Nothing Says Welcome Home Like Cinnamon Bread

I’ve been home alone the past few days while Jason’s been out in California for a work thing. (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—traveling for work is no fun! Poor Jason was out to California and back in about 48 hours.) I wish I could say I have spent my alone time wisely, but for the most part I have completely vegged out--catching up on my DVR’ed shows that Jason doesn’t watch  (Mad Men, Top Chef, and my new guilty pleasure Covert Affairs-a poor man’s Alias) and eating crappy food for dinner.  By last night, however, I had caught up on most of my TV shows and decided that I should do something productive. I decided to stretch my bread baking skills and prepare a welcome home surprise for Jason by trying out a recipe of cinnamon bread.

As diligent readers of this blog, you will know by now that Jason loves his bread. And with the weekend approaching I thought cinnamon bread would be a nice morning treat. I decided to give Pioneer Woman’s very recent recipe a try.  Although time consuming (with all the rising and everything I finally pulled the loaf out of the oven at around 10pm) it was remarkably easy to make.  The only caution I would give is that you should resist the temptation to roll the dough out too thin, otherwise you may have to roll it up to much and end up with uneven cinnamon swirls (heaven forbid!) like I did.

I cheated and had a slice this morning before work. It was good (although to be honest, a bit chewier than I had hoped. Maybe I overworked the dough? Or maybe it was because I used bread flour instead of all-purpose? Or maybe that’s just how it is—not upsettingly chewy but just a little unexpectedly so). But even better than the taste (if there could be such a thing) is the smell…

WARNING: This bread will make your house/apartment/whatever smell like Cinnabon. It’s intoxicating and makes it difficult to sleep (as I learned the hard way) so try not to make it before bed time.

This marked my first successful attempt at using the dough hook on my KitchenAid stand mixer to knead—I’ll never try to knead sticky dough by hand again.

 

I was a little disappointed in how the loaf looked before going into the oven...

But it came out great!

 

 Too bad the swirls were kind of lame-- next time it'll be perfect!

Cinnamon Bread
Adapted ever so slightly from Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 stick of butter
2 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
3 ½ cups flour (I used bread flour but all purpose will do)
2 TBL cinnamon
Cooking spray

1.Heat milk and 5 TBL of butter together until butter is melted. Cool until mixture is warm but not hot. Add yeast and stir.
2.In a bowl (preferably of a stand mixer) beat eggs and 1/3 cup of sugar. Add milk-butter-yeast mixtures and stir together. Add half of the flour and mix until well combined. Repeat with remaining flour.
3.If using a stand mixer, switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth, elastic, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too sticky add an addition ¼ flour and knead for an additional 5 minutes (you want it to be slightly sticky but not overly so). If you are not using a mixer, knead by hand—be sure to flour your hands and work surface at regular intervals (did I mention this dough is sticky?!?)
4.Coat another large bowl with cooking spray and place kneaded dough in the bottom. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours until puffy and doubled in bulk. Let the remaining TBL of butter sit out at room temperature during the rise time.
5.Dump the dough on to a floured work surface. Roll out the dough to a rectangle. Try to make sure the width of the rectangle is the size of the loaf pan. Spread the room temperature butter over the dough. Mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the butter dough. Roll the dough into a log and pinch the seam shut. Place the log seam side down into a greased loaf pan—if it is a little too long for the pan, fold the ends under so that it will fit. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for another 45 minutes to an hour.
6.Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely before slicing.