The easiest sourdough cinnamon swirl bread recipe you will make. It does require a little bit of prep the night before, but the effort is well worth it with this beautiful loaf of bread.
1/2cupsucanat, coconut sugar, or brown sugar(divided into 1/4 cup per loaf)
cinnamon powder
Instructions
The night before, make the dough. Measure out all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then use a wooden spoon to incorporate the ingredients.
Once the dough becomes slightly stiff, stop and empty the bowl onto a clean work surface.
Knead the dough for 3-5 minutes. The dough will be quite sticky, so have a bowl of flour nearby to sprinkle flour onto the dough. The goal is to knead together a dough that is not sticky at all.
Once the dough has come together nicely, place the dough back into the bowl and cover the bowl. I like using 2 layers of clip wrap.
Set the bowl aside for the night. If your house is cold, you can place an oven mitt under the bowl and lay a dish towel over the top.
The next morning, using a bench scraper, scrap the dough out onto a well floured surface. Depending upon the heat in your home, the dough might be a bit stick again, that's okay.
Divide the dough in half. Use a kitchen scale to measure out the dough into equal halves, or just eyeball it.
It's time to do your PRE-SHAPING.
Starting from the North side, grab the dough and fold it into the center. Now take from the South side and fold that end of dough into the center. Now the sides, then the corners, always working from opposite sides.
Make sure the underside is floured, but do not flour the top side, or the pieces of dough will not stick to each other.
The goal now is to create tension on the under side. To do this you pick up the dough and place it on its side and tuck the dough under. Continue this process of tucking the dough all the way around. Now place the dough tucked side down, with the nice smooth side facing up.
Use your hands to turn the dough ball in a circle cupping the dough with your hands and tucking any loose ends under.
Repeat the process with the second half of the dough.
Place the damp towel over the 2 dough balls and let them rest for 20 minutes.
Once the timer goes off, take a dough ball, flip it upside down, and place of a well floured surface.
Sprinkle flour on top of the dough and flour a rolling pin.
Carefully roll the dough out in a rectangular shape. The dough is pretty pliable and can easily be manipulated into the proper shape. Make sure the dough does not stick underneath. Add flour where you need to, and constancy rub the flour into the dough.
The dough should be about 1/2 inch thick, and about the width of your loaf pan.
Spread 1/4 cup applesauce evenly on the top surface of your dough.
Sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar of your choice.
Sprinkle the top with cinnamon, as much as you'd like.
Starting on the shorter end, carefully roll your bread like a cinnamon roll.
Place your loaf of bread in your desired loaf pan. If using a non-stick pan or glass pan, grease it first or place a piece of parchment paper along the sides and bottom of the pan.
Repeat with the second dough ball.
Once both pans are filled with cinnamon swirl loaves, place a towel over the top and let them rest for 1 hour. Do not shorten or skip this step, or you will have tiny loaves.
While the loaves are resting, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Also, put a 9X13 pan filled with water in the oven. Do not use a glass dish!
If your loaves split at the top, you can skip this step. If you have nice smooth loaves with no cracking on top, then take a sharp knife, lame, or x-acto knife, dip in flour, then run the knife over the dough in a diagonal line to the bread. I make a top, middle, and bottom slit into the dough. This allows steam to escape during the baking process.
After the 1 hour is up, place both loaves in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes.
Lower the temperature to 375 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes.
Pull loaves out of the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the loaf pan.
Once completely cooled, store bread in bread bags for up to 4 days on the counter. Sourdough bread can be stored in the refrigerator, but it will harden and dry out. `