Really really yummy!

Cinnamon Sugar bread

Once upon a time while browsing the world wide web, I stumbled upon a recipe... And what recipe it was! I instantly bookmarked it for future use, but, instead of forgetting all about it soon afterwards, this one kept bugging me... until I finally gave in. Beware, you might follow the same destiny, so unless you are free from calorie counting, don't read a word further! And definitely do NOT look here - that's the original recipe, with plenty of how-to photos, I sort of forgot to snap a pic at the cutting dough part (which was a little bit tricky, read on to find out why).
BUT, while I really wanted to eat it, I really did not have the time/mood to make the dough myself. When both kids are home and one is sick, and you still have a million things to do before you can sit down, it sometimes happens. So, this is my Lazy version of the Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread, using a recipe from my bread maker as a base. It's really similar to the one on the cooking site, and I will definitely try it next time, but when you just want to put all things in and forget about it till the dough is ready, this is a pretty good variation, too.

Ingredients for the dough (based on Izzy bread maker recipe for croissant):

1 egg
225ml milk
60g butter ( I used the real thing - totally worth it! but you can replace it with margarine)
1 tea spoon of salt
2 table spoons and a bit of sugar
400g flour
3/4 pack of dry yeast - about 7g or ~ 1,5 tea spoons
vanilla - I used 2 of those little tubes of vanilla powder

Ingredients for filling:

sugar to taste
cinnamon - plenty
butter for spreading it over dough, melted
nutmeg - just a bit - optional

So, in my lazy version, I combined all ingredients in my bread maker (I always whisk the egg a little bit). Wet ingredients go in first (butter needs to be melted), last is flour with vanilla and yeast. Start the dough making program, clean up the kitchen and you're free till the timer beeps. I have Izzy bread maker, and it takes 1 1/2 hours till the dough is ready.

Once the dough is ready, take it out, sprinkle some flour on your work space first, so it won't stick, and roll it out in an approximate rectangle as much as it will go. Spread the melted butter over the dough, then add sugar and cinnamon. I have learned that in order for it to be really tasty, it needs quite a bit of sugar, so be generous. The original recipe mentions a whole cup, I have not measured mine, I believe it's less though, but you get the idea. Be generous with cinnamon. I had not added nutmeg, but if you like it, add a little bit of that, too, just for the aroma.

plenty of cinnamon and sugar!

Grease a loaf/cake pan (mine is 30x11cm) with butter. Slice your rolled dough into ~8-9cm wide strips, then slice these in smaller peaces, about 5-6 cm wide. You get a rectangle. Now the tricky part.You need to put these rectangles one on top of the other. The sugar and cinnamon will want to fall down, which is why I found it easier to lift smaller peaces rather than long strips of soft dough, as the original recipe suggests. Place 3-4 peaces one on top of the other and then start stacking them in the pan. They don't have to be perfectly straight, and don't try to push them too close - the dough will raise more. Once you are done, cover it with a towel and start pre-heating the oven.

place all rectangles in the baking pan

I baked mine in 200`C (392`F) for some 20-ish minutes, the original recipe suggests 350`F (176C) and 30-35 minutes. I used the pastry program of my oven, with upper + lower heat + air.

just out the oven, I wish I could transfer to You the aroma!

That really is it! I absolutely love it. The cinnamon bread is fantastic, perfect with a glass of milk, tea or coffee. But besides that, the smell of the freshly baked bread, yeast, cinnamon all over the house... it just smells like happiness.