Cinnamon-Sugar Chunky Bread

Before I say anything else about this recipe, there are a few things you should know:

• Chunky Bread is insanely delicious and seriously addicting. Make at your own risk.
• It’s difficult to make Chunky Bread look pretty in a picture, so you really shouldn’t judge this recipe by it’s cover photo.
• The recipe for Chunky Bread might look complicated, but it is really simple to create.

Brunch is a regular meal for my family. We eat a quick breakfast before going out to the barn in the morning and then sit down for a big brunch after chores. I like to make brunch a special meal during the summer and on weekends when the kids are home from school. Lots of times, depending on our farm chores and schedules, brunch is the only meal we all sit down together for.

This Cinnamon-Sugar Chunky Bread is perfect for brunch because I can make the dough the night before and then assemble the recipe before going out to the barn for morning chores. It’s ready to bake when I come back in and, a half-hour later, I’ve got a brunch centerpiece that my family absolutely loves. Plus, I always have all of the ingredients on hand; we buy Land O'Lakes® Cinnamon-Sugar Butter Spread by the case.

The dough for this chunky bread is like a marriage of brioche and biscuits and those refrigerated crescent rolls you can buy at the store. In other words, it’s hard to describe, but it’s really good. And the Land O'Lakes® Cinnamon-Sugar Butter Spread gives the sauce the perfect cinnamon flavor. Combine the bread and the sauce and you get something that tastes like caramel-cinnamon rolls, but is way easier to make and way easier to eat, especially for kids.

I also adore this recipe because it is incredibly forgiving. I can let the assembled recipe rise for one or two hours; it doesn’t have to be exact. And, once, I seriously over-baked the bread when I went back outside without setting the timer on my phone; but the Cinnamon-Sugar Butter Spread kept the sauce from hardening, so even though the top of the bread was very well browned and the bread was a little drier than normal, it was still darn tasty.

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Be sure to try these great recipes from the Kitchen Conversations bloggers, too:

Blistered Teriyaki Ginger Green Beans from A Farmgirl’s Dabbles
Almond Crusted Baked Halibut Fillets with Basil Butter from A Spicy Perspective
Cinnamon Sugar Buttermilk Waffles with Cinnamon Peanut Butter Maple Drizzle from Bake at 350
Poppy Seed Muffins with Raspberry Butter from Fifteen Spatulas
Lemon Coconut Bread from The Land O'Lakes Test Kitchen
French Toast Sticks with Maple Butter Dipping Sauce from The Little Kitchen
Strawberry Mini Muffins with Strawberry Butter from The Pioneer Woman
Garlic Avocado Toasts from Two Peas and Their Pod

I got to sample all of these recipes in April when the Kitchen Conversations bloggers visited Ree at her ranch. Every one of these recipes is fabulous!

Both versions of my Cinnamon-Sugar Chunky Bread – with pecans and without – were served.

Cinnamon-Sugar Chunky Bread

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Rest Time: 4 hours, minimum
Bake Time: 30 minutes
Yield: One 9 x 13 pan

Ingredients

for the dough
4 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) Land O'Lakes® butter
¾ cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons yeast
1 cup quick cook oatmeal
3 cups all-purpose flour

for finishing dough and assembling recipe
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon

for the sauce
½ cup (about ½ a tub) Land O'Lakes® Cinnamon-Sugar Butter Spread
½ cup Land O'Lakes® heavy cream
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup water
pinch salt

Directions

to make dough
Start with a large container with a vented lid – I use an ice cream pail with three small holes poked in the lid. You can use any container with a lid, just don’t close the lid tightly.
Add the eggs to the container and beat lightly with a fork. Stir in the sugar and salt.

Melt the butter (about 1 minute in the microwave) and stir into the eggs and sugar.

Heat the milk for 1 minute in the microwave (or until about 100°F) and stir into egg mixture.

Whisk baking powder and yeast into egg mixture until no clumps of baking powder or yeast remain.

Add oatmeal and flour and stir until completely combined. This will be very sticky and look more like batter than bread dough.

Cover container and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours. Then, place container in refrigerator and chill 2 hours or overnight (or several days).

to finish dough
Using ¼ cup flour, generously flour your work surface. Turn dough out onto work surface and sprinkle more flour over the top of the dough. Knead dough until flour is incorporated and dough is easy to handle, but for no more than 1 minute. Let dough sit for 15 minutes while you make the sauce.

to make sauce
Combine Cinnamon-Sugar Butter Spread, cream, sugars, water and salt in small sauce pan. Set over medium-high heat and cook until sauce just starts to boil, stirring bottom of pan frequently with a rubber spatula. Remove pan from heat and let cool while assembling recipe.

to assemble recipe
Combine ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl.

Coat a 9 x 13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Roll the dough out into a ½-inch thick rectangle (don’t worry about the shape being perfect), making sure your work surface and rolling pin are well coated with flour.

Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into 1-inch squares by cutting 1-inch strips horizontally and then vertically. I cut one vertical strip at a time and remove the resulting pieces of dough before cutting another strip. Toss the dough pieces in the cinnamon sugar until coated and then put into baking pan.

Once all dough pieces are in pan, pour the sauce (stir well, first) over the dough pieces. It will look like there’s way too much sauce, but don’t worry. Cover the pan and let the dough rise for 1 – 2 hours.

to bake and serve
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until golden brown and center of dough pieces reads 165°F on a instant thermometer.

Serve warm or cool. I usually serve this right out of the pan, but for special occasions you can invert the pan onto a large serving platter.


Cinnamon-Pecan Chunky Bread: Sprinkle a cup or two of chopped pecans into the pan before adding dough pieces. This is especially pretty when inverted onto a platter.


This post also appears on the Land O'Lakes Blog.

I am a Land O'Lakes Cooperative member-owner. I received compensation from Land O'Lakes for this post. All opinions are my own.