Cinnamon Swirl Bread:
Bakery quality cinnamon bread made at home. This bread has a thick and rich cinnamon swirl, a great crust, and amazing texture. And it is easy to make! You are going to have way too much fun making this tasty cinnamon bread.
Our family is super fond of cinnamon goodies. Like super fond. We make these 1 hour cinnamon rolls all the time. And almost every kid in the neighborhood has asked me to make them at some point.
So when Bob’s Red Mill asked me to make a baked care package for someone I love, I knew it would involve something with cinnamon! And you guys…this is one of my favorite things I have ever made. As someone who is just now feeling more confident with baking, I have to tell you this is not 100% my original recipe. I got the America’s Test Kitchen Bread Illustrated cookbook, and have been devouring it. It is one of the best cookbooks I have ever owned. It has step by step, photo guides, to help you get bakery results at home. And for a fairly mediocre baker like myself, it is amazing.
There is a bakery that is local to me that makes the most amazing bread. But it is also like $12 for a loaf, so I figured I needed to learn how to make my own so my kid’s college fund wouldn’t be in jeopardy.
Anyway, this recipe is the combination of a babka bread, and a cinnamon swirl. I love the texture of babka, and knew I wanted my cinnamon swirl to be like that. Airy, with a nice crust, and plenty of texture. But I also wanted a super decadent and rich cinnamon filling. So I started with the cinnamon filling for their cinnamon bread, but it wasn’t quite what I had in mind.
After adding some egg whites to get it to be a little thicker, and a better consistency, it was perfection.
Then I spread it over the dough, rolled it up like you would a cinnamon roll, then twisted it into a figure 8, and baked it in the loaf pan. And you guys, this beautiful creation was the result!
Tips for Making Cinnamon Swirl Bread
- Don’t rush the process. You need to let the dough rise appropriately, and let the glutens develop. This cinnamon swirl bread is fairly hands off, but it does take 6 hours or so to make a loaf. I recommend making two batches, so you get two loaves. I still mix them separately, but like to get them going at the same time. Probably because I want to eat the whole thing myself.
- Leave a nice inch or so edge to the dough when spreading the cinnamon swirl filling so you can seal the edges, that filling will ooze out if you don’t, and trust me you want to keep it in the bread!
- Put an egg wash on the bread to get a nice texture for the crust.
- Let the cinnamon swirl bread cool the appropriate amount of time. It can be super hard to wait for the bread to cool for a few hours, but in order to get that rich decadent filling just the way you want it, it needs to cool fully before you slice into it. Patience is a virtue when it comes to this bread!
Ok, is your mouth watering yet? Let’s get to the recipe!
Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 cups white all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup 2% milk room temp
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg yolks reserve whites
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup butter softened
Filling
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 3 Tbs cinnamon
- 2 Tbs sparkling sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large egg whites
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbs water
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, yeast, and salt together in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk milk, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla together, until sugar has dissolved.
- Using a dough hook, start mixing the flour on low speed, and slowly add the milk mixture, letting it mix until a cohesive dough forms. (About 2 minutes of mixing)
- Increase the speed, and start adding your butter to the mixing bowl. You want to add it in little bits. I cut mine into cubes, and drop them in one at a time.
- Continue to knead the dough with the dough hook for 10-12 minutes.
- Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Knead by hand until smooth, about 30 seconds.
- Form dough into a smooth ball, and place seam side down in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until increased in size by half. Approximately 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours.
- Place in refrigerator, let the dough firm up. This will be 1 hour or so.
- Rest at room temp for 15 minutes.
- Roll dough out into a rectangle
- Mix filling ingredients together by hand, then spread 9/10 of the filling over the interior of the dough.
- Spread filling over dough leaving a boarder of a half inch around the edges.
- Roll dough to form a cylinder, like you would a cinnamon roll. Pinch ends together to close them off.
- Take remaining filling and spread it over the top of the cylinder.
- Fold one end of the cylinder over to the other end, and twist twice to form a double figure eight.
- Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray. Place dough into the loaf pan, and cover with greased plastic.
- Let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Mix an egg wash together by lightly beating with a fork the egg, water, and salt.
- Bake 40-45 minutes until loaf is golden brown.
- Let cool in pan for 15 minutes. Then dump out, and cool for 2-3 hours before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Ginger says
I’ve made this a couple of times now, and while it is super yummy, my filling is way too ooze-y. It does not stay on the dough as I roll it but literally starts oozing out as I roll. I have not had sparkling sugar to add to it. Could that be my problem? Could I add regular sugar in its place?