Cinnamon Swirl French Toast Bread

This bread is a staple at the DeYoung household! Call him crazy, but for the past 40 years my dad has enjoyed french toast for breakfast every single morning. To cut down on store bought bread and preservatives, I decided to begin making all of his french toast bread from scratch. It’s been about a year now and he still cannot get enough of this cinnamon swirl french toast bread! I can second that, this is the perfect bread for french toast and the smell of it is like no other!

Ingredients

French Toast Bread Ingredients

• 6-7 cups all purpose flour
• 1.5 Tbsp active dry yeast
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs

Cinnamon Swirl Ingredients (*Optional*)

• 8 Tbsp salted butter (slightly melted)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Using a mixer, combine 3 cups of flour with the 1.5 Tbsp yeast. In a saucepan, stir constantly while heating up the 2 cups milk, 1/4 cup sugar, 4 Tbsp butter, and 2 tsp salt until the butter is almost melted and warm. Mix this into the flour mixture.
2. Beat in the 3 eggs one at a time on low speed until incorporated, then beat for 3 minutes on high.
3. Mix in 3 more cups of flour. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead the last cup of flour in until the dough is smooth, elastic, and semi-stiff (about 6 minutes).
4. Shape this into a ball and place in a lightly buttered bowl, cover with a towel and let rise for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until doubled.
5. Once doubled, punch it down and divide it in half. Cover it again and let it rest for 10 minutes. While it rests, make the cinnamon swirl. In a small, microwave safe bowl melt the 8 Tbsp of butter in short increments (careful not to burn it). Stir in the 1 cup of packed brown sugar and 2 Tbsp cinnamon. Set aside.
6. Grab one half of your bread dough and on a lightly floured surface, roll it out into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Once rolled out, spread half of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture onto it. Now roll it up from one short end to the other and place it in a sprayed loaf pan. Repeat with the other half of the dough and brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Cover these one more time, and let rise until almost doubled (about 35 minutes).
7. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes then cover with tinfoil and place back in the oven for 15 more minutes (35-40 minutes total baking time). The tinfoil prevents it from over-browning.
8. Let them cool in the pans until the cinnamon swirl is no longer super runny, then pop them out to continue cooling.
9. Enjoy your delicious homemade Cinnamon Swirl French Toast!

*** The cinnamon swirl is optional. If you prefer plain french toast, skip making the cinnamon swirl mixture. After letting the dough rest for 10 minutes in step 5, simply shape the 2 halves into 2 loaves and place them in the sprayed loaf pans. Cover them again for about 35 minutes and then proceed to step 7 as normal.