Whole Wheat, Spelt Cinnamon Bread

Recently my sister-in-law and her husband stayed at our place as they had an early morning appointment downtown because they live in another city that is 2 hours away. My brother-in-law cannot eat sugar or white flour and I wanted to create a special breakfast bread that he could eat so I searched and searched the world-wide cookbooks. My general GOTO blog for speciality flour creations is Angie’s Recipes because Angie creates or modifies existing recipes using anything BUT white flour and most of her recipes use natural sugars so it didn’t surprise me when I landed on her version of the Cinnamon Spelt Ring. I loved this recipe because I could experiment with the dough slicing techniques that another friend, Maria at A_boleyn mastered with her Swedish Cinnamon Star Bread. In fact, this beautiful technique has been demonstrated on many blogs and it was about time for me to give it a go. I doubt my family minded being guinea pigs!

This was my first attempt, I made a star bread as well as a rope ring but they were too thin and not bready enough so I revised the recipe and made it again!

I modified the recipe to include whole wheat flour instead of the two types of spelt flour that Angie’s recipe had. As well, I have replaced white sugar with dates for the filling. My first test, although tasted OK, was not up to my expectations, it was just too thin and not bready like a cinnamon bun, so I made it again with a lot more success.

This is the revised recipe below of the unbaked bread. In hindsight, this dough was bready enough to make two loaves!

Original recipe from Angie’s Recipes Blog, please click here.

This recipe makes one 40 cm x 15 cm (15″ x 6″) rope.

Ingredients:

• 165 mL Milk, lukewarm
• 3 Egg yolks, large, divided
• 30 g flavourless vegetable oil (I used canola)
• 20 g Maple syrup
• 8 g Instant dried yeast
• 250 g Whole Wheat Flour (may want to reduce this to 225 for a shaggier dough).
• 100 g Spelt Flour
• 5 g salt

Directions:

1. Combine warm milk, 2 egg yolks, vegetable oil, instant dried yeast and maple syrup and whisk well. Allow to proof until bubbling.
2. Sift the flours together into the bowl of your stand mixer. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Knead for 10 minutes.
3. Allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until doubled in size.

Ingredients for filling:

• 75 g unsalted butter
• 100 g dates
• 6 g ground cinnamon
• 2 g salt

Directions:

1. Add all of the filling ingredients into the bowl of a small food processor and process until completely smooth and combined.
2. Roll out the dough into a 0.5 cm (1/4 inch) thick rectangle (mine worked out to 38 cm x 25 cm (15″ x 10″). Spread all of the cinnamon butter mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 1 cm (1/2 inch) border on three sides (spread right to the long side that you will begin to roll). Starting at the long end, roll up the dough tightly to form a roll. Seal all of the edges well by pinching them closed. Slice the roll in half lengthwise, leaving the last 5 cm (2 inches) connected.
3. Turn each half cut-side up and carefully wrap the halves together like a rope, maintaining the cut-sides up to expose the filling. Carefully place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and allow to rest, covered in a warm location for 1 hour. Check out Angie’s blog for detailed photos on how-to roll, cut and form into a rope. Or check out Maria’s blog on how to make the star version of this gorgeous bread.
4. Preheat the oven to 375° F (190 °C).
5. Mix a teaspoon of water into the remaining egg yolk and brush over dough. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and internal temperature is around 200 °F (93°C). You may wish to cover with some foil so it doesn’t brown too quickly.
6. Serve with home-made jam and butter.

This is the baked loaf, it’s a beauty!

I also wanted to make the rope bread as a savoury cheese version and used my Sesame Bread Recipe; I divided the dough into two equal portions, spread a few handfuls of sharp cheddar on one rectangle instead of the cinnamon butter, and also made a plain cut wheat sheaf version of the other. Both turned out excellent.

The cheese melted in the roll and was a lovely flavour in the egg bread.

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