The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Cinnamon Loaf

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne

Cinnamon Loaf

Off and on people have asked about cinnamon bread recipies so I thought that I would tell what I've been using.  I've been using the Soft Sandwich bread from Peter Reinhart's "Artisan Bread Every Day" with a few tweeks and it always turns our great.  I was one of his recipe testers for this book and this may be the bread that I've made most often from the book.  The tweeks are I'll some times trow in an extra egg and I have not been letting it set overnight in the refrigerator.  I'll either make a full batch which makes 50 oz or I've written in the book the weights for each ingredient to make only 40 oz which is what the Pullman loaf pan takes.

I like lots of turns and lots of cinnamon.  Lately we been getting some from CostCo that is excellant: Kirkland - Ground Saigon Cinnamon.  I need a longer counter top.

 

My son got me a Pullman loaf pan and I really like the way loafs turn out.  Sometimes when you do a loaf like this you can get air pockets but I'm thinking that this pan helps to do away with the air pockets.

 

Bake time are 25 minutes with the lid on and 20 minutes with the lid off.

 

This makes great toast or french toast.  I've counted 7 or 8 rings of cinnamon in some slices.

 

So, I would highly recommend Peter's book and Pullman Loaf Pans.

 

Happy Baking, Dwayne

 

BettyR's picture
BettyR

I have a really nice soft white bread recipe that I will try this with. I don't have a pullman loaf pan but I have a large stainless steel pan shaped vessel that I could cover with foil, another pan and a brick. It should give me the same results. I'm going to try it and see what happens. I love cinnamon toast.

BettyR's picture
BettyR

somehow I got a double post.

nicodvb's picture
nicodvb

I simply love cinnamon, everywhere and anytime. Your bread is very sexy!!

midwest baker's picture
midwest baker

Beautiful loaf! What size pan did you get? (length)

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne

My son gave it to me as a gift.  He got it from the King Arthur people (The Baker's Catalog, I think).  I think that they have two sizes, this was the larger of the two and takes 40 ounces of dough.  It is longer than a regular loaf pan.

 

Dwayne

Eidetix's picture
Eidetix

That's a beautiful hunk of bread. Congratulations.

I just made two loaves of cinnamon bread per BBA. The results are delicious, but I have one question: How do you keep the ends of a sandwich loaf from tapering?

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne

Eidetix,

 

It is done by the Pullman loaf pan.  A Pullman Pan has more vertical sides and a lid.  During the first 25 minutes of baking the lid is on.  As the dough get some oven spring and raises more it has limited directions in which to grow.  The dough will rise until it hits the lid and then try to fill in any voids.  See the last two pictures that I posted.  The baked loaf is pretty much a block with flat sides bottom and top.

Dwayne

jlewis30's picture
jlewis30

oh that is gorgeous. I use the Honey Whole Wheat recipe on the forums and do essentially what you are doing (only I like raisins too) and it comes out really nice.

flourgirl51's picture
flourgirl51

This looks great! I too love cinnamon. On a recent trip my DH bought a loaf of a cinnamon swirl bread at Whole Foods. It had a crumb type topping on it which was placed in the bag upside down and was very moist. He wants me to duplicate this.

saltandserenity's picture
saltandserenity

Perfect cinnamon swirl!! Mesmerizing.

gmabaking's picture
gmabaking

Swirls upon swirls! Really needed another bread book... but have been meaning to get Reinhart's book and of course I really needed the pullman pan... Thanks for the inspiration (for both!:)

Knead2quilt's picture
Knead2quilt

This loaf is amazing!  I love the multi-spirals of cinnamon.  I'm so glad I have this book and know how nice the soft white loaf is and am about to go to the kitchen and make the dough, then make a loaf in the morning.  I don't have a Pullman pan, but it looks like maybe I ought to put one on my list to Santa.  Looks like you must have rolled the dough fairly thin to get all those beautiful cinnamon spirals, right?

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne

Knead2quilt,

 

You are correct.  See the first picture.  I rolled the dough out as wide as I have counter space and then as tall as the pan's length.  I then puts lot of good cinnamon on and I start rolling.  As I roll I will stretch it even more so that I get more spirals, the more the better.  I hope that your bread turns out.

 

Dwayne

Knead2quilt's picture
Knead2quilt

My kitchen has no counter space so I will only be able to roll the dough as long as my board.  But I don't have the Pullman pan so maybe my loaf will be the equivalent of your beautiful one only in a "normal-sized" loaf pan.  Maybe I'll try to reinvent the wheel and somehow roll the dough longer than the board.  We'll see what happens.  Thanks much.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

How did you do it?  It looks fantastic!

The dough is wider and longer than the pan...  so... did you fold it into thirds first, as we view it in the first picture, right over left and then roll up the middle?  Hmmm.  Spill your secret!  Please!   :)

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne

Mini O,

 

I am very sorry if I was not clear.  Here is how I roll out the dough and then roll it up.

1. Scrap it out of the bowl onto a floured surface and pat it into a rectangle.

2. I then try and roll it out with a rolling pin as wide as I have counter space and as deep (tall) as the pan that it will be going into.

3. I then sprinkle (dump) cinnamon over the dough.  You can use your hand to smooth and even the cinnamon out.  Sometimes I'll also sprinkle sugar on top of the cinnamon.

4. I then start rolling it up from the right side (lefty's use the other end).  In order to get more turns in as I roll I will pull on the rolled up end stretching the dough that is about to be rolled (making it thinner and longer).  As I roll I try and make sure that it will fit in the pan when I am done so make sure you keep an eye on that and make adjustments as you go.

5.  When done rolling I put it in the pan seem side down.

 

That is it.  I hope that is clear. Let me know.

 

If you don't have a pullman loaf pan another great way to make this bread is using Peter's "Kranz Cake" shaping method.  It is found on page 159 of his book (ABED).  For this I use a full batch of dough and make two loafs.

 

Shaped, in the pans and ready to go into the oven.  Looks like I was a little light on cinnamon this time.

 

Right out of the oven (Baking time as per the recipe)

 

Sorry no crumb shot, you get widely different patterns (see Peter's book).

 

Happy Baking, Dwayne