Cinnamon Chip Bread
Light and fluffy bread with bursts of cinnamon flavor. The perfect bread for french toast or eating fresh out of the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups warm milk *about the temperature of baby's bathwater
- ⅔ cup warm water *about the temperature of baby's bathwater
- 1 ½ Tablespoons instant yeast I use SAF instant yeast
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup vegetable oil or other neutral flavored oil
- 6 cups bread flour 32 ounces, see recipe notes for substitution
- 1 bag cinnamon chips or 1 1/2-2 cups homemade cinnamon chips
Instructions
- In a liquid measuring cup (affiliate link), mix the milk and water together. Heat in the microwave until warm. Be careful that it doesn't get too hot. When you stick a finger into the center of the milk/water mixture it should feel like baby's bathwater.
- Pour the liquid into a stand mixer (my favorite is Bosch Universal Plus which has been out of stock...this one is also amazing, affiliate link) with a dough hook. Add the instant yeast, sugar and salt. Lightly whisk the egg with a fork and add to the mixture. Add the oil.
- With the dough hook running, add the flour a cup at a time until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. See recipe notes for bread flour substitutions. The dough should be slightly tacky but should be able to roll up into a ball in your fingers with just a little residue. More tips for checking the readiness of your dough here.
- Continue kneading for about 7 minutes with the mixer. If you choose to knead by hand, knead for 10 minutes or longer. This helps the dough develop the strands of gluten that will make for light, fluffy and airy bread.
- Once the dough is kneaded, transfer it to your countertop and lightly hand-knead the cinnamon chips into the dough. I like to hand knead them so they don't melt all over the dough and change the color of the bread. If you don't care about this, you can add them into the last 30 seconds of your kneading process. Warning: If you dough is overly warm, the chips may melt and it may be better to add the chips to the dough after it has risen. Check the conditions of your kitchen and decide what will work best for you.
- Transfer the dough to a container (I like this one with the numbers on the side so I can tell how much the dough has risen, affiliate link). Cover and let rise about an hour.
- Once the dough has just about doubled in size, turn it out onto the counter top. Divide into two pieces. Working with the first piece, pat and lightly stretch the dough into a rectangle. Roll the dough up, pinching the seams in as you go. Once you've formed a log-shaped loaf, pinch the bottom seam closed and transfer to the dough to a parchment-lined 1 lb loaf pan (my favorite, affiliate link). Repeat with the second loaf.
- Cover the loaves with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place until the loaf barely rises over the top of the loaf pan.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 40 minutes.
Notes
Bread Flour: Bread flour will yield best results in this cinnamon chip bread. If you don't have bread flour on hand, you can use all purpose flour and substitute 2 Tablespoons of vital wheat gluten (my favorite here) for 2 Tablespoon of the flour. Alternatively, you can use all purpose flour with no substitutions, though you will most likely need to add a little extra flour to the recipe to compensate for the decreased protein content.
Cinnamon Chips: I love using homemade cinnamon chips in this recipe but have recently began using these cinnamon chips that I have found at my local grocery store. They make this bread much easier to pull together on a weekday or weekend morning.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!