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This bread.
Hands down this is the best sweet bread I have ever made.
You guys, I really just do not even have words. This bread is incredible.
I know I plan on making it every Sunday from now until Christmas.
I have many reasons for this.
One is that it is addicting.
Seriously, you will want slice after slice.
Two is the smell.
Oh the smell. It is pure happiness in the air. I would make this bread just for the smell it throws off while baking. Think about how it would smell to be in Mrs. Clause’s kitchen and that is this smell. I would make it even if I could not eat it, just to smell the smell.
The more I think about it, this is a great bread to give to others during the holidays. You get to experience the joy of giving (and filling your house with that awesome aroma!), and your receiver will thank you to no end. Perfect for an elderly neighbor, your friend who just had a baby, the UPS man (or woman). Yeah, the UPS man… speaking of which, mine is seriously overworked! You see up here in the mountains, we don’t have a whole lot of buying choices, so Amazon and online shopping, they are my savior! No really, I can’t imagine what I would do if I wasn’t able to shop online. So Jose (my UPS guy), this bread’s for you!
The ropes of soft delicate brioche dough are taken through a bath of butter and vanilla and then generously sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Yes, yes, yes!
It’s like a cinnamon roll brioche bread!
I left this bread free of icing because it really does not need any.
There is a whole layer of crunchy streusel on top that really just needs to be left to shine. And it does. Trust me, it is so good. Just a little crunchy on the top, but super soft and doughy, cinnamony and buttery in the middle.
Oh my gooooshhh.
Just make it guys.
The dough is really easy to work with and the hands-on time is very minimal. Just mix and let the dough sit overnight, then roll some ropes, dip in butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, braid and let rise for another hour or so. Then bake and smell the amazingness.
And I am serious. It really is amazing.
Cinnamon Crunch Braided Brioche Bread
Servings: 12 Servings
Calories Per Serving: 396 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Streusel Topping
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter cold
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons chopped pecans optional
Instructions
- Combine warm water, yeast, salt and sugar in a large mixer bowl and mix on low speed until incorporated. Add eggs and melted butter and mix until combined. Gradually mix in the flour until the dough comes together. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Grease a large bowl and add the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit 1-2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Once the dough has doubled in size place the bowl in the fridge overnight or up to 5 days. When ready to bake the bread remove the dough and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- In the meantime gather the ingredients for the Cinnamon Sugar Coating. Add the 1/2 cup melted butter to a large shallow bowl, stir in the vanilla.
- In another medium size bowl combine the 1 cup brown sugar with 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix well.
- Grease a loaf pan and sprinkle the inside of the loaf pan with the Cinnamon Sugar Coating.
- Sprinkle the dough with flour and cut into three equal pieces. Carefully roll each piece into a 12-inch rope.
- Now take each rope and dip it through the butter, then generously sprinkle each rope with the Cinnamon Sugar Coating. Now gently roll each rope in the remaining coating that has gathered around the rope on your work surface. I used most of my cinnamon sugar for this.
- To make the braid, start at one end and pinch the ends of the rope together. Bring the right outside rope over the center rope; that rope now becomes the center. Bring the left outside rope over the new center rope; that rope now becomes the center. Continue braiding until you reach the end. Pinch the ropes together to seal.
- Carefully lift the braid and place it in the greased and sugared loaf pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm draft free area another 1-2 hours, or until double in size. About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake the bread preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Make the streusel. In a bowl add the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and pecans. Using your hands work the butter into the sugar until the mixture resembles small peas.
- Place the loaf on a baking sheet and and sprinkle the streusel overtop. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 45 to 55 minutes, tenting with foil after 15 to 20. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then carefully turn the bread out of pan to cool completely before slicing. If some of the streusel falls off, just place it back on the loaf.
Notes
*Brioche dough adapted from [here | http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/brioche-recipe].
Finally!
DELICIOUS! I’ve made very tasty cinnabon-style cinnamon rolls for years, to the point of family tradition. But I think this recipe might just find its own place around the holidays. Some tips I think might help/my experiences while making the bread: I used at least a cup more flour than the recipe called for. It just seemed kinda wet and sticky, not at all like a proper brioche, using the amount in the recipe. Based on my cinnamon roll experience, I added more knowing the doughs were similar. When rolling the ropes of dough in butter, I only melted 1/4c of butter on a long flat plate and it was still plenty. I added vanilla bean scrapings to the cinnamon-sugar instead of adding vanilla extract to the butter so that more vanilla flavor would remain on the bread ultimately. I was able to use leftover cinnamon-sugar for the streusel topping and i chilled the remaining melted butter from rolling the ropes of dough for the streusel as well. Next time i’ll line the loaf pan with parchment first, as my bread stuck a fair amount. And i’ll butter the top surface of the loaf pan, too, so the dough doesn’t stick there either.
Hi Jennifer! I am so glad you loved this recipe and it turned out amazing! Thank you! xTieghan
Made this today (well started last night with the dough) and it is AMAZING. Just like you said, the smell I could just live in. It’s heavenly. And the brioche itself turned out perfect. Thank you so much for sharing!
Amazing! Thank you Kristen! xTieghan
Hi! Could this recipe doubled to make two loaves? I don’t want to ruin the integrity of the mix, but would love to make two loaves out of this. Also, where did you get that cute bread board?
