Recipe: Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Whenever I make our loaves of (wonderful!) bread I turn one of the loaves into a cinnamon swirl loaf. After searching through various recipes on how to go about doing this I created something that's just right for us.

Topped with a generous slab of butter, this cinnamon swirl loaf is such a delicious way to eat bread. It's most delicious eating it fresh (as is all home made bread) but since I'm turning Saturday into our bread making day we end up enjoying it most often on Sunday mornings.

Here are the simple steps:

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Follow directions for making sprouted wheat bread.

Ingredients:

Filling-

Softened butter (about 2-3 Tbsps)

Sucanat (about 1/2 cup ... maybe more)

Raw, organic agave (optional)

Cinnamon (to taste)

Crumb Topping-

2 Tbsps (sprouted) wheat flour

2 Tbsps butter

1/8 tsp cinnamon

3-4 Tbsps sucanat

Roll out dough. Spread a thin layer of soft butter over the top of the dough. (This step isn't necessary though.)

Sprinkle with dry filling ingredients. Pour a little agave over the dry ingredients.

Roll up dough. Pinch ends down and under a bit. Pinch all other sides together.

Place in buttered bread pan. Make a slit on top.

Allow to rise for 30-40 minutes in slightly heated (170°) oven. (Turn off the oven when rising.)

Mix together all ingredients for the crumb topping by cutting the butter into the ingredients. Sprinkle crumb topping inside and slightly around the slit of the raised dough. (After the bread had been baked a bit of the crumb topping simply fell off - and was quickly devoured by my kids - but what remained on the bread was just right!)

Turn on oven to 350° and bake for 30-35 minutes.

We love this variation!

*Dried raisins or dates can be added to the filling mixture - if desired.

**Update** I no longer use the butter and agave but simply sprinkle on the sucanat and cinnamon and enjoy this just as much.