Nothing evokes hearth
and home like the sweet smell of just baked cinnamon swirl bread. We love it
for breakfast, toasted and smeared with butter. We also appreciate a slice in
the afternoon, when lunch seems long ago and dinner is still a glimmer on the
horizon.
(Makes 2 large loaves)
For the bread dough:
1 cup warm water
4 tablespoons sugar,
preferably organic, divided
2 packages (or 2 scant
tablespoons) active dry yeast
6 to 6-1/2 cups
unbleached white flour, divided
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons kosher
salt or 1 tablespoon table salt
1.) Fill a large mixing
bowl with hot tap water to warm it up, then dump out the hot water and put the
cup of warm water in the bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the sugar, then
sprinkle on the yeast and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Stir in 1 cup of
the flour and allow the mixture to stand undisturbed while you prepare a
separate mixture.
2.) Put the milk in a
saucepan over medium-high heat and cook until the milk is steaming hot. Take
the pan off the stove and whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, the
salt, the canola oil, and the eggs. Whisk in 2 cups of the white flour. Touch
the mixture to check the temperature. It should be warm, about the temperature
of a warm bath or a baby's bottle.
3.) Add the milk
mixture to the mixing bowl with the dissolved yeast and 2 more cups of white
flour, one cup at a time, stirring well between each addition with a wooden
spoon. Add the remaining flour in the same way, and as the dough becomes too
stiff to stir, start working in the flour with your hands.
4.) Turn the dough out
onto a well-floured countertop. Knead the dough, pressing it and folding it
until it is smooth and elastic, sprinkling on additional unbleached white flour
if needed to keep the dough from sticking to the counter.
5.) Clean out the bowl
in which the dough was mixed and rub the inside of the bowl with the oil. Put
the kneaded dough in the bowl and turn it over once so that the whole ball of
dough is lightly coated with the oil. Cover the bowl with a damp, lint-free
kitchen towel or with apiece of plastic wrap and put it in a warm place until the
dough is doubled in size, about an hour.
6.) Press the air out of the risen dough. Divide it in half and roll each piece
of dough into a rectangle about 8 inches wide by 12 inches long. Sprinkle each
rectangle of dough with warm water, just to moisten the surface then sprinkle
3/4 cup of the sugar and half of the cinnamon over the moistened surface of the
rolled dough. Roll the cinnamon and sugar covered dough, jellyroll style to
make two loaves and put each one in a loaf pan.
7.) Allow the loaves to rise until they are almost doubled in bulk, about 25
minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350. Bake the risen loaves until they
are well-browned and baked through, about 40 minutes; they will sound hollow
when tapped on the surface and an instant read thermometer will register 195.
Cool the loaves on a rack before slicing into them.
