Cinnamon Burst Bread

I haven’t ever met anyone who doesn’t love Great Harvest’s cinnaburst bread, especially when its warm, toasted and slathered in butter. Mmmmm. I have made cinnamon swirl bread a handful of times, but the swirl doesn’t always turn out just like I want. Cinnamon burst bread, on the other hand, always turns out the exact same. It is much easier to make than you would think. Here is what I do to make my cinnamon burst bread. . .

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Cinnamon Burst Bread

Ingredients

2 cups Water, warm -or- 2 cups Milk, warm
2 T. Sugar
2-1/2 tsp. Yeast
2 T. Butter, softened
5 – 6 cups Flour
2 tsp. Salt
1 cup Cinnamon Chips, mini

Directions

Mix warm water, sugar and yeast while you get together the other ingredients.

Combine the dry ingredients (4 cups flour, salt and butter). Add to yeast mixture. Add the next 1 to 1-1/2 cups, one cup at a time so that you don’t add to much. Note: I use the remaining 1/2 cup for dusting the counter while kneading and rolling out.

Mix into a dough. Knead dough slightly. Add the cinnamon chips and knead until smooth and springs back when you do the finger test.

Place in greased air-tight container and let rise until doubled.

Cut in half and shape into 2 loaves. Cover and let rise.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until nicely browned. Remove from oven and immediately dump onto a rack to cool completely before slicing.

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I make my white bread just like I normally would (steps 1-3) and knead a couple of times.
Once you have kneaded a few times, add the cinnamon chips right on top of the dough. Note: If you are making one loaf white and one cinnamon, like I usually do, divid the dough in half and only add 1/2 cup of chips.

{I recommend using mini baking cinnamon chips. I recently bought whatever I could find at Walmart (Hershey’s Cinnamon Chips) when I ran out of my others (Baker’s Cinnamon Chips). Mini baking chips have a wax-like coating on them to prevent them from breaking down in the dough when you knead, they can be found at most baking stores. The Hershey chips are regular size, without a coating, and I don’t like them as much. They make the “bursts” way to concentrated for me and seems to break down, while kneading, causing the chips to “bleed” orange swirls in as you knead. BUT my kids love it with either so if you need to, you can use the regular size chips.}

Now knead your dough until it passes the finger test (the dough springs back to make your finger impressions disappear) and the cinnamon chips are well distributed in the dough.

Now follow my white bread recipe for rising, shaping and baking (steps 4-6). I usually make my cinnamon burst bread at night because I like it warm with some melted butter spread on it for breakfast. Check out how to make your dough at night and how long it has to rise in the fridge overnight. Enjoy!