Since we started making our own bread, I have been using our bread machine almost every day! And since I am new to this, I have been starting simple with my breads.
My next bread bake is supposed to be pretzel rolls and I am going to use A_Boleyn’s recipe from her site. We still have plain bread though and we need to finish it before I make something new. I had made a blueberry bundt cake for breakfast, which actually turned out to be mostly a fail. This was because my kids weren’t too happy with the amount of blueberries in it. Josh and I enjoyed it though.
Maybe I did go a little overboard with the amount of blueberries because this bundt cake had a hard time staying together!
Now that the bundt cake is gone, I had to come up with something else for breakfast. I went with a cinnamon swirl bread. The best thing about this bread is that I was able to prep the dough using the bread machine instead of having to knead it myself. This recipe from allrecipes.com was simple, which is the best way for me to start with breadmaking. Was I tempted to try and do something a little different than the recipe said? Oh yes! Always! But I behaved myself and stuck to the recipe, mostly.
After the dough cycle was done in the bread machine, all I had to do was dump out the dough onto a floured surface, punch it down, and let it rest for 10 minutes while I mixed up the cinnamon filling. I left out the walnuts because I wasn’t sure if my kids would like it. I’m actually not that big of a fan of nuts in my cinnamon bread either. Then, I cut the dough in half with this crinkle cutter. I think I am going to need a bench knife someday if I am going to keep making bread like this.
This dough was so easy to work with. I had to roll out and prep each half of dough in between dropping off and picking up my oldest son from his piano lesson. Good thing his piano lesson is just down the street!
This is the bread right after I put it in the pan. It didn’t rise that much during this stage. I let it rise for about 45 minutes. I probably should have given it a little more time.
Here are the two loaves after they were done baking for 30 minutes. I did go away from the recipe by topping the loaves with some butter and brown sugar before putting the loaves in the oven. The loaf on the left might have browned just a little bit too much.
Of course, I had to let my kids taste test the bread for me. This is the loaf on the right side of the cutting board. I’m not sure if the bottom is underbaked or if that is just the melted brown sugar that got underneath the loaf. My kids did like it because they have been asking if they can have more. With the seven of us, I think these two loaves will be gone pretty quick! This would probably make some really good French toast but I don’t think it will last that long!
-Lynn
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