This is  a more ambitious carb recipe than I normally post but… cinnamon.  And the smell/satisfaction of fresh baked bread.  Fresh baked bread with cinnamon.  And it has healthy things in it like whole wheat flour, rye flour and ground flaxseed.  So let’s dive in.

First all the ingredients just start to come together and you have this kind of shaggy, wet, dough mess…

After this gets a little rest you get to play the knead, form into dough ball, let rest game… the dough ball should look like this…

After doing that for a while the dough gets to hang in an oiled bowl to let rise.  Here it is after rising.

Then you get to roll this beautiful dough out.  The recipe says a 16 X 18 rectangle but this amorphous shaped worked fine for me.

Next we roll this dough up.  I try to move back and forth from one end to the other as I slowly roll the dough up into a loaf shape.  Mine were a little longer than my loaf pan so I just shoved them in there…

These get to rise again in the loaf pan.

And now we bake!

You’ll need (for two loaves):

For Bread

• 5 cups (635 grams) whole wheat flour (can sub white whole wheat)
• 0.25 cup ground flaxseed meal
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 0.25 cup melted butter, cooled (or vegetable oil)
• 1.25 cup lukewarm water (roughly 95 degrees)
• 1.25 cup lukewarm milk (I used almond milk)
• 1.5 tablespoon active-dry yeast

For Filling

• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1.25 tablespoons cinnamon
• 3 teaspoons flour (I used white whole wheat)
• 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water (aka egg wash)

To Make:

1. In a large mixing bowl combine water, milk and sugar. Whisk in yeast until dissolved. Add egg and butter and whisk until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, flaxseed and salt. Add dry mixture to yeast-egg mixture. Using a large spoon, stir for one minute.  The dough should be wet and course (see picture). Let rest for five minutes.
2. Continuing mixing the dough with your spoon for six more minutes.
3. Scrape dough out onto lightly floured counter. Knead a few times, then form dough into ball and let rest, covered by the empty bowl upended over it, for 10 minutes. Repeat this process- kneading a few times, then resting for 10 minutes- two more times (see photo).
4. Transfer dough to large lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let proof at room temperature for 70 minutes, until doubled in bulk (see photo). You can also ferment dough overnight or in fridge for up to 4 days. If proofing in fridge, let dough sit at room temperature for three hours before baking.
5. In a small bowl combine sugar, cinnamon and flour.
6. Turn dough onto a floured counter and divide into two equal pieces. Roll each into a long, thin, rectangle-ish shape, about 16 X 8 inches (see photo). Brush the dough with the egg wash. Sprinkle half the filling evenly over the egg wash. Beginning with a short edge, roll the dough into a log.  Place the log in a lightly greased loaf pan (mine was a little long but I just smooshed it in there, see photo). Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
7. Cover the loaf pans with lightly greased plastic wrap and let the bread to rise for about one hour.  About halfway through, heat oven to 350 degrees F.
8. Uncover the loaf pans and bake for 40 minutes, rotating the loaves halfway through. When done, they will sound a bit hollow when tapped and have an internal temperature of 190 degrees.

Inspired by SmittenKitchen