Cinnamon Swirl Bread

There was a recipe being shared on facebook last week that caught my eye. It was Amish Cinnamon Bread posted by Torri Camp Gayle. I really couldn't tell what her finished bread looked like because the slice was slathered with cream cheese, but I loved the ingredients and had some buttermilk in my fridge (my new favorite ingredient for everything) and decided to make a loaf. I used a medium size loaf pan and am rather happy with the results, although I'd love to get some more swirl action happening within the bread. Here's the recipe:

Amish Cinnamon Bread
credit to Torri Camp Gayle

1/2 cup butter, room temp
1 cup sugar (I used Splenda no calorie)
1 large egg
1 cup low fat buttermilk
2 cups flour (I was at the end of my AP flour so added 1/2 cup whole wheat flour to make the 2 cups)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (my addition)

Cinnamon Swirl and Topping
1/3 cup sugar (I used Splenda no cal)
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Prepare loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside. Mix together the Cinnamon Swirl and Topping mixture and set aside.  Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

Now we're ready to rock and roll. Cream butter, Splenda and egg until combined. I mixed this for about 2-3 minutes with my trusty hand mixer.

Now add the buttermilk, flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined, but don't overmix. You don't want a tough bread. Pour half the batter into your prepared pan and sprinkle 3/4 of your sugar mixture on top.

Top with the remaining batter, and sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture. Take a knife (or maybe a wooden skewer would do the trick) and make swirls back and forth in the batter. Mine ended up looking lumpy.

So I patted it down with my clean hands.

I wasn't thrilled (it was still lumpy), but in the oven it went for 45-50 minutes. And I must say it's a super tasty bread that needs a bit of a face lift.

My friend Aurora had a good idea to solve the lumpiness. Do the swirling before you add the second layer of the batter. I'm even taking her idea a step farther and suggesting you make three thin layers of batter topped with the 1/3 each of the cinnamon mixture and only swirl the bottom two. That's what I'm going to try next! Any other suggestions are more than welcome. I know I have some seasoned bakers reading every so often, so if you're out there- share any secrets you may have, before I make this again. All in all, this was a simple, tasty recipe that just needs a little tweaking. And once it was cut- you'd never know it needed plastic surgery. A very good recipe that I think would also make an awesome bread pudding!