Cinnamon Bread. So super simple.

Make the dough I posted yesterday. Knead the dough, but instead of splitting it into two loaves, just drop it into the mixing bowl for the first rise.

I actually just rubbed some butter around the inside of the bowl before putting the dough back in it to rise -- there was some dough residue, but I just buttered it and it worked fine.

After it has doubled, dump it out onto a floured surface and pull it out into a rectangle. Mine was about the size of a 9x13 pan. Don't worry about it being even, and if you tear a hole in it, just smash it back together. It can be lumpy and uneven. Add pats of butter, maybe an inch and a half, two inches apart, across the whole thing. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over it. Or be like me and coat the thing with cinnamon. I love cinnamon. And some sugar. This one is up to you...I have no idea how much sugar I added. But remember there is only one tablespoon of sugar in the bread dough, so the dough itself is not sweet. Maybe a quarter cup of sugar for the whole loaf? I guess that would be a starting place, and the next time I make it I will measure.

For this one you need loaf pans. I have a 12 inch loaf pan I got from my aunt, which works super great, but otherwise I would use two regular loaf pans.

Roll the dough up. Line the pan with parchment paper or butter it real good. Cut the roll in two if using two loaf pans, or if you have a great loaf pan like mine, just drop it in there. Let rise for half an hour in a warm place, and bake at 435 for 10 minutes, then at 375 for another 25 - 30. Dump onto a rack to cool.

Again I used part whole wheat flour and part unbleached white flour.

Last night I made french toast for supper. I used the fritter recipe from my 1950's Better Crocker cookbook for the batter, and it was pretty good, although as usual, the very center of my french toast was not quite fully cooked. So figuring out how to make better french toast is on my list for this year. Any hints?

The fritter recipe...2 eggs, 1 cup milk, a bunch of cinnamon, a dash of salt, and 1/4 cup flour. Beat together, coat the slice of bread, and fry in a bit of olive oil. But maybe my bread was sliced too thickly, because the middle didn't quite cook thoroughly, like I said.

Since there are so few commercial breads that I can eat -- all the regular brands have preservatives, and almost all the organic ones use sulfate. I am allergic to sulfates, natural or not, so making my own bread is so much easier and cheaper than trying to find bread I can eat.

Which is also why about every six months I make a batch of doughnut holes. I use the recipe that my Betta (my paternal grandma) and Aunt used, because there is no commercial pastry, no grocery store or bakery pastry, that doesn't have preservatives and dough conditioners and other bad things.

Tomorrow...Curried chicken. So easy. So good.