There are few things in life that are truly better than fresh-baked bread and butter.
I mean, of course there are the obvious: God, love, family, friends, health, happiness. Those are all really good – nay, really awesome – things.
But fresh bread & butter? Come on – if you don’t admit it’s awesome then I just don’t know if we can be friends anymore.
Kidding, I still love you, but there may be trust issues. Just sayin’…
Sooooo…who’s ready for a back story on this loaf of goodness?! I see you all raising your hands passionately, so here goes 😉 Nate likes to have breakfasty things on the go, and tends to lean more towards muffins since they’re individual-sized and sweet (my man loves sweet things – that’s why he married me! har har har), but inevitably at the end of the week we’d have some muffins leftover that would end up being thrown away. Come to find out he was expecting me to eat some too…even though I didn’t want muffins. And SO I decided one day to make some cinnamon swirl bread that both of us could enjoy throughout the week, that would SURELY get eaten quickly enough to not throw it away.
Good story right? Good thing the recipe is even better!
GOLDEN RAISIN CINNAMON SWIRL BREAD
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 3/4 cup 2% milk, at room temperature
- 1 package dry yeast
- 1 egg + 1 egg white
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 Tbsp butter, at room temperature, + 2 Tbsp melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup golden raisins (regular raisins will work just fine, I just like the flavor/color/texture of golden ones better!)
- 5 cups bread flour
- 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
First things first, in the bowl of a stand mixer stir together the water, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and the yeast. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until the yeast is nice and bubbly (and your kitchen is smelling like heaven). Meanwhile whisk together the milk, eggs, and salt and set aside. Once the yeast is foamy stir in the milk mixture, and then mix in the raisins and 4 Tbsp of butter. NOTE: the butter is not melted, so it will appear sort of chunky. Don’t worry – the flour will take care of it!
Once all of those ingredients are mixed together, turn the mixer on low and add 3 cups of the flour. Continue adding in 1/4-cup increments until you have a stiff dough that doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. Dump the dough out onto a floured board and knead for about 3-4 minutes until the dough is nice and smooth. Coat the same mixing bowl in a little oil and add the dough back to it, turning to coat. Cover with a damp towel and let it rise in a warm place (I put mine on top of my dryer while it was running) for about 60-90 minutes until doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen cut it in half and roll each half out into a 9×13-inch square. Brush each square with 1 Tbsp of melted butter and sprinkle each one with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1 Tbsp of cinnamon. Roll very tightly; place each one in a well-greased 9×5 pan. Cover with a damp towel and allow to rise for another 45-60 minutes until you have a nice rounded top. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes until done – the best tip I’ve ever heard for this is to knock on the side of the pan; if it sounds hollow then it’s done! Carefully remove immediately from pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. DEVOUR!
Bread and buttah y’all…it’s breakfast!
This is SOOO good. Made it earlier and tried to not cut into it (am baking to send bread to my hubby overseas) but the smell was so amazing the kids and I stole 1 loaf… Going to be making this often!
I’m so glad you liked it! I almost burned myself (hands, fingers, mouth) trying to eat it straight out of the oven!
This is my favorite bread! The smell of cinnamon and bread in the oven is my absolute favorite. 🙂
and to your opening sentence, i say amen.
What a pretty loaf of bread! I can smell it from here. I want to visit just so you can bake me some 😉
This bread looks perrrrfect! I can’t get over it. One of my favorite breakfast treats as a kid was when my mom bought the cinnamon swirl loaves! Raisin free though… 🙂
it was SUCH a treat when we got those as kiddos too! and maybe sprinkled with a little extra cinnamon/sugar? yes please!
This looks perfect! Beautiful!
I swear I could eat that whole loaf warmed with melted butter…ugh…sounds sooooooooo good!
Pinned! There’s no way my bread will turn out that beautiful. And that’s okay.
Mmmm fresh bread and butter. I bet this made your house smell wonderful too!
I used to love this type of bread growing up. Great recipe!
I can literally smell this through the screen! Totally brings me back to school mornings and toasting a slice of the pepperidge farm cinnamon swirl bread before running out the door to catch the bus. That stuff was the BEST!
Fresh homemade bread…is there anything more comforting? I love cinnamon bread- this looks delicious!
You are so impressive. I have never once in my life made homemade bread…yeast kinda scares me.
you should totally try it! even if you mess up the house will still smell good 🙂
This looks amazing – definitely a bread that seems more complicated than this recipe!