Today was a pretty productive day. There's something about the freezing cold temperatures that make me want to don my apron and bake to my hearts content. I started out my day by putting 2 of my crockpots to use. I had 2 whole chickens defrosting in the fridge and it was time to cook those bad boys. I like to keep the cooked chicken in the freezer for quick use in casseroles and other quick meals. My supply was just about out.

Also today I tried a new recipe for cinnamon bread. I've had my eye on this recipe for a few months. I came across it on another blog and thought it looked really good. I was waiting to try the recipe after I got my KitchenAid Mixer. This recipe calls for alot of flour and I wasn't about to try it all by hand.

I actually cut the original recipe in half because it said it would make 4 loaves. I was not sure I wanted to waste all that flour if the bread didn't turn out as good as I hoped. Now I'm wishing I'd made the entire recipe. YUM.

The key to this bread is the cinnamon chips. The original owner of this recipe said to use cinnamon bits. But the only place to find them is online at King Arthur. I looked into buying some but with shipping it was going to be way more than I wanted to spend. So I decided to try the Hershey's Cinnamon chips. They worked really well in this recipe and give it tons of flavor.

Here's the original recipe. It makes 4 large loaves.

3 T. instant yeast *make sure it's instant or quick rise for this recipe*
1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs beaten lightly
3 3/4 c warm water
4 1/2 tsp salt
3 T veg. oil
2 1/2 c. cinnamon chips
11-12 cups flour ( I used 1/2 regular flour and 1/2 whole wheat white flour)

In the bowl of your mixer with the dough attachment, combine 4 cups of the flour, yeast and sugar. Stir with spoon to mix. Add the water, eggs, and oil. Beat well to a "cake batter" stage. (mine never got to cake batter stage, it was too runny) Stir in salt and cinnamon chips and 7 more cups of the flour to make bread dough consistency. Let mixer knead the dough to the right texture. If needed add more flour till the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour in warm place. Divide dough into 4 equal amounts and shape into loaves*. Put in loaf pans and let rise another hour till doubled in size. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

* When shaping bread into loaves you want to roll it out into a rectangle kinda like your doing cinnamon rolls. Then roll the dough up and place it in the loaf pan. You'll get a lighter bread by doing it this way. This is something I've just learned. I always thought you just shaped it and plopped it in the pan. nope. Do it this way. You'll be glad you did.

Because this bread calls for so much flour, I would recommend cutting it in half unless you have the kind of mixer I do. I have a 14 cup capacity KitchenAid and it can handle that much flour.

I am planning on freezing the extra loaf. According to the original blogger, it freezes well. We'll see!
This was one recipe that is for sure a keeper! It really was fairly easy and it's soooooo yummy!