This bread machine Cinnamon Swirl Bread recipe could not be easier! Throw all your ingredients in the bread machine and let it knead, rise, and bake! Enjoy your cinnamon swirl bread for breakfast, as a snack, or with tea and coffee.
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This cinnamon swirl bread is absolutely delicious, a perfect sweet snack or a tasty breakfast bread to have with your coffee or tea. I just know that it will become one of our favorites and an addition to my bread machine rotation list along with our tried and true favorite, sun-dried tomato basil bread.
Because we are definite bread lovers in my house, I love creating new recipes in the bread machine. Now that we are spending even more time at home, I can't help but spend most of it in the kitchen. Before we essentially locked our doors to visitors and shut ourselves away from the world, I cleaned out the baking pantry and made sure we had all of the essentials to do lots of baking. And boy have we!
Mine and my daughter's newest bread machine success is this cinnamon swirl bread, without any folding of the cinnamon swirl into the dough in a fancy fashion. This cinnamon swirl bread is easy peasy! All mixing, kneading, and baking takes place right in the bread machine. This makes for an easy recipe, along with easy clean up too!
⭐️ Benefits of a Bread Machine
Why do I love making bread in the bread machine? It's so simple! You don't even need to think about what you're doing. And it's a great machine for kids to learn to use too. Unless it's baking and is hot, it's relatively safe. There are no sharp pieces or tools. All kids need to do is add ingredients to one attached bowl. There's little chance they'll knock anything over or spill any ingredients. And if your kids are like my daughter, they'll be fascinated as they watch the ingredients mix together to form a dough. It's a great science and STEM activity for these days at home!
If you don't yet have one I recommend investing in a good bread machine. While my Cuisinart bread machine is pricey, it is very well worth it. I have made all sorts of bread, dough, croissants, and jams in this bread machine. It has saved me endless amounts of money as I am not constantly buying bread. If my machine is out of your budget, you can opt for this one.
📋 Ingredients
To make this cinnamon swirl bread you will need ingredients for the dough and a few others for the cinnamon swirl mix-in.
For the cinnamon swirl bread dough, you need:
- warm milk (110 degrees)
- unsalted butter
- egg
- salt
- brown sugar
- bread flour
- yeast (instant, active dry, or bread machine)
For the cinnamon swirl mix-in, you need:
- cinnamon
- white sugar
- raisins.
📖 Variations
Of all the breads you can make, cinnamon swirl is probably the most kid-friendly because of it's sweetness. But not all kids like raisins, and if you have babies who are just learning to chew with new baby teeth, the raisins may be too tough for them. Therefore, you can make your cinnamon swirl mix-in without the raisins. Or sprinkle the raisins on top of the dough when it starts to bake rather than bake them inside the dough. With the raisins on top of the bread, you can easily remove them for your picky kids or babies who can't chew them easily.
🍽 Equipment
You will need a bread machine to make your cinnamon swirl bread. Again, I have this Cuisinart Automatic Bread Maker. If you have a different brand, it's important to read the instructions so you know the order your ingredients should go in. My recipe here is for the order that Cuisinart recommends for their machines and yours might be different. You can still follow my recipe, but change the order that you add the ingredients to the pan.
🔪 Instructions
Cinnamon swirl bread is made in 4 simple steps using the bread machine.
- Warm the milk to 110 degrees and add the butter to melt it mostly down. Add to the bread pan. The milk needs to be warm enough to activate the yeast and cause the bread to rise. But if it's too hot, it will "kill" it instead.
- Now add the egg, salt, sugar, bread flour, and yeast to the bread pan in that order (for Cuisinart machines). If you have a different machine, check the instructions for the correct order to add ingredients. Select the basic/white bread function on the menu, choose the 1 pound loaf option and your crust color preference.
- While the dough works its way through the 3 kneading cycles, combine the cinnamon swirl mix-in: raisins, cinnamon, white sugar. The basic/white bread function runs through 3 kneading cycles, but it will beep 5 times at the end of the second cycle. This is to signal that you should add mix-ins. Pour in the cinnamon swirl now.
- The machine will continue to the third and last kneading cycle. If you're watching, you may notice that the raisins do not adhere to the dough ball immediately. Don't worry! They will as it continues to knead. At the end of this cycle you'll hear 6 beeps. You should now remove the kneading paddle. If the dough is shaped funny, take it out, roll it into a ball, and put it back in. It will now rise again and bake. You can completely step away from the machine now!
- Once the cinnamon swirl bread is done, remove it to a wire rack and let it cool for about 10 minutes before slicing.
Now serve and enjoy! Cinnamon swirl bread is delicious topped with butter and warmed up a little bit in the toaster.
📖 Recipe
Cinnamon Swirl Bread for the Bread Machine
Ingredients
For Dough
- ¾ cup warm milk
- 1 ½ tbsp butter
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 ¾ tsp yeast, active dry or instant
For Cinnamon Swirl
- 1 ¼ cups raisins
- 3 tbsp white sugar
- ½ tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Heat the milk to about 110°. Add the butter and stir to melt the butter, then add to the bread pan.
- Add the egg, salt, sugar, bread flour, and yeast to the bread pan in that order (for a Cuisinart machine). If you have a different brand, follow the manual and add ingredients as it requires.
- Select the basic/white bread function on the menu. Change to 1 lb for size and select your crust color preference. Press start to knead, rise, and bake the bread. While kneading, combine the cinnamon swirl ingredients in a separate bowl.
