We all deal with stress differently. Some work out, some go to a gun range, some have a cocktail. Me? I bake.

When I lived in Boulder one of my usual habits was coming home, throwing aside my bag, turning on the oven, and grabbing things from my pantry. I’d throw myself into a recipe with abandon, forget everything else about my day, and just bake. Last Thursday was one of those days. Not enough hours in the day, everyone was tense and overworked, surprise reshoots sprung on us, etc. I came home totally stressed, turned my brain off, and made cinnaswirl bread.

There’s nothing quite like the smell of cinnamon sugar caramelizing on fresh toast, so you can only imagine the awesome smell that permeates every inch of your apartment (or kitchen or house or what have you) when you bake this bread. I will warn you, it is an extremely drawn-out process (almost 4 hours of proofing total, plus 40 minutes of baking, plus 30 minutes of kneading/general prep), so don’t just start this bread without time to finish it. But please finish it. Trust me. Whether it’s for stress relief or just stuffing your face (or both) – it’s well worth the wait.

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Cinnaswirl Bread

Based on the recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Makes 1 hearty loaf.

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole milk
• 10 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 2½ tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 whole large eggs
• 2/3 cup sugar, divided
• 3½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. table salt
• 2 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 egg and 3 Tbsp. milk beaten together
• 4 Tbsp. softened butter, for brushing and greasing the pan

Directions

1.) In a small saucepan, heat 6 Tbsp. butter with milk over medium-low heat until melted. Let cool to about 110° F. Sprinkle yeast into milk, stir gently, and let sit 10 minutes.

2.) Combine flour and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat eggs and 1/3 cup sugar until combined. Pour in milk-butter-yeast mixture and mix. Add half of the flour mixture and beat to combine. Add remaining flour and mix. Remove the paddle attachment and attach the dough hook.

3.) Knead the dough 8-10 minutes until the gluten develops. The dough will be pretty sticky, but if too sticky to handle, add another few Tbsp. flour and knead a few more minutes.

4.) Take a large glass bowl and fill it with hot running water. Let the bowl warm up, rinse it out, and dry well. Add a little vegetable oil to the bowl. Dump the dough into the oiled bowl and turn over a few times to coat. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set somewhere warm and draft-free to rise for 2 hours. (My trick: wet a washcloth and heat it up in the microwave for 2 minutes, creating a little sauna in your microwave. Quickly switch out the cloth for the bowl and shut the door.)

5.) After 2 hours, flour a large working surface. Combine remaining 1/3 cup sugar and 2 Tbsp. cinnamon in a small bowl. Dump the dough onto the floured surface and punch the air out, then roll into a rectangle no wider than the loaf pan, but 18-24 inches long. Spread 2 Tbsp. softened butter over rectangle, then sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar evenly.

6.) Starting at nearest end, roll dough away from you, keeping it tight and contained. Pinch seams on end and along the length of the loaf to seal.

7.) Grease loaf pan with remaining 2 Tbsp. softened butter. Place dough, seam down, in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 90 minutes.

8.) Preheat oven to 350° F. Brush loaf with some (but not all) egg-milk mixture and bake for 40 minutes on a middle/lower rack in the oven. Once done, remove from the pan and allow bread to cool completely on wire rack. Slice and serve with plenty of butter!

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