Cinnamon Bread

Dusted cinnamon sugar bread in loaf tin on wire rack.

Developed as an a sweet version of my Garlic Herb Bread this cinnamon bread is as fun to make as it is delicious. A yeast bread conveniently combined in the food processor then gets smothered with a sugary cinnamon butter mix. This cinnamon bread makes the perfect breakfast, brunch or dessert and literally melts in your mouth.

Prep Time15

Cook Time40

Rising time1 25

Total Time2 20

Course: bread

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: cinnamon bread

Servings:

Calories: 357kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

Bread

3 ½ cups/565 grams plain flour Note 1
1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast Note 2
1 tablespoon sugar Note 3
1 teaspoon salt
1 ⅓ cups milk Note 4
2 tablespoons butter

Cinnamon butter

150 grams unsalted butter room temperature, Note 5
½ cup white sugar Note 6
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon Note 7

Instructions

Bread dough: grease your food processor bowl and then add the plain flour, yeast, sugar, salt, milk and butter. Blitz to combine (around 30 seconds). Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 30 seconds. Then spray a large mixing bowl with cooking oil. Add the combined dough, flip to the other side then cover with cling wrap and a tea towel. Set aside for 1 hour to rise (double in size).
Cinnamon butter: add the butter, sugar and cinnamon powder to a small mixing bowl and stir until consistently combined.
Loaf tin: grease a 21 x 11 x 7 cm non stick loaf pan (8.3 x 4.5 x 2.75") with cooking spray (or when you have a minute between steps).
Roll and layer: once the hour is up, remove the tea towel and discard the plastic wrap. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for about 30 seconds and then use a rolling pin to roll out dough into a large rectangular pizza shape (thick crust). Use a soup spoon to dollop the cinnamon butter onto the dough, flip the spoon and then use the back of it to spread out in one even layer leaving a border around the 4 edges.
Slice and stack: use a pizza wheel to cut the large rolled dough into 16 evenish sixed pieces. Then stack 4 at a time and place these vertically into your bread pan. Repeat till all pieces are stacked in the tin. Then cover with cling wrap and a tea towel and let rise for 25 minutes.
Preheat oven: to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5 (you can do this during the 2nd rise period in the step above).
Oven bake: once the 25 minutes is up remove the tea towel and discard the plastic wrap. Then tent the bread with a foil and baking paper cover. Note. Place the bread into the oven (middle shelf) and pour 1-2 cups of water into a baking tray under the bread. Let the bread cook for 30-35 minutes. A skewer insert should come out clean indicating that the bread is cooked.
To serve: use oven mitts to remove the bread and place it into a heatproof surface. Remove the tent. Let the bread sit for 5-10 minutes before removing from the tin. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm with butter, maple syrup and fresh fruits.

Video

Notes

Note 1 - Plain flour: also know as all purpose flour. This is not bread flour nor self raising flour. No need to sift.
Note 2 - Instant yeast: this gets added to the ingredients as is. It doesn't need liquid to activate it.
Note 3 - White sugar: this is granulated white sugar, no icing mixture or confectioner's sugar which are powdered sugars. The tablespoon measure is an Australian (metric system) 20 ml which is 20 grams of sugar.
Note 4 - Milk: you can use full cream milk or skim milk. Both will work well. I have also used long life milk for this recipe and it turned out just as good as fresh refrigerated cow's milk.
Note 5 - Butter: unsalted. It needs to be soft to allow us to mix it in with ease. So either grab it out and let it come to room temperature or simply put in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before use. In which case, it is ok if a little of it melts. Same, same, no dramas.
Note 6 - Sugar: as mentioned above in note 3 this is regular white granulated sugar.
Note 7 - Ground cinnamon: when developing this recipe I thought about using cinnamon sugar. But we would need a lot of it and it turns out less cost effective than simply combining white sugar with ground cinnamon. Plus this way we get to control the flavor to the finest detail. That being said, you can dust with cinnamon sugar where I use soft powdered icing mixture if you please.

Nutrition