5 The cinnamon [swirl] bread that wasn't

Who can resist the sweet scent of cinnamon filling the air? And the pretty swirl patterns in a slice of cinnamon swirl bread? Unfortunately, we all know that this indulgence does not come guilt-free. In those rich cinnamon buns are tons of butter and sugar. Reinhart's Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread has unveiled to us a less sinful version. Could a "healthified" version hold up to the taste test? Well, the only way was to make it!

Continuing with my spelt series of bakes, I made a whole spelt, raisin-free version since I don't particularly like raisins in my bread. Also I found that his recipe for one loaf (approx 300g flour) was a little to much for my bread pan to contain, so I reduced proportionately the amount of flour and other ingredients. Oh yes, I must mention that I finally invested in some new kitchen gadgets that are especially essential for bread making: a digital weighing scale (Soehnle, from Tangs), a meat thermometer (Cooper-Atkins, from Phoon Huat) and a larger chopping board to roll dough. And so, equipped with new kitchen gadgetry I embarked excitedly onto my second breadventure: Whole Spelt Cinnamon [Swirl] Walnut Bread.

At first glance, you must be wondering, huh, where's the swirl? Precisely. That's why I enclosed the swirl in brackets. During the rolling stage, I made many careless mistakes. First, I under-dusted the chopping board, and my dough was also slightly sticky, causing the dough to stick to the board. Very bad for rolling. Second, I rolled the dough along the width instead of the length, meaning my dough ended up being longer than my bread pan. Consequently, I had to fold in the ends which presumably destroyed the swirl pattern. A damaged swirl pattern wasn't that bad a thing, what came next was a further disaster.

After panning and the second rise, the bread was all poofy and ready to enter the oven. But the moment it touched the hot air of the oven... POOF! The dough collapsed immediately. And along with it, my heart sank. From bread troubleshooting guides, I must have overproofed on the second rise (45 min), causing a weak dough structure that could not stand up to the heat. In my previous attempt with the 100% spelt sandwich dough, I only proofed for 20 min because it was overflowing on the sides. This time with reduced dough quantity, I allowed a longer proofing time so that it would rise above the pan, but I guess this was a bad move. I suppose yeast are more active in Singapore's humid weather so wouldn't need such a long rising time.

But all this worry was uncalled for, as the final product was still beautiful in taste, albeit not aesthetically (can you just see how flat the top is, and horribly sliced too as I don't have a bread knife). It was much more tender and less dense than the 100% spelt, and of course, the cinnamon and walnuts was the best thing ever after waking up at 4 AM to make this in time for breakfast.

As I used chocolate rice milk (Rice Dream) which was super sweet on its own, I only used an extra 1 tbsp of sugar, even less than the original recipe. Overall, I think this might be the healthiest, least sinful version of Cinnamon Bread ever, although of course, if you're looking for a doughy soft bun with a rich buttery center and icing, this would fall short. Mum complained that it was too dry and not sweet enough so make this at your own risk.

I've listed the ingredients in metric instead of the usual imperial quantities because it is more accurate. The baker's formula can be found at the bottom.

Whole Spelt Cinnamon Walnut Bread (adapted from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads)
Makes 1 small loaf

DAY 1
Ingredients
Soaker

• 100g wholegrain spelt flour (Bob's Red Mill brand)
• 1g salt
• 100g chocolate rice milk (or milk, buttermilk, yogurt, or other non-dairy milk)

Biga

• 100g wholegrain spelt flour (Bob's Red Mill brand)
• 0.7g dry active yeast
• 50g chocolate rice milk
• 7g hazelnut oil
• 1 egg white (approx 35g)

Directions

1. Mix all of the soaker ingredients together in a bowl for about 1 min, until the flour is hydrated and the ingredients form a ball of dough.
2. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave soaker at room temp for 12-24 h. (If more than 24 h, place the soaker in the refrigerator and remove it 2 h before mixing the final dough).
3. Mix all of the biga ingredients together in a bowl to form a ball of dough. Using wet hands, knead dough for 2 min so that all ingredients are evenly distributed and flour is fully hydrated. The dough should feel very tacky (sticky). Let dough rest for 5 min, then knead again with wet hands for 1 min. The dough will become smoother but still be tacky.
4. Transfer the biga dough to a clean bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 3 days.
5. About 2 h before mixing the final dough, remove biga from refrigerator. It will have risen slightly but need not have risen significantly in order to use it in the final dough.

DAY 2
Ingredients

• Soaker from Day 1
• Biga from Day 1
• 33.2g wholegrain spelt flour
• 1.3g salt
• 3g dry active yeast
• 2.4g ground cinnamon
• 50g walnuts, coarsely chopped
• Cinnamon sugar (1 tbsp brown sugar + 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon + few dashings of ground nutmeg)
• Extra flour as needed

Directions

1. Chop soaker and biga into 6 smaller pieces each and sprinkle extra flour over to prevent sticking.
2. Combine soaker and biga with flour, salt, yeast (rehydrated) and cinnamon. Stir vigorously with large spoon or 2 min until all ingredients are evenly integrated. Dough should be soft and slightly sticky; else, add more flour or water as needed.
3. Dust work surface with flour,roll dough in flour to coat. Sprinkle walnuts over dough and knead for 3-4 min, until dough is soft and tacky. Form dough into ball and let rest 5 min. Meanwhile prepare a clean, lightly oiled bowl.
4. Resume kneading for 1 min. Form dough into ball and placed in prepared bowl, rolling to coat with oil. Cover loosely with wrap. Let rise for 45-60 min until 1 1/2 times the original size.
5. When dough has risen, dust surface with extra flour and transfer to to work surface. Roll dough out to about 1/2" thick. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar and roll up into a tight loaf. Place dough into bread pan. Let rise until loaf crests above the pan.
6. Preheat oven to 204C. Place pan in middle shelf, lower temp to 163C, bake 20 min. Rotate 180 degrees and bake another 20-40 min.
7. Allow to cool 1h (if you can resist) before serving.

BAKER'S FORMULA

Ingredient	Original %	My version %
Whole spelt flour	100	100
Salt	2.3	1
Yeast	2 (instant)	1.6 (dry active)
Milk	64	67
Egg	12 (whole egg)	15 (whites only)
Sugar	7	5
Oil	14	3
Walnuts	21	15