I had time on my hands one Saturday, so decided to make some yeast bread. (It takes several hours to make a proper yeast bread, with the prepare-rise-punch down-rise again-bake series required.)
I’ve been on a bit of pantry-clean out of late. The discovery of 4.5 bags of cinnamon chips hiding in the refrigerator was definitely a trigger for this sweet bread.
And sweet it is – think of it as a delicious breakfast bread. It would also be nice for French toast.
- 2 1/4 t active dry yeast
- 1/3 c sugar
- 1 c warm water
- 1 c warm milk
- 1/3 c vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 t salt
- 4 1/2 – 5 1/2 c all-purpose flour
- 1 c cinnamon chips, no more
In a large bowl combine yeast, sugar and warm water and allow to sit for 5 minutes. It should be bubbly and frothy – start over if it doesn’t. Add milk, oil and egg, and combine. Slowly add 2 cups of flour, mix and then add the salt. Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. The dough will be very sticky (note from Shannah: This is an understatement – it was extremely sticky!!), but the softer the dough the lighter the bread will be. Use the least amount of flour you can handle.Add the cinnamon chips and mix just until incorporated. Since the dough is slightly warm, the chips will melt everywhere if you mix it too long. Transfer the dough to a greased mixing bowl and allow to rise until doubled in size. Punch down dough and divide in half. Form each half into a loaf and place into two greased loaf pans. Allow to rise until doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
I baked these in small loaf pans and got 4 loaves out of the batch. The bread freezes well.
