eat make read

Both Aaron and I are big fans of cinnamon, so I thought it would be nice to start off the day with a nice slice of cinnamon bread. I mean, is there anything better than the sweet smell of cinnamon wafting through the house on a Saturday morning? I had a vision of a certain bread in mind when I started this recipe. I wanted it to be heavy and dotted with little cinnamon bursts in each slice. What I ended up with was not quite either of those things, yet it still turned out satisfyingly tasty.

I guess the main thing that makes this bread a little different is that it’s not actually a bread. It doesn’t contain any yeast, so it doesn’t require any rising times. It’s texture is a little cake-like, similar to something like banana bread. But that’s kind of what makes it great for a morning treat, you don’t have to deal with the fussiness of dealing with rising times.

The batter consists of the usual suspects, flour, sugar, eggs and a few other things, but I wanted to get a really rich cinnamon flavor with this bread. I created a cinnamon and butter concoction that I carefully folded into the batter in hopes that it would create little pockets of cinnamon in my loaf. After everything had been incorporated, I poured the batter into a buttered loaf pan and popped it in the oven.

It didn’t take long before that sweet smell started making it’s way throughout the apartment, leaving behind it a trail of rumbling tummies. After a long 45 minutes, I pulled the pan out of the oven to see a lovely amber colored loaf of cinnamon bread. I let it cool for a little bit and then took a knife to it. The slices revealed that my cinnamon pocket theory partially worked, although they weren’t quite as dense as I’d hoped they would be. But when I took my first bite I was happy to find that the bread itself was perfectly cinnamony and while the little pockets were great, they weren’t as important as I initially thought they would be. The bread was slightly crumbly, but moist and well balanced. It wasn’t too sweet but not boring either. I like it when things turn out different but delicious!

cinnamon bread
adapted from this recipe | makes 1 loaf

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup natural sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 Tablespoons butter, chilled & cut into small pieces
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

preheat oven to 350°

1
grease a 9×5 loaf pan and set aside.

2
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and salt.
3
In a separate medium bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat well.
4
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
5
In yet another small bowl, work butter and cinnamon into pea-sized pieces.
6
Gently fold cinnamon butter into the batter.
7
Pour into prepared loaf pan.
8
Bake for 45 minutes. Insert toothpick, if it comes out clean, it’s done, if not, put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.
9
Let cool, then eat up!