Iron Chef Challenge: Cinnamon Bread

I LOVE breads - especially yeast breads. Cinnamon makes it even better. That's why I KNEW I'd be making cinnamon bread for Ott, A.'s Iron Chef Challenge with Red Star yeast.

The process is similar to making cinnamon rolls (or yes, even chocolate chip cookie sweet rolls)...it takes patience, but the results are oh, so worth it! Here's a list of what you'll need to get started:

1 cup milk

6 tablespoons of butter

1 pkg Red Star original dry yeast

2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

3-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Melted butter for top of loaf 

Start by melting your butter and milk together in a saucepan...

You need to get it VERY hot, but not boiling. Then, you have to put on your patient pants and wait for it to cool. And wait and wait and wait. Wait until it is lukewarm, but not hot. If you don't wait long enough, it will kill your yeast and your bread won't rise properly. THAT would be a tragedy. So make yourself some coffee, go check Facebook, or read up on your favorite blogs. Just WAIT!

When it cools to lukewarm, go ahead and add your yeast. I just use the original dry yeast...same as I used in 4-H and home ec classes back in the day...

Sprinkle the yeast on top. If you're feeling adventurous, gently whisk it into the milk and butter mixture. The grab your coffee mug and head back to your computer. You'll need to wait another 10 minutes for the yeast to start making its magic....

Next, you'll want to combine your flour and salt...

 

Put the eggs and and sugar in your mixture and mix with your regular beaters or your paddle attachment...

Then add in your yeast mixture and combine again...

Gradually add in your flour mixture until the dough forms...

Once the dough had formed, switch to your dough hooks and let them knead the dough for about 10 minutes or so. If your dough is sticky (mine was), add some more flour and put the dough hooks back to work again..

Next, pour some olive oil in a bowl and set your dough in it to ride. Be sure to turn the dough over a time or two so the olive oil coats the outside of your dough. Then cover the bowl (I just use a clean dish towel) and put it in a warm place to rise for at least 2 hours. I have a gas stove, so I just set mine on the oven above where the pilot light is.  After 2 hours, it should look something like this...

At this point, my fingers got too busy and sticky to take pictures, but roll your dough out into a rectangle. Make sure the  narrow side of the rectangle is narrow enough to fit into your loaf pan. Once your rectangle is formed, mix together your cinnamon and sugar. The spread about 2 tablespoons of melted butter on the rectangle & sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar.

Like I said, I didn't take pictures, but it's very similar to making cinnamon rolls...

This is a picture from my chocolate chip cookie sweet rolls - same basic concept...

  Then roll it up, starting with the short end so that it will fit into your loaf pan. Be sure to grease your loaf pan with plenty of soft butter so your loaf won't stick in the pan and place your bread seam-side-down into the pan. Cover it again and let it rise another 2 hours. See why patience is important? Just remember, good things come to those who wait..

After 2 hours, it should look something like this...

At this point, you can either mix an egg and some milk and brush an egg wash across the top or brush the top with melted butter. I like the butter method, because the egg wash makes the load a bit too "crusty" for my tastes...

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes on one of your lower racks until it looks something like this...

Allow it to cook a little, then carefully run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the loaf and remove the loaf to finish cooling..

When you've waited as long as you can (for me, that wasn't very long), slice yourself off a little piece of heaven...

It's perfect fresh and warm from the oven and slathered in butter. If you can wait that long, go ahead and make cinnamon toast or even cinnamon French toast for breakfast....I dare you to try!

Personally, we ate ours before dinner as an after-school snack....