- The machine will sound with 5 beeps at the end of the second kneading cycle. Add the cinnamon swirl ingredients. The bread machine will then continue the kneading cycle.
- At the end of the third kneading cycle signaled with 6 beeps, remove the kneading paddle. Roll dough into a ball and put back into the bread pan.
- When done, let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before slicing.
Notes
Nutrition
🍲 Serving and Storing
Serve bread machine cinnamon swirl bread plain or toasted with butter as a snack, for breakfast, or with your coffee and tea. It's also delicious with a little Nutella spread or toasted and drizzled with honey.
Freshly baked bread should be stored in an airtight baggie or container for about 3 days at room temperature. You can also keep it in the fridge for about a week. Bread is perfect for storing in the freezer if you have extra. It'll keep for 6 months to a year and defrosts quickly when needed. Cut into slices before freezing for easy storage and quick defrosting.
That is all about this bread machine cinnamon swirl bread! If you made it let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear what you thought.
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I really appreciate this recipe! There are so many good bread recipes out there but not a whole lot of recipes using a bread machine. This is perfect!
This bread looks really delicious. I will definitely give your recipe a try. Cinnamon swirl sounds quite nice!
Yum! I can't wait to make this!
Oh my goodness! I feel like I can smell the cinnamon off of these photos! Terrific recipe a d I can’t wait to try it!
This looks so delicious! I think I'm going to need a bread maker for christmas!
This was so good. I might add a little extra cinnamon next time.
I'm so glad you liked it! Let me know how it turns out with more cinnamon. Enjoy!!
This looks delicious! We are a bread eating family and our daughter loves to help with baking. Perfect combination! Your pictures and directions are super helpful! 🙂
Tastes delicious!
Hi Marie. You should be able to switch with gluten free flour on a 1:1 ratio. Enjoy!
This bread is so so so good!! I always plan to freeze the leftovers, but we never have any!! Next time I need to make 2 loaves!
Amazing! Forget the store bought stuff. This right here is where it’s at! Easy and healthy snack!
I left a five star review a few weeks ago after I had made this bread, and now I wish I could have left a six star review. I have taken Kristina's flour, sugar, milk, egg, salt and yeast measurements and I have found those ratios to be PERFECT to make many varations of bread. I have used that base to make anything from white bread to cheese bread and any other breads that I wanted to create! Just interchange the sugar with white, light brown, dark brown or whatever you want. The same goes for the fat. Just use butter, shortening, canola oil, olive oil, or again, whatever you want. I also found out that you can use buttermilk. Just use her measurements. The breads I have made so far have turned out perfect. Soft, tender, flavorful and with a beautiful rise. I have not needed to add any additional flour or liquids! I have actually written those ratios down and posted them inside my pantry. Kudos Kristina!
This is great Janice! And so sweet of you to come back and let me know. Thank you! I'm glad you've been able to make so many more delicious breads with the ratios in this one. Keep on baking!
Usually I never comment on blogs but this is great!
I just had to try this recipe! It hasn't been out of bread maker an hour yet and it is over half eaten! Phenomenal! The house smells of autumn. Living in the north Georgia mountains, I added a diced red apple to the dough when I added the cinnamon swirl ingredients and it couldn't have turned out better. Thank you for such a wonderful bread maker recipe and please keep them coming!
Wow, that sounds delicious! I may need to make this again this weekend, with some of our fresh orchard apples. Thanks for the idea, and I am glad it's not lasting long 🙂
Mine came out with zero swirls? Added cinnamon mixture at the right moment. The loaf just turned out to be cinnamon flavored bread. This recipe may only apply to certain machines
Hi Alin,
Sorry to hear there were no swirls! It could be the bread maker (I use a Cuisinart), but it's more likely because you don't remove the bread and roll the cinnamon swirl mixture into it with this recipe. Since we are letting the bread machine take care of the all the mixing, the cinnamon swirl mixture does get incorporated more into the dough than by hand recipes. However, it should still partially stick together in "swirls". If you prefer it with more swirls, use the dough function. Then remove the dough, punch it down a few times, roll it out and add the cinnamon swirl. Then roll the dough back into a log shape and let it rise for 10 minutes. Bake it about 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees. If you want to walk through these instructions in more detail, I'd be happy to!
-Kristina
Can you substitute Unbleached all purpose flour for the bread flour?
Hi Pat,
Yes, you absolutely can! Use a 1:1 ratio when subbing with all purpose flour. Bread flour just has a little more protein than all purpose flour, which helps to release the gluten in breads and doughs. This means that if you use all purpose flour the end result will be a little less chewy, but it will still be good!
Thanks for the recipe! I made it today substituting raisin with walnuts. It came looking exactly like yours and the taste is delicious !
Thanks, Sylvia! Raisins in this bread sounds fantastic. I'm glad you've enjoyed it!
This looks delicious! I've been looking for a cinnamon bread that could be done completely in the machine without having to take out and roll and swirl by hand. My only question is, my bread maker doesn't have a 1lb option, just 1.5 or 2, will this work with the 1.5 or do I need to make any adjustments?
Great question, and I have not yet made a 1.5 or 2 pound loaf with this recipe. You should not have to adjust the ingredients, although you can easily double them to make a 2 pound loaf. If not, try using the 1.5lb option keeping the ingredient proportions the same, but make sure that the bread only bakes for 3 hours and 20 minutes. With a bigger loaf size, your machine might program it to cook for longer. Let me know how it turns out!