cinnamon bread

The bread dough is for brioche. It is fortified with eggs, milk, and butter. I intended to make it a sweetened bread but I forgot to add sugar to it, and for that I must be punished. I think I'll make the punishment fit the transgression and make myself eat the whole thing. That'll teach me. 

Brown sugar is added to the filling anyway, and a confectioner's sugar topping is added at the end, so there is little lost by not having sugar within the bread dough. 

Cinnamon was added directly to the dough. 

The filling here expands on the customary brown sugar with cinnamon and sometimes raisins. This filling includes pecans, cranberries, and dried apricots. Maybe all that isn't such a good idea because the end product becomes like trail mix with bread rolled in between it instead of bread flavored with cinnamon. I always do tend to go overboard. All that material is dead weight that must be lifted by the poor overworked yeast. Ginger powder and a touch of clove is also included. Is that going too far? 

This is ↑ the dough after it is turned out onto the work surface. This is what stretching does to the same dough ↓  stretched into a rectangle. In'nit lovely?  The short side of the rectangle ↑↑ is the same width as the baking pan. 

The gluten matrix ↓ fascinates me.  Spiderman would appreciate its structure, elasticity, and tensile strength. 

♫ Spiderman♩, ♫ Spiderman♩

Does ♩whatever♬♩ a spider ♪ can.

The topping is pressed into the dough. I debated adjusting with water at this point. I would have painted it on with my hands, carrying it over from the tap. The dough started out sticky at 100% hydration, 2 + 1/2 cups flour hydrated with 1 + 1/4 cup warm milk, egg, butter and yeast. Almost all the liquid was used to produce excessively sticky dough. Even so, at this point, you can see how well it kept its shape after being turned out ↑↑↑↑. That is a sign that the dough is possibly overly dry. In this case, I think that it was too dry. 

The topping is pressed into the dough so that the spirals would not separate into discrete swirls. 

Before the second proof ↑, notice the space between dough and pan, so when the dough rises it expands outward first then upward. After the second proof ↓, which went for quite a long while. Due to the lengthy second proof, there wasn't very much oven rise. 

See? hardly any oven rise, and that makes me a little sad. I think had the dough been more wet and the second proof been for shorter period then there would have been a greater difference between this ↑ and that ↓. Also the weight of the filling didn't  help it lift. 

The thing that makes for great bread and fantastic dinner rolls, hotdog buns, and so forth, is not necessarily the same thing that makes for good cinnamon bread or cinnamon rolls. I do not think it such a good idea to bake on high heat or to use steam to create a crispy crust. Those attributes are not necessarily desirable here. I'm not complaining, mind you, I am just trying to learn and to plan well for future cinnamon breads, especially for loaves intended to be given away.