cinnamon overload.

I didn't really start to appreciate the taste of cinnamon until I met my husband. He's a huge cinnamon fan...he loves his cinnamon french toast, his cinnamon red hots, snickerdoodles, cinnamon-sugar pretzels, and other cinnamony things that I wasn't too excited about. But since he loves the stuff so much, that particular spice started to grow on me. Actually, now I'm finding that cinnamon is my go-to spice whenever I'm craving something sweet other than coconut or chocolate.

Except red hots...I'm never going to like them. Ick! But I digress...

Today was one of those days that I was craving something cinnamony sweet. I thought about making a cake, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. Then it hit me...a quick bread! And I knew just the perfect recipe to try.

What really caught my eye about the bread was the sheer amount of cinnamony goodness that it had. But I wanted so much more! So, to satisfy the cinnamon craving, I decided to throw in a big cup of cinnamon chips in the batter. I also halved the recipe and used a little more spice than the recipe called for. And to top it all off, I added some cinnnamon icing to contribute to the cinnamon overload. :)

I loved the bread that I ended up with. It was exactly what I wanted...sweet cinnamon in every bite. Next time I make this, I would throw the chips in with the flour so they'd be distributed more evenly and reduce the risk of over mixing the batter. Also, must check pantry before starting projects! I ran out of sugar so the swirl (which ended up disappearing, by the way, because I couldn't follow directions) was made out of powdered sugar. Anyway, here's the original recipe...

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Cinnamon Bread
(from Five Heart Home)

For Bread:
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

For Cinnamon Sugar Swirl/Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

 
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 full-sized loaf pans (or 3 medium-sized loaf pans or 5 to 6 mini loaf pans) with softened butter (or spray with nonstick cooking spray) and generously sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Turn pans to coat sides and then hold pans upside down while tapping to remove excess cinnamon-sugar.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, blend together buttermilk, oil, and sugar until well-incorporated. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and then vanilla. Slowly stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined.

In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon. Set aside.

Evenly divide half of the batter between the prepared pans. Distribute 2/3 of the cinnamon-sugar mixture by sprinkling it on top of the batter in each loaf pan. Divide remaining batter between pans, adding it on top of the cinnamon-sugar. Use a butter knife to swirl through the batter in each pan and distribute the cinnamon-sugar through the bread. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon-sugar on top of the loaves.

Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaves comes out clean (50 to 60 minutes for large loaf pans, 40 to 50 minutes for medium loaf pans, and 30 to 40 minutes for mini loaf pans).

When bread tests done, remove from oven and cool in pans for 5 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of each pan to make sure bread is loosened and carefully turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.