Cinnamon Bread

An exciting week for bread making! I thought that this week, instead of going for a loaf to make the week's sandwiches out of, I would try to mix things up a little bit and go for a breakfast loaf...one that would work well just as toast with butter. So, I went with a cinnamon bread (not a rolled one, though...just one where you knead in the spice). To make things even better, this recipe makes two loaves, and without any prompting from me at all (honest!), one of my friends proposed a deal where I would trade a fresh-baked loaf of bread for a freshly made cake...how could I say no to a deal like that? All in all, I think I feel pretty good about bartering bread for other goods!

Anyway, start out by combining 3/4 of a cup of warm water with 5 teaspoons of yeast and 1/3 of a cup of sugar. While this is proofing, warm 1 1/4 cup of milk, and add to that half a stick of melted butter and 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt. Mix the liquids together, and then try to stir in 1 generous tablespoon of powdered cinnamon (trying to evenly stir in something that floats is a bit beyond me, but, oh well). Stir in about 4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, and then turn out on a board and start kneading in another cup or so of flour.

Now, you know I often like to think of kneading the dough as some kind of epic battle (see, for instance, Norwegian Whole Wheat). Well, this bread was just pathetic in that regard, more like taking candy from a baby than engaging in a heroic struggle. I probably should have expected that, as this is the first bread I've made with only all-purpose flour, but still... kneading is one of the best parts of bread-making, so I was a bit disappointed that it didn't take much of an effort this time around. Anyway, as usually, put the kneaded dough into a buttered bowl, cover, and place in a warm, draft-free spot for the

First Rising (1 hour and 30 minutes - about the time it takes to grade 47 quizzes)
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Well, I finally made it to a musical event at the Krannert Center (central Illinois' premier cultural arts center...if pressed, I'd say that the concert space is probably one of the most acoustically perfect concert halls in the world, the sort that could only have been designed by the likes of someone as great as that most renowned of acousiticians, Dr. C. Cyril Harris). It actually was a phenomenal performance, though, and a great place to hear it. The concert was advertised as just being 13 of Rachmaninov's 24 piano preludes, but it started out with Beethoven's Sonata in E Minor. Then, instead of launching into the preludes, the pianist hit two fast, low-note chords, each a syllable seeming to say "Chopin," as he launch into three relatively short Chopin pieces. To be honest, I always feel strange when I hear Chopin live...I'll be listening along, thoroughly enjoying the music, and then there will be, say, a four measure passage that just seems to make perfect sense, that fits the mood so absolutely perfectly that I start to think maybe Chopin is my favorite piano composer. But then there will be another four measures where everything seems to shift...I don't know quite how to explain it, but almost suddenly too happy, too major-key, or too high-pitched. Not very well thought out, I know. But anyway, I think I probably would have been happy if the whole concert was just more Chopin.

But of course, that's not what the concert was. After these first four numbers, which took all of thirty minutes, the performer apparently needed a thirty minute intermission before actually playing any of the Rach preludes. Those pieces are always, I think, very technically impressive, and quite exciting, but they're not my favorite...they seem somehow too virtuosic but not terribly deep and engaging. Not mesmerizing in the way I think a Bach prelude can be. In any event, all joking about the pure acoustics of the Krannert aside... Of course I'm no acoustical expert, but you really could hear a difference in the quality of the sound...every note managed to be both crisp and ringingly resonant at the same time. Which was wonderful 99.9% of the time, but a bit awkward when the pianist ("Maestro Hobson," as the program referred to him...apparently he conducts opera when he isn't performing solo) occasionally lifted a pedal a fraction of a second early or hit a wrong note in a particularly fast and furious passage. Maybe in a space like Chapin the sound would have muffled enough to not be noticeable, but here those moments stood out like sore thumbs. Still, I had a great time, and I'll have to make an effort to go to concerts much more frequently.
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Take the dough, punch it down a bit, and cut into two halves. Butter two equally sized bread pans (or, in my case, one 9x5 and one 8x4), shape the halves into loaves fitting into the pans. Cover and return to that warm, draft-free spot (a.k.a. "the oven" turned to its lowest setting), and wait until the dough has doubled in bulk during the

Second Rising (1 hour - enough time to grade the remaining 23 quizzes and clean up some of the dishes)
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A short digression on weather, because Illinois has been having some crazy varieties of it recently (ranging from 45 degrees and rainy to 5 degrees with a windchill down to -9 in the span of 24 hours)...I've decided my favorite weather is when it's not too cold (say, in the upper 20's), and snowing heavily. Not windy, with the snow whipping in your face, mind you (though that can be nice, too), but just thick, gently falling snow. I think I like it so much because everything just seems much softer to the senses in that kind of weather (perfect for taking a walk): It can't be terribly bright because it's so overcast, visibility is reduced dramatically, so there's less for the eyes to take in anyway, the ground underfoot loses it's distinctions between asphalt and grass and ice as it all just becomes softly crunching snow, and not only are even sounds muffled, but there aren't that many of them to hear anyway, as car just go slowly ghosting in and out of sight instead of screaming down the road.

Well, maybe all that's a bit silly, but this last week I think I've decided that heavy fog is my second favorite sort of weather, for just exactly the same reasons. Last week (Tuesday? Wednesday? I can't quite remember) was just such a day, with visibility reduced to maybe half a block at most, and it was the best walk to and from my apartment I've had since moving here. In fact, at the end of the day I was quite excited to finish up my work and just go for a long walk, but by the time I put the finishing touches on my last problem set, the weather and transformed into one of the most violent thunderstorms I've seen in a long while. Now, normally I quite like thunderstorms, too...but not really walking a mile and a half through them without an umbrella. My sneakers are still propped up by the heater drying out from that one.
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Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 25. Out of the oven, the crust of this bread feels paper-thin, so you really do have to wait for it to cool off before slicing

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Tasting verdict: As you can see, I was so excited to try this bread that I forgot to take a picture before I took a monstrous bite out of a slice. The reason for that excitement is that while baking this bread filled the entire apartment with the best bread-and-cinnamon aroma combination I can imagine. And it tasted wonderful. Anyway, I had intended this to be largely a breakfast loaf, but I think the cinnamon flavor is just subtle enough that it might work for sandwiches as well...maybe with peanut butter and honey. The crust of this bread has practically no texture at all, which is a bit of a disappointment....next time I make it I'll have to remember to try brushing the loaf with something just before putting it in the oven.

Currently reading: After realizing that most of the passages I had to memorize in high school have by now slipped out of my mind, just rereading some Shakespeare.

Next week: In honor of last week's first commented upon post, next week we'll be looking forward to a marble bread...now, if anybody happens to have a recipe for such a loaf, do let me know!