Cinnamon-Currant Bread (minus the currants...)

Ahhhh....after a long week away from the kitchen I finally had time to bake the next recipe in the book--cinnamon currant bread. I am not really a fan of raisins or currants, so I opted to make the recipe without them. The base of this recipe is called "rich breakfast dough"--a little less rich than brioche but plenty flavorful for sweet breakfast breads. It was also the same base as in the previous recipe (Apricot, almond, chocolate coffee cake). This dough was a little tricky because it took so long to come together for me (unlike the 5-6 minutes as listed in the recipe). Once the flour, milk, yeast, salt, eggs, and sugar were combined, the dough was slightly rough and ragged looking. I added softened butter, one tablespoon at a time, until it began to incorporate into the dough. I then kneaded the dough for nine minutes until it was smooth, silky, and soft to the touch. The dough proofed for an hour and a half and I then rolled it out into a 12x15" rectangle. I brushed the dough with an egg wash and topped it with cinnamon and brown sugar before rolling it into a long cylinder. The recipe called for slicing the log lengthwise, then into chunks. All of the pieces were put into a loaf pan to proof for another hour and then baked for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Overall, the bread was delicious, although it involved a lot of work for how similar it tasted to the Monkey Bread (which was much simpler to make!). I think next time, rather than cutting the bread into chunks, I will add butter and slice for big cinnamon rolls. Yum!

On deck: Sticky buns