mix egg with a small amount of milk and brush over top of doubled loaf. Bake for 40 minutes on middle or lower rack in the oven.
10. Remove from oven and immediately remove from pan. Insert knife along edge to loosen and cool completely on wire rack.

Notes

Perfect for toasting, making French toast or bread pudding.

Thank you to #BrunchWeek Sponsors: Red Star Yeast, Dixie Crystals, Cabot Cheese, Vidalia Onion Committee, Sage Fruits, Nielsen-Massey, KitchenIQ, and Le Creuset for providing the prizes free of charge. These companies also provided the bloggers with samples and product to use for #BrunchWeek. All opinions are my own.

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