Dave's Page
The cinnamon swirl bread is a simpler loaf than the sourdough. No starter, for one thing. Here's the recipe I ended up with. Sorry I haven't put in the metric translations yet. I have made a few other changes to the recipe since I originally posted it. I'm changing the recipe as of May 2024 to reflect these changes.
I start the loaf in our bread machine. Add the following ingredients to the machine (in this order):
Program the "Home Made" cycle on the bread machine to preheat for 30 minutes, knead for 15 minutes, let the bread rise for 90 minutes, and then STOP. Start the machine. When it gets to the kneading stage, take a peek a couple of times to make sure it has the right amount of moisture (flour varies). Otherwise you can go do other things while the machine does its stuff.
Find a ceramic or glass bowl that's the shape you want. Spray the bowl with cooking spray.
Remove the dough from the bread machine and plop it onto a well-floured board. Roll it out with a rolling pin until it is an oblong shape about 2 cm thick. Sprinkle the whole top evenly with:
Roll it up from one end, and then - I don't know how to describe this (and I'm not very good at it) - tuck one end of the roll in and stretch the other end over. Then plop it seam side up into the bowl. Drape a towel over top.
Turn the oven on hot for 1 minute. Turn it off again. Put the bowl of dough into the oven and let it rise for around an hour.
Take the bowl out, and put a baking stone into the oven. I use a pizza stone, but lots of other things will work. Preheat to 350 F.
When the oven is hot, turn the dough out of the bowl and put it on the pizza stone. I find a peel a useful tool for this step. The seam side should now be down. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and place on a rack to cool.
While the loaf is cooling, you can make some kind of glaze or frosting to decorate it. My current idea is to make up some royal icing and pipe it on. This batch makes too much for one loaf of bread, but you can freeze the rest and keep it for next time. Prepare the following ingredients:
Using the whip attachment of your stand mixer (or a hand mixer), beat the egg whites on low until frothy. Then gradually add the powdered sugar, continuing to beat on low. Add the other two ingredients. Now turn the speed up to high and beat until stiff peaks form. It should look shiny and should mostly stand up when you take the beater out and turn it upside-down.
When the icing is ready, put some of it into a piping bag or whatever you use for piping icing. I use a 1/8" tip. Pipe on beads of icing in whatever design takes your fancy. Freeze the extra icing you don't use, putting a bit of wax paper on the surface to prevent ice crystals. If it isn't stiff enough when you thaw it out, you can revive it in your mixer.
This bread makes a nice treat for special occasions or potlucks. It's nice as a dessert bread. It toasts well, and goes nicely with jam, marmalade, peanut butter, or other nut spreads. You can even make French toast with it if some of it gets a bit stale. Some people say I should add raisins. That might be nice, but I like it the way it is.
Dave's Bread Page
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