Hi there! Yes! You can easily double the recipe to get 2 loafs, but I would recommend mixing each dough separately as your stand mixer will not be able to handle that amount of dough. The bread board is pretty old, I believe it was from Williams-sonomma. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
I just served this bread today and received many positive feedback. Most folks raved about the caramelized sugar on the outside of the bread. The dough was soft, buttery with bites of the nut crunch.
I had a lot of fun making this bread. I decided last minute to bake this and your Overnight Pull Apart Cinnamon Brioches Bread at the same time. After the first proof, I refrigerated the dough for about 5 hours. Then I braided the bread and put the 9 x 5 loaf pan in the refrigerator overnight. This bread took longer to bake (75 + minutes) but turned out very well.
Next on my list is to use your Brioche dough recipe for a savory bread.
Thank you for your recipes. I have thoroughly enjoyed them.
I am so glad this turned out so well for you Arden! Thank you so much! I hope you love the brioche! xTieghan
Hi,
Questions please. In your instructions, why do you turn the dough onto a floured surface without kneading. Then immediately put the dough inna greased bowl for proofing?
Also, do you punch down the dough after the first proof, then place in the fridge?
Thanks
Arden
Hi Arden, the dough is first kneaded the mixing bowl with the dough hook, then shaped into a smooth ball on a floured counter. Once it is shaped it needs time to rise, so it need to be pleaces back in a bowl and covered. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
Hi,
Just one question. In your instructions, why do you turn the dough onto a floured surface without kneading. Then immediately put the dough inna greased bowl for proofing?
Thanks
Arden
Hi Arden, the dough is first kneaded the mixing bowl with the dough hook, then shaped into a smooth ball on a floured counter. Once it is shaped it needs time to rise, so it need to be pleaces back in a bowl and covered. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
If I make the dough in my bread machine can I use it as soon as its finish its cycle or must it be refrigerated over night ??
Hey Cheryl, I am not very familiar with bread machines so I am really not sure. If you can typically use the dough right away, then I do think it should be just fine without and overnight refrigeration. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
The nice recipe I just can’t wait to make it at my home thanks for adding one more amazing recipe to us.
Thank you! xTieghan
What is the least amount of time you should chill the dough? If I chill for only 6-8 hours will that be enough?
HI! You just need an hour or 2 in the fridge, Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
SVP Est-il possible d’avoir cette recette en français ? Elle me paraît si délicieuse et je ne comprends pas l’anglais …
Salut! Le mieux que je puisse faire serait de le traduire sur Google pour vous. Faites-moi savoir si cela aiderait!
Thank you so much for this recipe! Making this recipe was my first experience with sweet bread, and it turned out beautifully. Thank you for the easy to follow instructions and extremely helpful pictures. The bread is delectable. Thanks again!
Thank you so much Payton!
This recipe is definitely on my to-do list, but after reading some of the comments regarding the moisture of the dough, I’m a little confused as to how much flour to actually use. There is much controversy in the baking community about what a cup of flour actually is (if not using a measurement by weight)… Do you fluff the flour, spoon into the measuring cup and level off, or dip the measuring cup into the flour and level off? There is quite a difference in weight to both methods.
HI! I fluff the flour with my measuring cup, then dip the cup into the flour and shake the excess off. Does this makes sense? Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
I couldn’t figure out how to reply to your reply! The first batch I made tasted okay but the dough was far too slack and thus affected the texture after the bake. I wouldn’t have dared to add more flour as I had weighed it out to begin with and added a little more while hand kneading it, and didn’t want it to become tough and dry. The issue was the temperature of the butter. The second time I made it, I only melted 4 tbs of butter and cut the rest in cold and it turned out wonderfully. The dough shaped into a shiny elastic dough after a good spin in the stand mixer. I noticed several other comments about greasy or “too wet” dough, so hopefully that will help anyone who had the same problem! I plan to use this recipe with different variations in the future! Thanks for sharing, and responding to my post. 🙂
Hi Brianna! I am so glad this turned out so well for you, thank you!
I’m very confused by this recipe. It doesn’t say to knead the dough anywhere, but I assumed that’s what was meant when it says to mix until it comes together. It was a very oily mess after about 5 minutes in the stand mixer so I knew the butter was leaking out, which I had worried about since it called for melted butter. I thought brioche was supposed to be made with cold/room temperature butter so it doesn’t leak out? I tried putting it in the fridge for a bit to harden up the butter some, but by then I had thoughtlessly tossed the dough hook into the sink and decided to knead it by hand (which I prefer anyway). Far too wet a dough to knead by hand, I’d guess it would take at least 20 minutes in the stand mixer to achieve a smooth elastic dough. I make bread 2-3 times a week for my family so I’m very familiar with enriched doughs, what am I missing here? Should it start out a very greasy dough? Does it come together after 15-20 minutes in the stand mixer?
I decided to just let it rise and pop it in the fridge and see what happens, but my guess is it will be too slack to roll and shape tomorrow. Any clarification would be great!
Hey Brianna, it sounds to me like you just need a little more flour to help the dough come together. Did it end up turning out ok?? Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you loved this recipe and had a great Christmas! Thanks so much and happy Holidays!! xTieghan ?
Does the dough HAVE to sit overnight? I really don’t want to wait that long to bake this!!
HI! NO need to let the dough sit overnight, a couple hours is just fine. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe. Thanks so much!! xTieghan ?