Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Perfect for a quick snack or to make your French toast full of flavour from the inside out.
Equipment
- 2 9.5x5 inch loaf pans glass preferred
- 1 large bowl
- 1 cooling rack
Ingredients
- 2½ cup Water room temperature
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 6½ cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp table salt
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- ½ tbsp granulated sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl add water, yeast and sugar. Using a fork or small spoon give the ingredients a quick stir then allow to proof for around 5 minutes until yeast becomes foamy.
- add flour and salt, and use a wooden spoon to bring all the ingredients in the bowl together until you can no longer see any liquid at the bottom of the bowl.
- turn the ingredients out onto a clean dry surface and begin kneading with clean hands.
- the dough will begin to come together and will become sticky, do not add any extra flour just continue to knead the dough until it starts to hold together and become a smooth ball of dough.
- the dough will begin to firm up and resist the kneading over time. this is when you are ready to let the dough go through its first rise. you should be able to poke a dent into the dough with your finger and it will spring back fairly quickly and level out as if you have never made the dent at all.
- place the dough into a large bowl that has been lightly sprayed with a cooking spray. cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot in your kitchen to rise for 1 hour. Till it has doubled in size.
- once the dough has risen remove the plastic wrap carefully and punch the dough down in the middle.
- the dough should instantly deflate to be almost its original size.
- prepare the two bread pans by spraying with an oven-safe cooking spray making sure you have covered the entire pan.
- turn the dough out onto a clean dry surface and using a knife or bread scrapper divide the dough in half.
- flatten each half into a long rectangle about 1 inch smaller than the length of your bread pan, and 12 to 15 inches long.
- mix the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and sprinkle all over the dough.
- use your hands to press the cinnamon mixture slightly into the dough.
- starting at one of the small ends begin to roll the dough. as tightly as possible and even pull slightly to stretch the dough thinner as you roll. The more you roll the tighter coil you will get.
- pinch the ends together and the edge of the roll so that you can not see any of the filling. if you have some that have spilled out onto the counter you can roll the dough into it to create a bit of flavour on the outside of the loaf.
- repeat the filling and rolling steps with the second loaf (I chose not to fill my second loaf and have it as a plain white sandwich loaf for making lunches the next day)
- place the rolled loaves seam side down the prepared loaf pans, and lightly cover again with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with a bit of cooking oil. then allow it to rise for 1 more hour until it has doubled in size.
- preheat the oven to 375℉ (using the convection setting if you have it)
- remove the plastic wrap very carefully so you don't accidentally deflate the bread. place pans on the middle rack of the stove and bake for 30 minutes,
- remove the baked loaves from the oven, they should be a beautiful golden brown colour and sound hallow if you were to knock on the to with one finger,
- Immediately remove the warm loaves from the pans and allow them to cool on the baking rack completely.
- wait for them to cool completely before cutting them open. they are still baking inside and slicing them into a warm loaf will result in an under cooked gummy texture.