Swirls

I tried another bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. This time it was a request from my grandma who is recovering from hip-replacement surgery. She's at my parents' home for a few weeks and I've been able to see her quite a bit more often. The kids and I have loved it. So... when she asked me the other day, "Jenny, do you think you could bake me some cinnamon swirl bread? "... I knew the answer would be yes. I thought I had seen a recipe in the book for a raisin cinnamon loaf. How hard could it be to leave out the raisins?
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This recipe is a bit different from the master dough recipe because it includes some sugar as well as a cup of buttermilk. Thankfully I've discovered the powdered buttermilk that keeps for a LONG time in the fridge and always have it available. I followed the recipe for the dough as written, but started to just wing it when it came to the cinnamon part. I was making cinnamon toast for the kids for breakfast, so I just sprinkled some of the same cinnamon-sugar mixture in our shaker on the dough as it was rolled out into a large rectangle, on top of the beaten egg mixture which makes it stick. Note to self: follow the directions next time. They are there for a reason.

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The bread was wonderful tasting and lovely, but it was missing the rich, thick cinnamon layer that is found in this kind of bread. I think that the mixture in my toast shaker is much more sugary than the proportions in the recipe. Yep, peeking at the recipe now I see what happened. Next time, more cinnamon. Also, the thinner you roll the dough out into the rectangle, the more impressive swirl that develops.

I wanted to bring a little loaf to a few neighbors but don't have small loaf pans. I improvised with these Martha Stewart mini-casseroles that my parents gave me when they gave me my favorite soup pot for birthday a while back (pictured in this post.) They baked up beautifully.

And you? Do you prefer your cinnamon swirl bread with or without raisins?