Cinnamon Swirl Bread

This turned out AWESOME and delicious and so pretty. Make some right now.

In other news: this will be the last of the terrible pictures because our camera has been restored to health!

Cinnamon Swirl Loaf Bread

Adapted from sweetpeaskitchen.com

1/2 cup milk

4 tbsp unsalted butter

1 envelope instant yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup warm water

few dashes cinnamon

2 eggs

~3 1/2 cups AP flour

1/4 cup sugar

5 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg

2 teaspoons milk

Melt the butter and milk together and let cool to warm (don't put it in the fridge) while you do other stuff.

Mix the yeast, sugar, cinnamon and salt into the water to dissolve. Beat in the eggs, followed by the milk-butter mixture. Now add 3 cups of flour and mix to combine. Start mixing in more flour with your hands, starting with 1/4 cup and using up to 1 cup, until you reach a consistency that is tacky but not so sticky that your hands get all covered and you can't work with it. Once it's at the slightly-sticky stage, knead it for another 5-10 minutes until it is very smooth and elastic. rinse out and oil your mixing bowl and let the dough rise, covered, until doubled, about 2 hours (if you're making it in the winter and, like us, you're too broke to heat your apartment, put it in a very slightly warm oven for the first half hour to get it going.

Once your dough is double, push it down lightly and stretch it out on a floured surface. use your hands or a rolling pin to get it into a 18x8" rectangle. If it's not stretching easily, let it sit for 10 minutes to relax the gluten and then try again. When it's all stretched out, mix the cinnamon, sugar, and salt and sprinkle it all evenly over the rectangle. I suppose you could also add some raisins at this point but why would you want to ruin a perfectly good cinnamon bread like that? Now roll it all up, sleeping-bag style, making sure it's tight so your bread won't be all holey and fall apart in the toaster. press the seam to make sure it's tight. Oil a loaf pan and put the dough in it, pressing it a little so it touches all of the walls. Let it rise, covered, another ~1 1/2 hours until it is peaking up over the top of the pan - again, use a warm oven to get it going if necessary.

Preheat the oven to 350. when it's ready to go, brush the top of your bread with a mixture of the milk and egg and then pop it in. Bake about 40 minutes, or until very brown - if you wimp out and take it out too soon, the inside of the bread will be soggy. Samesies on slicing it too soon - let it cool on a rack for AN HOUR before you cut into it. Enjoy! I am not a big plain-bread eater and I think this bread is delicious on it's own. Even better toasted with butter... and it makes killer french toast.