A couple of months ago, as I was visiting Honey and Jam’s blog, my eyes fell on a Cinnamon Swirl Bread recipe and it caused me to pause…to salivate…to dream and plan (’cause sometimes it take a bit of planning to make bread with my crazy schedule). Yes, it took me a couple of months to slide it in, but boy am I (and my family!!) glad I did! If you’ve never attempted to make a loaf of homemade cinnamon bread, I encourage you to try! Making bread sounds daunting to many, but once you get the hang of it, it really is easy and well worth the time.
There are a couple of bread making tips I’ve learned along the way. I’ll share them with you, but then you have to promise me, you will attempt to make bread, you will rise to the challenge and just do it! Really, people have been making bread for thousands of years! You can do it! Your husbands will fall madly in love with you, your children will worship the ground you walk on and your neighbors will be bringing you fresh produce from their gardens in hope of just getting a slice of this bread! So, dig down deep, find the inner domestic diva and get to baking!
1. When proofing your dough, I recommend heating your oven to 225 degrees F but, then turn the oven off. This will set up a “proofing oven”. It makes it just warm enough to encourage the dough to rise.
2. If kneading dough in a kitchen aid, keep kneading until the dough pulls away from the sides and begins to pool at the bottom.
3. Dough is done kneading when it is slightly tacky to touch, but not sticking to your hands.
4. Pull that dough out of the bowl, flour it and knead with your hands for a bit…just for the primal, organic feeling of making bread
5. With this recipe, I had ooey, gooey goodness pouring out of the dough when cooking. I didn’t seal in the cinnamon and sugar enough with rolling dough up. Make sure you do! But, just in case, put a sheet tray underneath the loaves to catch the juice!
6. I did not add raisins. (A little something about me, when I was 5, I went to a friend’s house and her dad made me sit there and eat a bowl of raisins. I have hated raisins ever since.)
7. Loaves should cool before eating, but good luck with this! Once everyone catches a whiff of the baking bread, you will have a hard time warding them off!
I shared these loaves with family and neighbors. One neighbor, hid a piece and got up early the next morning and turned it into french toast! He said it was unbelievable! It was definitely a LoveFeast moment!
