Keeping with the King Arthur Flour Company theme, I want to tell you about a cinnamon bread recipe I recently tried after finding it on the KAF Web site. I was clicking around searching for some sort of sweet goodies to make when I saw the bread. It was studded with cinnamon chips and combined yeast and baking powder. I was definitely intrigued. Plus, the recipe said the bread was kind of like a cinnamon coffee cake, and that's one of Jeff's favorites.
I decided I would give it a try, but because I have an obsession with King Arthur stuff, I couldn't leave the site until I had printed the recipe and ordered cinnamon chips and Vietnamese cinnamon -- necessary components if you ask me. May as well do it right if you're going to do it! I anticipated the arrival of my new baking supplies by heading to the grocery store to pick up everything else I would need to make the bread. When my supplies arrived only two days later, I was ready to get baking!
A lot of people are terrified of baking bread, myself included. I always have to talk myself into it, thinking it's going to be some long, drawn-out process. And don't get me wrong, some breads can be pretty labor-intensive, but the ones I've made so far have been pretty straightforward and not too time-consuming. This recipe falls into that latter category.
You can find the recipe in its entirety over on the KAF Web site, but below I'll share with you some pictures of the process.
Make the dough, and let it rise.
Stir in cinnamon chips and baking powder.
Do not leave the dough unattended.
Spread dough in pan, and find fancy cinnamon sugar taking up residence in the pantry.
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar all over.
Bake until golden brown and cake tester comes out clean.
Let bread cool slightly, slather it with butter, and enjoy!
Now I'm kind of a snob when it comes to bread. I like it the day it's baked, and after that, I find it a bit lackluster. This doesn't mean I waste it though -- it just means I have to come up with other ways to use it. Sometimes that could be a bread salad or panzanella; other times it could be as simple as toasting the bread and dipping it in olive oil or turning it into garlic bread. But those are savory ideas, and this was a sweet, cakelike bread. It could not be treated the same way.
So when thinking about how I might want to refashion this bread, the very first thought that came to mind was French toast. Why not, right?
And then the second thing that came to mind was a cinnamon gelato recipe I was currently testing that would obviously pair well with cinnamon French toast. (Yeah, I had ice cream for breakfast.) And so that is how cinnamon French toast topped with cinnamon gelato came to be.
Make the bread. You'll love it. Turn your leftovers into French toast. Find a great cinnamon gelato recipe (I wasn't incredibly impressed with the one I tried), and have a scrumptious, cinnamon-packed, made-from-scratch breakfast!
Did you read my post about how much I love the King Arthur Flour Company? And did you enter my King Arthur Flour Company giveaway? You could win some great stuff, so what are you waiting for? You only have until Tuesday night!
What's the best bread you've ever baked?