In my first try at making Cinnamon Swirl Bread the loaf came out with about 1 and 3/4 turns in the swirl. The swirl also cut a path through the slice so that it had a tendency to unwind. I wanted to get it to stick together across the swirl, so I rolled the dough thinner and got more swirl, but these slices tended to unwind as well. Since I was only making one loaf to try the swirl I used the bread machine again to make the dough. The recipe used was the same as the bread in the first try at Cinnamon Swirl.

In an attempt to get the bread to bond across the swirl I changed from butter to extra virgin olive oil as the way to keep the cinnamon and sugar moist and where they should be. I had read that soft butter would keep the layers in puff pastry separate but melted butter would cause them to stick. I figured that olive oil would definitely be liquid and might keep things sticking together more than butter. The photo shows the olive oil on the rolled out dough. There is about 44 grams of olive oil on the dough. I spread it out evenly with a pastry brush after the picture was taken.

Last time I sprinkled the cinnamon onto the dough with a spoon. It came out fairly uneven and I tried to even it out with the pastry brush, which didn’t work very well. This time I used a small sieve to distribute it. I put some cinnamon into the sieve and gently tapped it with a teaspoon. It worked nicely and the cinnamon was pretty even compared to the first try, as shown in the photo above. The sieve and spoon I used are shown in the photo. There is about 15 grams of ground cinnamon on the dough in the picture.

The sugar was distributed the same way as the cinnamon. There was enough olive oil present to wet the cinnamon completely and most of the sugar except for a few places where it was thicker on the dough. About 63 grams of sugar was used.

After the swirl ingredients were all in place on the dough I rolled it up, starting at one of the short sides. I tried to keep the loaf rolled tight, figuring that keeping the dough in contact across cinnamon sugar layer would help keep things bonded together. After it was rolled up tight it went into the pan.

Here is the loaf before proofing.

The proofed loaf is on the left. It has risen to fill the pan and has proofed nicely. On the right is the same view of it after baking. It has browned nicely and shows good oven spring.

The sliced loaf looks good, and it made terrific toast. The slices had as much tendency to unwind as the first try at Cinnamon Swirl, so the change in the swirl layer and the attempt to roll it up tight made no real difference in the adhesion of the bread across layers.

The attempt to get more of a spiral by rolling the dough out longer and thinner had a mixed result. The spiral was longer, but the layers were too thin and the filling leaked out the bottom of the loaf and stuck the loaf to the bottom of the pan. The sliced loaf is usually shown on a nice bamboo cutting board, but this loaf is on a white plastic one. The last two pictures in this post show why.

The loaf is cooling on the rack upside down. It’s this way for two reasons. First to show the tear in the bottom of the loaf where the leaked filling glued it to the bottom of the pan and second to keep the gooey bottom from sticking up the rack. The right photo shows the inside of the pan after the loaf was shaken out. The bread glued to the bottom of the pan by carmalized sugar that tore out of the loaf shows.

In conclusion, this was a mixed success. The bread was really good eating, but the goal of getting slices that didn’t come undone was not met. The leak at the bottom of the loaf was disappointing as well. But I’ve got a good incentive to see if I can do better next time, which means more Cinnamon Swirl Bread to eat so all is not lost.