The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

countrygirl84's picture
countrygirl84

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

This is my second attempt at bread baking and it turned out yummy. The recipe didn't say anything about waiting for it to cool before cutting it and in my excitement to see if I did actually get a swirl inside I cut it almost immediately after taking it out of the oven. I sort of squashed it and made quite a mess of it. It really deflated quite a lot. This is just because I didn' t wait for it to cool right? Also you can see the bursting that happend out the side while it was in the oven... tips for next time anyone?

PaddyL's picture
PaddyL

I use water, lightly brushed on, then the cinnamon sugar.  If I brush on too much water, it tends to leak out the sides or the bottom.  And you have to roll it fairly tightly and pinch those seams well on the bottom.  I don't mind some leakage because it makes the crust sugary, but too much and taking it out of the toaster can be painful.

countrygirl84's picture
countrygirl84

I used some melted buter. It didn't seem like a lot to me just enought to get the cinnamon sugar to stick but I do recall thinking that there was an awful lot of sugar so I think I might put a thinner layer of cinnamon sugar next time. The bottom where the seam was stayed together perfcely actually it was the top where it stretched out and sort or tore at. I did get quite a bit of oven spring but i'm wondering if maybe I rolled it too tight on the last turn because the dough was a bit thin there and you could see through it to the cinnamon layer a little.

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Wait next time...I know it's hard but you'll be rewarded!!  I think we have all at one time or another done the same thing for the same reason's...but there are a lot of important reason's to wait for your bread to cool...for one thing..it's still cooking inside...you don't want to lose flavor and you will buy slicing to soon....squished loaf...so let the loaf set up by cooling...other's with gladly give you some more advice why it's better to wait next time.

Your loaf is very nice and yummy looking you did a good job right up until the last and one of the hardest steps....

Happy Holidays! Sylvia

countrygirl84's picture
countrygirl84

lol yeahhhh I thought that was the main problem. It looks awful today because its so squashed....

micki's picture
micki

Try brushing the dough with milk.  The protein in the milk acts as gluten to keep the cinnamon from oozing out quite so much.  Worked pretty well for me.  Good looking bread!

countrygirl84's picture
countrygirl84

So did the butter make the cinnamon sugar more gooey then? and the milk will help it be stickier instead?

Also after tasting it today the middle of the loaf seems to be sort of doughy and undercooked tasting. Could this also be due to cutting into it before it was cooled? It would have continued to cook had I not sliced it open right?

leemid's picture
leemid

whether the uncooked center is a matter of early cutting or just undercooking. Assuming you baked it as long and as hot as the recipe asked, it could be early cutting that arrested the continued cooking mentioned above, or it could be the general loaf formation or too much good cinnamon goop in the middle that takes longer to heat.

There is ONLY one thing to be done: eat all of this as 'punishment' for early cutting and bake another loaf as penance. If you do everything properly this next time and it turns out spectacularly, eat it all as a reward.

It is a fact that cinnamon helps diabetics to regulate blood sugar, so non-diabetics should eat lots of cinnamon too, and it is also excellent news that the sugar that accompanies the cinnamon will be properly regulated, no?

That IS my story,

Lee 

RFMonaco's picture
RFMonaco

A while back I heard that cinnamon proved ineffective for diabetics.

"Cinnamon and Diabetes.

The most often-cited study on the effects of cinnamon and diabetes was published in the journal Diabetes Care in 2003 by Khan and colleagues. This study evaluated 60 people with type 2 diabetes around the age of 50. They were divided into six groups of 10 patients each. Groups 1 through 3 were treated with 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon daily, respectively. Groups 4 through 6 received a placebo.

Treatment with cinnamon or placebo lasted for 40 days. Researchers analyzed both groups' fasting glucose, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol. No changes in the placebo group were observed over the 40-day period. However, in the cinnamon groups reductions in fasting glucose (down18 percent to 29 percent), triglycerides (down 23 percent to 30 percent), LDL cholesterol (down 7 percent to 27 percent) and total cholesterol (down 12 percent to 26 percent) were reported. If this were the end of the story, and if high-dose, long-term cinnamon was known to be safe, then perhaps cinnamon therapy would be widely recommended. Unfortunately, the picture is not quite so clear.

German Study Doesn't Repeat Results

Another study carried out in Germany evaluated 65 patients with type 2 diabetes. This study was similar to the one above except half of the patients received placebo while the other half all received 3 grams of cinnamon daily for four months. In this study no difference between the two groups was reported for LDL or HDL cholesterol, triglycerides or HgbA1c. Fasting glucose levels dropped about 7 percent more in the group receiving cinnamon.

In the spring of 2006, another study of cinnamon appeared in the Journal of Nutrition. This study evaluated 25 post-menopausal women with type 2 diabetes who were treated with 1.5 grams of cinnamon daily for six weeks. Cinnamon was not associated with a significant change in insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance or cholesterol profile.

Another study was published this year in the journal Diabetes Care. This study compiled all of the published human data from controlled studies of cinnamon and analyzed it together (a meta-analysis). This study concluded that cinnamon did not appear to improve HgbA1c, fasting glucose or blood lipids in patients with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes."

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

An IRT is one item you will find can be a real necessity at times.  Your local grocery probably carries them...your loaf was very nice indeed...next time do it the same way and wait till it cools 'completely' and you will see you  have a whole different loaf!  After letting a second try cool...this would probably be a much better way to judge what adjustments if any you might like to make in your recipe!  This is just a suggestion as to what I would do!

Sylvia

countrygirl84's picture
countrygirl84

That is one thing on my list of equipment. I checked at the grocery but they didn't have any baking supplies. The stores here in Barbados aren't quite as good as back home. I wanted to wait to see if I liked baking bread before I spent any real money on it. I also want to get one of those little plastic scraper things they look super handy.

LindyD's picture
LindyD

There's still a lot going on inside the bread once it's removed from the oven.  During the cooling process the starches and proteins dry and stabilize the structure.  The gummy taste could be because your crumb hadn't stabilized before it was cut.

I like Alton Brown's take on the importance of cooling:  Think of a baked good as you would a cement sidewalk: it doesn't matter how carefully you mix and form it if you walk across it while it's still wet.

 


gaaarp's picture
gaaarp

The only way to diagnose your issue is for you to post your recipe and us (or at least me) to bake it.  (That's my sneaky way of saying that bread looks amazing, and can I PLEASE have the recipe?)  Cinnamon Swirl Bread was the first bread I baked as a kid, and your loaf made me think I should revisit it.

So, if you post the recipe, I'll give it a try and let you know how mine comes out!

countrygirl84's picture
countrygirl84

I got the recipe off another site is there any rules for that or should I just post a link or is it ok to post the whole thing?

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Probably just post a link unless the recipe is clearly in the public domain (or you are going to rewrite it in your own words).

countrygirl84's picture
countrygirl84

Thanks, just checking, some forums are wierd about stuff and I'm brand new here.

Here is the link:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,194,155188-251202,00.html

Its really a pretty straighforward recipe. I halved the recipe and only made one loaf because I didn't want so much sweet bread hanging around to be eaten with only two of us. I also did half white sugar and half brown sugar in the cinnamon sugar mixture and I brushed the dough with butter before putting it on as this recipe didn't mention anything about wetting the dough but most others I had seen had. Someone above suggested milk might be better to brush with though. I think that's the only things I did different.

 

micki's picture
micki

My mom always brushed with milk, so I just figured that was the way it was done.  However, the info about protein and glutein came from the King Arthur site.  Guess Mom must have been right.  Also, I agree with leemid.  Eat this one - no grumbling now - and get busy making another.  That's some good punishment!  Enjoy!