Just Baking

This past weekend was really busy.  With the holidays approaching, my wife and I had parties Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, and I had to smoke meats for a lunch this coming Wednesday.  While brisket, turkey and pulled pork were absorbing flavors from the cherry wood that was burning, I decided to make some more bread, as though I wasn’t busy enough!

I used my grandmother’s recipe again, as I really like it for plain old white bread, and I’m getting comfortable with the feel of the dough now.  I made one half into a regular loaf of bread, but used the other to make a loaf of cinnamon bread.

I recently got some cinnamon filling from King Arthur Flour that’s made with cinnamon, sugar and dry shortening.  You just add 1 tablespoon of water per quarter cup of filling.  It mixes easily, and is kind of goopy and spreadable.

Following my grandma’s recipe, the dough was ready to go after rising for a couple of hours.  After getting the regular loaf ready and in the bread pan to rise again, I rolled out the other half of the dough so that it was about 8″ wide by about 24″ long.  I then spread the cinnamon filling on the dough, leaving a 1 inche border at one of the short ends.  Starting at the other short end, I rolled up the dough as tightly as I could, pinching the dough (with the 1 inch border without filling) so that it the whole thing stayed together well.  I then set it in a bread pan to rise the second time, also.

After the bread was ready, I put into the oven, set on convection/bake at 370 F for 10 minutes, then turned the oven down to 340 F for about 17 more minutes.  I did one thing differently this time… I checked the bread’s temperature with my Thermapen thermometer.  When it was at 190 F, I took the bread out.

I know that I’m supposed to wait until the bread cools a bit, but I had to cut into the cinnamon bread while it was hot.  The results were really great… It was like a cinnamon roll with a bit of crust.  The only thing missing was the cream cheese icing, but it really didn’t need it!

The reason for the cinnamon bread was to try the new filling.  Bread was easier than cinnamon rolls or, what I’ll be doing this weekend for Christmas presents, Swedish tea rings, but the exercise proved that this is really good stuff!  If I can find dry shortening, though, I may try to use some cassia (cinnamon) with muscavado sugar and make my own!