Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I love Cinnamon Bread and have made it often using my sour dough starter. It’s good, but recently I was flipping through an old bread cookbook of mine, and found a recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Bread that is out of this world! It’s a little different than any recipe I’ve made or eaten. Each short side is rolled up toward the middle, making the cutest slices!

The filling has brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts in it. When I put a piece of this in the toaster, buttered it a little and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar over the slice, it was heaven! It made a wonderful breakfast, alongside my scrambled eggs. It’s kind of like having a cinnamon roll, only it’s not nearly as fattening!

My cookbook is by Better Homes and Gardens and has recipes for a bread machine, but I”ve never owned a bread machine. I simply make the bread by hand. In my instructions below, I share how I adapted the recipe to make without the bread machine.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup butter 
• 4 cups bread flour
• ¼ cup white sugar 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 
• 2 tablespoons softened butter, divided 
• 2 teaspoons sifted confectioners’ sugar, divided (Optional)

Directions

• Step 1 Place milk, eggs, 1/4 cup butter, bread flour, sugar, salt, and yeast into a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer, select the dough setting, and start the machine. When dough cycle is complete, transfer dough to a floured work surface and punch down. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
  Note: I did not make this in a bread machine. I mixed the ingredients in a bowl, then kneaded it for about 10 minutes, until the bread was elastic and smooth. Then I placed it in a bowl and let it rise until it nearly doubled in size. This took close to two hours.
• Step 2 Mix walnuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl.
• Step 3 Divide dough in half and roll each half into a rectangle about 9×14 inches. Spread 1 tablespoon softened butter over the top of each dough rectangle and evenly sprinkle dough with half the walnut mixture. Roll dough rectangles, starting from the short ends, and pinch seams closed.
• Step 4 Grease 2 9×5-inch loaf pans. Fit the rolled loaves into the loaf pans with seam sides down. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
• Step 5 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Step 6 Bake loaves in the preheated oven until lightly golden brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped, about 30 minutes. If loaves brown too quickly, lightly cover with aluminum foil for the last 10 minutes of baking. Let bread cool for 10 minutes before removing to finish cooling on wire racks. Sprinkle tops of each loaf with 1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar.

Oh friends, if you like Cinnamon bread, you need to make this recipe! I sliced it and put it in the freezer. Whenever I want a special addition to breakfast I just take out a piece at a time.

Any other Cinnamon Bread fans out there?