Cinnamon Bread
Winter is slowly creeping into my kitchen. I see it in the dark mornings as I make breakfast and pack lunches. I see it in the daily hot chocolate requests from the kids. And I see it in the desire to bake just to make my kitchen nice and toasty!
As much as I love the combination of spices that make up pumpkin spice - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger - sometimes I just want the aromatic scent of cinnamon wafting throughout the house. I love sprinkling cinnamon on top of my coffees, lattes, hot chocolate, and even milk just to add another layer of spice to my drinks.
This cinnamon bread recipe that I originally found made by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, has the perfect amount of cinnamon sugar to make a sweet loaf that isn’t too sweet. You can enjoy it straight out of the oven, toasted with butter that melts into all the cracks, or topped with something a little sweeter just so you can have something bordering the line into dessert. (Some examples of this would be cinnamon bread a la mode, cinnamon bread with whipped cream, or cinnamon bread with nutella). All delicious!
I personally don’t like raisins, but you could easily add them in to make a cinnamon raisin bread. You could also easily replace the cinnamon sugar mixture with any combination of your favorite spices or spreads. There is really no wrong way to flavor this bread!
Ingredients
Loaf
1 cup Milk
6 tbsp Butter
2 ½ tsp Active Dry Yeast
2 Eggs (room temperature)
⅓ cup Sugar
3 ½ cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Salt
Spread
2 tbsp Melted Butter
⅓ cup Sugar
2 tbsp Cinnamon
Topping
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
Kid Friendly Instructions
1. Melt the butter with the milk. You can either do this on the stove or microwave it for about a minute. Measure out the yeast and let your little one sprinkle it on top of the melted butter and milk. (Make sure it’s warm to the touch). Mix the yeast in and let it sit for 10 minutes. You can observe the yeast foaming up at the top. During this time, get your little one to look up the science behind activating yeast!
2. Combine the flour and salt in a separate bowl.
3. In a big bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs. Pour the yeast mixture into this bowl and mix till combined. Add half of the flour mixture and mix together. Add the other half and continue mixing.
4. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment to knead the dough for around 5 minutes. If, like me, you have no stand mixer, get ready to use some arm muscle to knead this dough. I used a wooden spoon. My son tried to help with this process and got through 30 seconds before his arm got too tired! This dough starts of very wet and sticky, but if you keep mixing for a good 5 minutes it will come together into a more firm dough.
5. Drizzle a little oil into another mixing bowl (I just used the same bowl that I mixed the dough in) and put the ball of dough in it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm environment to rise for 2 hours.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a big rectangle with a rolling pin. (The kids always love taking turns using this contraption for some reason). Make sure you get whichever pan you will bake this loaf in and measure out the length of the pan to match with the length of your rectangle.
7. Use a pastry brush to smear the melted butter all over the surface of your rolled out dough. Then, your little ones can go crazy and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mixture all over.
8. Start rolling the dough, trying to keep it as tight as you can.
9. Grease the loaf pan. Place the dough into the pan. I used this circular cake pan that I bought at Ikea. You can use any loaf pan that you have - just make sure you roll the dough out to match the length.
10. Cover this with plastic wrap and let sit for another 2 hours (yes it’s a long process!)
11. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
12. If your little one is still interested, let them mix the egg and milk together and spread all over the top of the dough. Put in the oven and bake for 35 - 40 minutes.
13. Remove the loaf from the pan, let cool, and enjoy!
Love this recipe? Let us know and show us how yours turned out! Tag us @Luvabubaby on instagram, facebook, and twitter!
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