I am making bread. 2nd time in a week.

[midnight armadillo]

The dough is rising now. My co-chefs, my two boys age 4 and 1.8 are very eager to eat it.

The bread is: oatmeal w/ molasses, Grade B maple syrup, some whole wheat flour, then when it's punchdown time I'm going to roll it out, brush with oil, and each loaf gets a mix of 1/2 cup of brown sugar + 3/4 tablespoon of cinnamon. Then roll it up, rise, bake. New variations this time: maple syrup instead of honey, and the oil (butter or safflower, can't decide)/brown sugar/cinnamon comes from Alton Brown's cinnamon roll recipe from Good Eats. In the past I've done white sugar/cinnamon but have never been quite happy with the moisture level and sweetness of the swirl. It needs some extra sweetness to balance out the dark notes from the molasses and syrup. Next time in place of the 1 cup of whole wheat I'm going to use a 10-whole-grain flour mix.

This comes out reaaaaaaalllly good. I'll post the recipe later tonight if anyone is interested.

[NMDemDist2]

1. that sounds lovely, I'd like the recipe. I make 2-3 loaves of the NYT bread every week

but a nice cinnamon bread would be wonderful for breakfast

[midnight armadillo]

5. And here it is

Oatmeal Molasses Cinnamon Swirl Bread (or something like that, we just call it "Family Bread")

Yield: 2 loaves. Great for snacking, toast, French toast, etc.

yeast:
1 package of dry yeast in 1/2 cup warm water w/ 1/4 tsp sugar

mix:
1 cup rolled oats with 1.5 cup boiling water, let the oatmeal cook. Add: 2 tsp salt, 1/3 cup cooled melted butter, 1/4 cup molasses, 1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup as a sub), mix it all up.

Add 2 cup flour, mix, then add yeast.

Total all-purpose white flour is 5.5-6 cups, whatever it takes to get to a soft dough. I am subbing 1 cup of white whole wheat for the AP flour, which works nicely.

Knead 10 min, let rise til doubled. Then roll out the dough 18 inches x whatever the width of your bread pan is. The longer the dough, the more swirls you get. Mix 1 cup brown sugar with 1-1.5 tablespoon cinnamon. Brush the dough w/ melted butter or oil, add brown sugar/cinn mix to taste, I usually use somewhat less than half the mix per loaf. Place in the greased bread pan, let rise til doubled again (~1 hour).

Bake: 425 for 15 min, 325 for 30 min. I move the rack to the middle for the lower temp baking. Let cool at least 10 min before slicing.

I use glass bread pans that cost like $2.50 and get wicked crunchy brown crust all around.

Comments: Hugely popular, I have yet to have anyone try it who didn't love it. Having made this several times, I'm thinking the molasses flavor is a bit overly prominent. Do NOT skimp on the quality of the molasses, it makes a huge difference and the "Brer Rabbit" brand had a chemical flavor. I use an organic brand from Whole Foods. I'm thinking of cutting back the molasses by a tablespoon and adding an extra tablespoon of honey. My hope is to keep tinkering until I can get some nutty grain flavor (from the oatmeal and whole grain flour) to come through without getting whacked by the molasses. Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are welcome.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Good use of Grade B Maple syrup.

When I lived in Boston I used to buy that for cooking because it's cheaper and imparts a stronger maple syrup flavor.

I made naan yesterday and subbed King Arthur's White Whole Wheat for half of the AP flour. It's part of my subversive attempt to introduce more whole grains in the SO's diet. Naan's easy with a pizza stone -- slap the dough on it and it's ready in just a few minutes.


Please post the recipe for your cinnamon bread.

[Warpy]

3. You'll find maple syrup less sweet than honey

but otherwise, it should be OK. I'm afraid the flavor will be lost in the molasses, though. It's just not going to be bad, so don't worry.

I generally use turbinado sugar whenever I'm using any recipe that calls for cinnamon or other strong flavored spices. I find the very mild brown sugar flavor adds a lot to it that white sugar really doesn't have. White sugar is something I reserve for more delicately flavored concoctions and when color is important.

I love turbinado sugar in my tea. It's the closest thing I've gotten to Demarara sugar in ages, so close in tea that it's not really that big a difference.

[midnight armadillo]

4. I think you're right on the maple syrup

The Grade B is hard to discern over the molasses, which is a very strong flavor. I'm thinking of returning to the honey next time I make it, maybe in 6 weeks or so. The brown sugar was a big improvement over white. It also turned out 'wetter' since it should have absorbed some moisture during baking.

This Grade B maple syrup is SO tasty, I use it my oatmeal all the time. There's no point in that light amber maple syrup, the dark stuff has far more depth of flavor, and you use less of it since it's so strong. And since it's just a sugar solution, less is more, you know?

[Warpy]

6. I started to prefer Grade B when I sold health foods

and still do. The food co op here has it in bulk in the winter. It tends to get a little too yeasty for them in the summer, so they discontinue it, even though I've told them what they need to do about that.

The flavor is outstanding. It's insane to try to use that pale Grade A amber stuff in baking. It gets lost completely.