So on this beautiful, sunny, 13 degree Ohio day I have two choices: tackle resolution number #1 which involves hanging out in the kitchen, soaking in the sunshine by my warm oven, or tackle resolution #2 (which is my only non-food related resolution) and purge the mountain of boxes that I hoard in the basement…. the cold…. dark….. basement.
Cinnamon Swirl Bread it is!
Did I mention that purging boxes from the basement does NOT make the house smell like heaven!?
The recipe that I decided to try was from Pinch Of Yum http://pinchofyum.com/homemade-cinnamon-swirl-bread. There was a method to my madness here. First of all, it didn't call for butter and remember how I mentioned that the only yeast bread I was successful with was pizza crust? Well, I chose this recipe because the dough recipe for this cinnamon swirl bread is exactly half of my pizza crust recipe, plus 1/2 a cup of flour and the full amount of sugar. I hoped that the odds were in my favor!
DAIRY FREE CINNAMON SWIRL BREAD
Makes 2 loaves
- 1 cup warm water (I run my tap until it's warm and then fill a measuring cup, previously, I would get out my thermometer and measure exactly 105 to 115 degrees just like the yeast package says but that was too hot and my yeast died, resulting in hockey puck bread).
- 2 tsp sugar (be sure to mix this in to the water, it helps to feed the yeast)
- 1 pkg (2.5 tsp) active dry yeast
- 2.5 cups flour (you can use the high gluten that is recommended in the original recipe, but I used good old all purpose unbleached flour, I'm betting you could do half whole wheat if you want, that's what I do with my pizza crust).
- 1 tsp salt (never mix this in with the yeast or that will prevent your yeast from working)
- 2 tbs olive oil (or your oil of choice)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 tbs cinnamon (mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl)
First, you have to consider where you are going to allow your dough to rise. We're basically polar bears and we keep our house at around 69 degrees year round. This is NOT the ideal temperature to allow dough to rise in. I preheat my oven to 170 degrees (because that's as low as it goes) and then turn it off a few minutes before I put my dough in to rise.
Next, mix the water and sugar together in a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top and give it about 5 minutes to get frothy.
Get your work space ready by setting aside a small bowl of flour in a clean area where you can knead your dough. Prepare a large glass bowl with a coating of oil.
Next mix together the flour and salt. Once the yeast is frothy add the oil and mix the flour/salt in with your hands. Sprinkle your work space with flour and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Place your dough ball in the oiled bowl and give the top a thin coating of oil.
Cover the bowl (not the dough ball) with plastic wrap and put it in the warm but now OFF oven. Allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.
Prepare your next work station with more flour, your rolling pin, your bread pans or baking stone and your cinnamon sugar mixture.
When the dough has doubled in size pull it out, punch it down and divide it in two. Roll out each half into a long rectangle, to fit your bread pan if you're using one. Sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar mixture and then roll into a loaf to be placed in the bread pan or on the baking stone.
Bake 30-40 minutes (this depends on what you bake it in/on). It should be golden brown on top and sound hollow if you knock on it. The original recipe advises to err on the side of over baking if you're not sure. Mine baked for 35 minutes on a baking stone (I don't have 2 bread pans or I probably would have tried that method).
You CAN remove to cool on a wire rack before slicing, OR you can be like me and want warm, fresh, hot out of the oven bread and slice it now. If you're slicing it warm be sure to use a sharp bread knife and a gentle touch.
So my loaves breached containment. The cinnamon sugar mixture oozed out onto my baking stone and I was pretty concerned. Being a novice yeast bread baker I have no idea why or how that happened, but I'll be Googling away my afternoon trying to find out. I'm guessing if I had used bread pans this would be a non-issue.
Turns out it's a non-issue anyway, it sliced beautifully and tasted delicious!
This was so amazing hot out of the oven and I bet it will be outstanding after a trip through the toaster tomorrow morning.
Peace,
Laura
