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CINNAMON SWIRL BREAD

Source of Recipe

Aunt Saunny

Yield: 2 loaves.
Dough:
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons solid vegetable shortening or butter
5 1/2 to 6 cups Bread Flour or Naturally White Flour, divided
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 packages Active Dry Yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten

Filling:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Pinch ground nutmeg

Combine milk, sour cream and shortening in a saucepan over low heat; stir occasionally until sour cream and shortening are melted and mixed in. Remove from heat. Let cool to lukewarm.

Combine 2 cups of the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a large bowl; mix well. Blend milk mixture, vanilla and eggs into flour mixture; beat about 3 minutes. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that pulls away from the side of the bowl.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 5 minutes, adding flour as needed to make a smooth and elastic dough.

Lightly grease the surface of the dough; place dough in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.

Punch down dough. Knead 2 minutes to work out the air bubbles. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface or pastry cloth, roll each piece of dough into a rectangle about 14 by 7 inches. Spread softened butter on dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge. Combine sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; sprinkle over butter. Starting with the short edge, tightly roll up dough; seal the edges. Place in greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Cover with a clean towel and let rise 45 to 60 minutes, or until nearly doubled.

About 15 minutes before end of rising time, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake bread 40 to 45 minutes, or until top is golden and bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pans and let cool on a wire rack. If desired, while loaves are still hot, brush the tops with additional butter and
sprinkle with additional cinnamon sugar.

Notes --Be careful not to add too much flour, either in mixing or kneading, or the dough will be too stiff to roll out. It's better for the dough to be a bit too soft than too stiff. When sealing the edges of the loaf, brush the edge of the dough with a little milk if you have trouble getting it to stick.