comment icon 223 more comments Bjork and I have kind of a dysfunctional relationship with bread. I said WITH BREAD. Sheesh. No, seriously though. There’s this thing about just having two people in this house, one of which does not like sandwiches. Sand-wich-es. Don’t even get me started on that. When we do buy bread, it goes straight into hibernation in its cozy home in the bread basket. And then I get my once-a-year peanut butter and honey toast craving and I go back to find it dying a slow, fuzzy death. Wahh. Loaves of bread are just never in our house, ever, and it’s a little sad. But it’s not like we don’t eat bread. Duh. We both love bread-y stuff (I think they’re called, like, carbs???) For example: donuts. muffins. cake. bagels. waffles. French toast – a Bjork all-time fave. and every other carb ever created. As of lately, homemade cinnamon swirl bread with a gooey cinnamon sugar center has been added to that list. I just said gooey cinnamon sugar center. If you’re thinking Cinnabon, you are my best friend. This is totally Cinnabon-esque in that it has that really soft white breadiness wrapped in gooey, sticky, cinnamon sugar love. Except it’s like a loaf of bread and it’s way more versatile than a Cinnabon. I generally feel intimidated by making bread so this homemade cinnamon swirl bread was kind of a big deal for me. I’ve made it four times now and every single time I’ve had success. Is there anything worse than waiting for your dough to rise, punching it down, and baking it into flat, dense little rocks? No. I hate it and it’s a major reason why I don’t bake yeast bread often. But this was a winner! I’m never letting this recipe out of my sight. If you are not a bread maker, you’re going to become one right now because this is a great foolproof starter recipe. Even if you are a little bit weird and have no interest in eating bread, or toasting it and smothering it with butter and honey, or frying it up into some kind of insanely delicious French toast soaked with maple syrup, just do it for the smell. Now imagine I’m blasting that sweet cinnamon smell out of the computer screen and into your face. Just do it. A quick thing! High gluten bread flour worked far better than any other kind of flour I tried. All purpose worked fine, but I like the rolls/layers to kind of stick together so there aren’t big gaps in each piece, and high gluten bread flour made it happen for me. 4.7 from 34 reviews
