Thursday, June 23, 2011

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Bread...bread...B-R-E-A-D bread!  Salty, buttery, sweet.  All of them are yum yum yum:)  My husband is a bread FANATIC.  Really!  He will eat bread for breakfast, bread as a snack, and bread right before bed.  No exaggeration...he does eat that much bread.  Mostly it's sweet bread, but he prefers sweet bread that is not too sweet, so, for him, I made a cinnamon swirl bread.  Just a little sweet:)

You need:
3/4 cup water (hot, but not boiling) + 1 TBS room temperature
1/4 cup honey + 2 TBS
3/4 tsp active yeast
2 eggs (1 egg, yolk and white separated)
1/8 cup oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour + extra for kneading and dusting
1/4 cup cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar

In an appropriate sized bowl mix the hot water, yeast, and 2 TBS of honey.  Mix well and let stand for about 10 minutes until foamy.


While the yeast/water mixture is foaming, get the 2 1/2 cups flour, salt, 1 egg and one egg white, and oil ready.  When the yeast/water mixture is ready, mix it with the readied flour and other previously listed ingredients to form a workable dough.  Once mixed, turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until fully combined (add flour a little at a time if the dough is sticky).










When kneaded, put the dough ball back into the bowl, dust with a little flour, and cover with plastic wrap.  Let the dough sit for 2 to 3 hours...until it doubles in size.










When the dough had risen, remove the dough from the bowl and punch it down.  I mean really PUNCH it down.  Then fold it and put back in the bowl to rise again for about an hour.









Once risen, again, take the dough out of the bowl and knead a few times.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough into a fairly wide rectangle.










Once rolled out, warm the honey until "watery," then pour the honey over the dough.  Smooth honey over the dough, then mix the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle evenly over the honey.  Let it rest for about 5 minutes to let the honey thicken a little, then roll the dough to form a log, slightly pinching the ends together to avoid honey leakage.













Prepare a 10" X 5" loaf pan (can be slightly varied in size) by spraying with cooking spray and sprinkling a LIGHT layer of flour so the bread does not stick to the pan.

Place the rolled loaf into the pan, seam side down.  In a small bowl, mix the extra egg yolk and 1 TBS of water and brush a little over the top of the loaf (this part is optional and will add a golden color to the top of the bread).  Place in oven and bake for about 40 minutes.  When ready, remove from oven, then remove the loaf from the pan and allow the loaf to cool (on a wire rack if available...not necessary).  It is important that you allow the loaf to cool completely before slicing.  Remember, there's honey in there.  The honey needs to cool and set before you cut the loaf, or it will run out and make an oozy mess.  It can also burn your skin extremely bad if still hot when cut.  It will only take about an hour for the loaf to cool...it's worth the wait:)  -My seam broke (happens sometimes) so the loaf isn't as pretty as I would have liked for pics.  Sorry.-

2 comments:

  1. Looks really yummy. I can't bake something like this because I will eat all of it.

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  2. Hahaha. I gave half the loaf to my in-laws downstairs. Francisco had one piece down there, then cam up and had 3 pieces of ours:) There isn't a lot of sugar in it, and the honey is okay for you. Just a lot of starch. It would be okay to eat all of it!

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