The Best Cinnamon Swirl Bread Recipe

5 / 5 ( 1 Review )
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Best cinnamon bread recipe

Soft Cinnamon Swirl Bread Recipe with a Crispy Crust

This bread recipe was given to me by my grandmother who was famous for her bread. She made over 1,000 loaves in her lifetime.

I took her tried and true bread recipe and added a cinnamon twist to create the best cinnamon bread recipe ever! You are sure to love this Cinnamon Swirl Bread! It has a bit of a crusty outside with a soft bread inside.

Bread recipe for cinnamon swirl bread

That’s the Original Recipe!

Although recipe cards are becoming a thing of the past they’re still great to hold on to!

Mixing bread ingredients

Cinnamon Swirl Bread Ingredients

This bread recipe has only six ingredients! And the cinnamon swirl filling has only four ingredients. A lot of them you should already have on hand too.

Adding last bit of flour to bread dough mix

Making the Bread

When you make this bread you add the wet ingredients to the flour and yeast. Then you mix off and on for 45 minutes.

You have to knead in the additional flour so if you’re not sure how to do that by hand check out this guide on how to knead bread dough.

Cinnamon topping on bread dough

Sprinkle on Your Toppings

Once the dough is kneaded and only slightly sticky, spread it or roll it out to just less than the width of the inside of the pan. Spread butter over the top and sprinkle with brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon. Your cinnamon swirl bread is almost ready!

Topped cinnamon swirl bread loaves

Final Toppings

Once you’ve rolled up your dough and you’ve got it in your pan, sprinkle it with some sugar topping.

Now you’re going to play a bit of a waiting game waiting for your bread to rise. This is the worst part of this recipe! However, if you cover it with a towel it will rise faster!

Crumbs of cinnamon bread

Easy Clean Up Tip

All that dough stuck to your counter top can seem pretty annoying and tough to remove. However, it’s super easy to clean it up with a dough scraper!

Best cinnamon swirl bread recipe

Enjoy Your Cinnamon Swirl Bread

This recipe makes 2 loaves. However, I would recommend making 4, if you have enough loaf pans, because if you are going to go to the trouble of making 1 loaf of bread it is very little more work to make 4!

Plus, if you can not eat 4 you can freeze some of it or take a loaf or two to a friend or neighbor. Chances are your family will devour most of it before you get a chance to do much of anything with it.

Variation for Wheat Bread:

To make wheat bread you simply replace the white flour with wheat flour. I like to do half and half. It keeps the bread a little lighter than a full wheat bread but adds the whole grain and nutrition of wheat.

Soft cinnamon swirl bread recipe

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Cinnamon swirl bread

Best cinnamon bread recipe

The Best Cinnamon Swirl Bread Recipe

Soft on the inside, crispy on the outside. This is the perfect cinnamon swirl bread recipe.
5 / 5 ( 1 Review )
Print Rate
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Serves: 36
Adjust Servings: 36

Equipment

  • Stand mixer
  • Small bowl
  • Loaf pan

Ingredients

For Bread:

For Cinnamon Swirl:

Topping:

Instructions

  • In a large stand mixer bowl or medium bowl, mix together warm water, oil, honey, and salt.
  • Add 6 cups flour and the yeast to the water mixture and use a stand mixer with a dough hook to mix it all together for 5 minutes, then let rest for 10 minutes. Repeat the mix for 5, rest for 10 method 2 more times, for a total of 3 times (45 minutes mixing and resting).
  • Knead 2 to 3 more cups of flour into the dough by hand. Or you can use the mixer to knead it in, but don't over mix. Dough should be slightly sticky, and if using the mixer, should clear the sides of the bowl.
  • In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon for the filling.
  • Split dough into two equal parts for two loaves. Roll one dough ball out to about 6 inches by 18 inches. Spread half of the butter over dough. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar mixture over the butter.
  • Roll the dough up starting at the short end. Pinch the seam together, pinch and tuck ends under the loaf. Place loaf in well-greased loaf pan. Repeat with remaining dough ball.
  • In a small bowl, cut the cold butter into the brown sugar and flour for the topping, until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over tops of the loaves.
  • Let bread rise for about 30 minutes, or until loaves rise just above the tops of the pans.
  • Line a baking sheet with foil and place loaf pans on the lined sheet. Bake at 350°F/175°C for 40 minutes. Let cool in pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

Calories: 185kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 5g | Sodium: 225mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g

Ingredients: All-purpose flour, Brown Sugar, Butter, Cinnamon, Flour, Honey, Salt, Sugar, Water, Yeast
Meal Type: Breads, Desserts, #StayHome, Thanksgiving, Meatless
Categories: Yeast Breads, Oven

Comments & Reviews

  • Thanks for sharing ;). I treasure my recipe cards from my grandma as well.

