Oh Hello September! So far, you're wet as can be, but I am oh so excited for what is to come this month. Count of exciting things to come this month: 1- To know the sex of my little baby 2- Football season from this week (Go Pack Go!) And 3- We move at the end of the month. I could not be happier about it. See- you find a new apartment in New York is one of the most stressful parts of life here and fortunately, I've never had to do that. I lived in my current place for almost eight years ! It was my first apartment in the city, and since my sister was already living here at the time, I never had to worry about finding a new place. I had eight great years of adventures in this small house, but motherhood has to happen somewhere else ... with a kitchen I can cook while watching in the living room, and a kitchen that has a dishwasher and also some coveted backyard space !! I am so happy ... and now to pack my life for the last almost ten years and do some major purge ... .it feels so good.
Oh, and also- it among my limbo waiting for the news-on-flat, I did some stress baking. Nothing more soothing to me than baking bread. I do not even use my dough hook, but really took the time to knead the dough, get relaxed enough following. I had a hankering for something over-the-top cinnamon-y, and this bread is just that. Besides the cinnamon swirl throughout, I added some cinnamon chips to the dough and bread topped with a cinnamon streusel topping. The result- cinnamon madness end. So Seriously- so good.
My little normal breakfasts are usually recent tasty vs soft, but I must admit that French toast made from this delicious bread was to die. We enjoyed our fancy French toast during the weekend and the rest of the bread seemed to disappear within hours. What cooking cinnamon smell that brings people together? I'm told my taste testers is that as good as bread alone, toasted with butter smears, it is out of this world. I think a smear of peanut butter would be large enough so do not you? :)
- 3 cups all purpose
- ½ cup milk powder
- 1¼ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2½ yeast teaspoons
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup cinnamon chips (optional)
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1½ tablespoons of cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons of four
- 1 egg beaten with water 1 tablespoon
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ cinnamon teaspoon
- ¼ flour
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for the dough, using a mixer or wooden spoon to mix until the dough begins to pull away from sides of bowl. Knead a dough hook or by hand on a lightly oiled surface. Knead until the dough is smooth and silky- about 10 minutes. Add a little more flour if necessary.
- Transfer the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for 1 to 1½ hours until puffy and almost doubled in size.
- Transfer dough to a lightly oiled work surface and shape into a long thin rectangle about 16 "x 8". For the filling, combine the sugar, cinnamon and flour in a small bowl.
- Brush the dough with some of the egg / water, and gently press the filling over the dough. Starting with a short edge, carefully roll the dough into a log. Pinch the seam closed side and place the paper in a lightly greased loaf pan. Cover pan with plastic wrap lightly oiled, and let the bread to proof for about 1 hour at room temperature, or until it is about 1 "on the edge of the pan.
- in a small bowl, mix streusel ingredients, using your hands to work the butter into the dry ingredients until crumbly. Brush the bread with more beaten egg and add the remaining streusel, using your fingers to gently apply to the dough, being careful not to deflate the bread.
- bake the bread for about 45 minutes. If the bread is browning too quickly after 30 minutes of cooking tent on top of the bread with paper to the last 15 minutes of cooking. Let the bread cool in pan for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer the bread on a cooling rack. I found tilting the pan to the side and with a butter knife to loosen helped right pop without losing any streusel, but a few are likely to fall in the process.