Cinnamon Bread

White Bread
3 1/4 pounds flour (or 9 plus cups)
2 Tablespoons yeast
2/3 cup powdered milk
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
4 cups warm water
1 heaping Tablespoon salt

Mix all ingredients together in mixer, knead 10 minutes in mixer. Let rise until double. Punch down and shape into loaves and let rise. (Grease or spray pans.) Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

For Cinnamon Bread
Roll dough very thin, maybe 1/4 inch. Spread with butter (I use 2 1/2 cubes). Spread on a handful of brown sugar and sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll like you would a cinnamon roll, and pinch sides together and pinch ends together. Bake at 350 for approx. 40 minutes.

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This recipe comes from my Grandma'a cookbook. She is a really good cook with lots of great comfort food recipes I will be sharing over the next little while. I decided to take a lot of pictures for this recipe since it is bread and some people are intimidated by it. You can do it. I promise. It may take a little practice, but you can do it.

This is a simple white bread recipe that makes up to four loaves of bread. I have a Bosch mixer so I'm not sure what Kitchen Aids are capable of mixing. The Bosch is one of the best mixers I have come across.

First things first: you need to make the bread dough. Here is where I start wavering from the directions...I do that a lot. Nothing against my Grandma. Every cook likes to do things a little differently. I add all of the ingredients together and mix for 10 minutes instead of adding a few ingredients and then mixing and so on. If you are using non-fat dry milk instead of the instant non-fat dry milk you will need to make sure you mix it really well with the flour before adding with the rest of the dry ingredients. Since it is not instant, it will get really clumpy and have a harder time dissolving with the wet ingredients. Once the dough is mixed, let it rise and it will look like this.

B E A U T I F U L

I like to line my pans with parchment paper for a number of reasons. The first being it makes it a lot less messy when you are trying to take them out of the pans to cook. Second, the pans are 100% clean when you are done. And third, the bread can stay in the parchment paper when you are bagging them (a lot less gooey mess when you are trying to take the bread in and out of the bread bags). If you don't have parchment paper, don't worry about it. I made this bread for a long time before discovering this. My parchment paper is cut to fit a large jelly roll pan exactly. I purchased it at a Bosch store. You can get rolls of it at most grocery stores and you can buy it in sheets on the internet. Like here.

Make sure you fold over the corners so you can get the bread in the pan all the way. It really isn't that hard.

Divide dough out into four sections.

I have a scale that I weigh each loaf on to make sure they are equal in size. I didn't have this until about 6 months ago when it was gifted to me. You don't have to have this, it's just an added bonus.

Roll each dough section until it is about 1/4" thick. I spread Crisco all over my counter, rolling pin, and on my hands when I roll the dough out. It prevents the dough from sticking to everything. My sister introduced me to surgical gloves. I use them in the kitchen ALL the time. Especially when I make bread. A lot less mess all over my hands. I purchased a two pack for $14.99 at Costco.

It will look like this when you are finished. Here is where I missed a picture. Pretend you spread a lot of butter on the dough. I usually get the butter out and let it sit to room temperature IF I remember. Which most of the time I don't. In that case, just put it in the microwave to soften it -- don't melt it if you can help it.

Next sprinkle cinnamon generously over the dough, making sure to leave about 1" around the edge with nothing. This will make it easier to roll if you don't have stuff falling out the sides everywhere.

Cover the top in brown sugar.

Now you will want to start rolling the dough up. Make sure it is tight as you go along.

Once you have it all rolled up you will pinch the seams together. For the ends, I roll them under and then pick up the loaf and put it in the pan.

This is what it will look like. Once you get to this point you will cover the loaves with a cloth and let rise until doubled. I forgot to take a picture of that too. Please forgive me. You will then bake them at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. You do not want to under cook this bread, so leave them in a little longer if you are unsure.

Take the loaves out of the oven and spread with butter while they are cooking on baking racks.

Then enjoy the four freshly baked loaves of cinnamon bread you just made. I usually put a loaf or two in the freezer for later. And if you are lucky, your kids will have a wrestling match on the kitchen floor over who gets the last piece.