Back when I was dreaming of having a blog and thinking up names, I thought I might make it about amateur bread making and call it "The Bread (etc.) Project." I'm glad I didn't, though, because then I would kind of be obligated to post mainly about bread. And although I love bread and have a lot of fun making it and reading about it, I want this to be more of an all-purpose blog, with an emphasis on vegetarian yumminess and to-die-for sweets. The thing is, back then I was trying to limit my sweets intake. And seeing how much I love to bake, I decided that I would swap baking for bread making. It worked for a little while, but then, guess what… It stopped working. I love baking and cannot deny it.
Anyways, I think I'm going to try to start up the bread project again. This means making a different type of bread each week. Are you in? Don't worry though, baking has not been called off!
Cinnamon bread
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman's blog
Ingredients
1 cup milk
6 TBSP (¾ stick) unsalted
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
2 whole eggs
⅓ cup sugar
3 ½- 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour*
1 tsp salt
⅓ cup sugar (for filling)
2 TBSP cinnamon
Egg and milk mixed together for brushing (optional)
1 TBSP melted butter
Melt 6 TBSP butter with the milk. Heat until warm enough to melt the butter but do not boil. Allow to cool until the mixture is warm, between 95F and 115F. Sprinkle yeast on top and gently mix in. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Combine flour and salt in a small bowl.
Using your stand mixer, mix together sugar and eggs using the paddle attachment until they are combined. Pour in the yeast mixture; stir to combine. Add half of the flour and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the other half and beat until completely mixed in.
Using the dough hook, knead the dough on medium speed for about ten minutes, until the dough starts to pull away from/ scrape the sides of the bowl. If dough is sticky, add up to 1 more cup of flour, ¼ cup at a time*.
Drizzle a small amount of unflavored oil into a metal or glass mixing bowl. Place the dough ball in the bowl and toss in the oil to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place for 2 hours**.
Turn dough out onto a work surface lightly sprinkled with flour. Roll into a rectangle about as wide as the loaf pan (no wider) and the length should be between 18 to 24-inches long. Brush with the 1 TBSP of melted butter. Mix ⅓ cup sugar and the cinnamon together and sprinkle evenly over the buttered dough. Starting at the far end, roll the dough toward you, keeping it tight. Pinch seam to seal.
If you aren't using a nonstick loaf pan, smear with more softened butter. Place the dough, seam down in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 more hours.**
Preheat the oven to 350F. Spread the egg/milk mixture over the top of the loaf right before putting in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes on the middle/ lower rack of the oven. Don't be fooled, it browns pretty quickly. You'll know the bread is ready when the bottom sounds hollow when thumped on, and/or the internal temperature of the bread is at least 180- 190F. Remove from pan and allow to cool.
*Note- I used 4 ½ cups of flour here. That's probably because I live in a humid climate, and this happens with most of my recipes. The dough should never be wet. Add flour gradually, by the ¼- cupful, while kneading in the stand mixer. I usually always like to finish up the dough by kneading it by hand, and that also allows me to feel how much more flour I need. Also, because I used such a large quantity of flour, I ended up with much more dough. I made one loaf, plus 9 mini cinnamon rolls (that I frosted with leftover Oreo frosting) with this dough that is only supposed to make 1 loaf.
**Note- This bread was quite an adventure because I didn't calculate the time well when I started the recipe, and realized until it was too late that I wouldn't have enough time. I cut the first rise down to about 1 hour and 20 minutes, and when the bread was on its second rise after being shaped, it rose at room temperature for about 40 minutes. Then my boyfriend came and wanted me to accompany him to buy fish and I tried an experiment, I left the bread (halfway through the second rise) in the fridge, which was pretty brave of me. I left it in there overnight and the next day took it out of the fridge about 3 hours before baking to continue rising and come back to room temperature. This worked fine. I am a huge fan of the Peter Reinhart overnight-in-the-fridge technique, however I was worried my experiment would not work because his method uses the fridge for the first rise, and that time had already passed. Needless to say, my bread is delicious and fine!
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