    Your website is awesome!!!!!

  • You are welcome. Recipe cards are becoming a thing of the past. So it is cool to have a few special ones. Thank you for your sweet comment!

  • What a great recipe!! Do you know if you can freeze it?
    One of the victims of the digital age is the recipe card. I love having my grandmother’s but I keep all my recipes online so nothing to pass on. 🙁

  • Any chance anyone has ideas on how to make this work with other kinds of (gluten free) flours? Like maybe a combination of sorghum, almond, and white rice? I’m very interested in trying it out, but my son gets very very sick from wheat, barley and rye. Thank you!

    • I have a small collection of gluten free recipes. I will look at them for you tomorrow when I am at my desk.

      • I would try…
        6 cups rice flour
        6 cups tapioca flour
        6 cups cornstarch
        1 cup potato flour
        Xanthan Gum 3 teaspoons
        Unflavored Gelatin 2 teaspoons

        I am not an experienced gluten free baker. But I got this from a bread recipe given to my by a fabulous gluten free baker. Hope it works. 🙂

  • Thank you! This looks great. I’ll give it a try.
    As a side note, (not sure where else to tell you this), but often lately when I click to read comments or go to the full information, I get kicked off to some weird other site. It’s different every time. Tonight it was https://www.checkgallery.com/home.aspx?source=GWF1452&cm_mmc=Google-_-Checks%20Gallery-_-Remarketing1&sissr=1
    when I went down to read comments.
    I have to close down your site, and re-open it. I”m not sure if it’s your site, my computer, or something else, but it sure feels like your information is getting “high-jacked” by other stuff lately. I think I saw another post a few weeks back from someone else with something similar.
    Just thought you might want the info.
    Thanks for the recipe!

  • I think this would make delicious toast, or French Toast! Imagine this with the addition of cinnamon chips, so it’s just like that cinnamon burst bread from Great Harvest, but without all the cost. Thanks for sharing your grandmother’s special recipe. I’m going to copy this one and make it when my boys are home for Thanksgiving week!

  • This looks awesome….I am making it as we speak. Just a quick note….in your picture tutorial (which is great!) it shows the bread rising under a towel, but in the actual printable recipe it just says to put it in the pan and bake it. Just thought you may want to add an extra line in there for the rising.

    I can smell mine now and it smells divine!! Thank you!

    • Melissa- I am so excited that you are making it. Wish I was at your house right now. You are right, the bread must rise. I will be sure to add that. Thanks for pointing that out!!!!

  • How long do you let the bread rise before baking? I’m not seeing it on here. Thanks

  • Looks delicious!! And I ironically had a Grandma Jensen as well!!

  • I was just curious why you knead in the last 6 cups by hand? I am super excited about this recipe! Thanks for sharing!!!

    • I think it helps with the texture and keeps you from having too much flour. You could try adding all of it in the mixer. It might be a little tougher consistency though? I should try it sometime and see what it is like. If you decide to try it let me know how it goes.

  • I was just wondering what kind of MIXER you are using? I have never seen one like it. I have to make this bread it looks so yummy, and I think my family will love it!

  • Do you think I could use the dough to make cinnamon rolls?

  • Can you make this with Active Dry Yeast? And if so how many packets? Thank you.

    • Yes! But you may want to proof the active dry yeast first though because it has a larger granule. To do this, you could try adding it to the water/honey mixture and letting it soak for a few minutes. Also, active dry yeast may be slower to rise though, so you may need to add 10-15 minutes to rising time.
      A packet of yeast usually includes 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast. So to get 2 tablespoons, you’d need just over 2 1/2 packets.

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