Twisted Cinnamon Bread

What a week it's been... I've been frantically trying to complete some of my goals I had for myself this quarter, and I think I will actually succeed for once. This was the last week of this quarter, which means.. only 3 more quarters of dental school left! yikes... 75% donezo. That was too fast. This week was a great week in terms of clinic, I learned a lot, and I can see myself really progressing. I have one more clinic session left on Monday, and I'm hopefully ending it with a wonderful cementation of another crown :) With all of this week's success, I called for a  celebration. I believe in rewards, and well.. that was mine. I patted myself on the back with a wonderful glass of some delicious V Sattui Off Dry Riesling that I've been saving up just for that occasion. I waited 3 months. Well worth the wait.

I get bored a lot these days. I don't have much to study even though I have finals next week. I sit around and browse... whether it's buying new clothes that I don't need, my seemingly monthly pair of shoes, food, makeup or looking and recreating the new trends in hair, nails, and what not, I seem to always keep busy on the internet. When I'm really searching for inspiration, I go to Pinterest. I found this type of bread one day and knew that I HAD to make it. I woke up this morning wanting to bake again... that seems to happen a lot, but I'm not complaining, it just tells me that this is really my passion... when I actually wake up and want to do something. Anyway, it's been awhile since I wanted to make that twisted cinnamon bread like the one I saw on pinterest, so I looked at other recipes... for cinnamon buns... and pull apart cinnamon breads. I had saved that pull apart cinnamon bread on my foodgawker account for some time now... and so I decided to make it. I started mixing the dough, and then ... remembered... wait. there was another type of bread that I really wanted to make... what was that..... I looked through my phone and found the screen shot I took of the recipe and pictures..... twisted cinnamon bread. I HAD to make it this morning.

So, long story short, I used the recipe for the pull apart cinnamon bread by Joy the Baker, rolled it up like a cinnamon roll, cut it in half, long-ways, twisted it a few times, connected the ends to make a wreath, and the rest was up to my lovely oven. My apartment still smells amazing.... 2 hours after it was baked.

Recipe for the bread : http://joythebaker.com/2011/03/cinnamon-sugar-pull-apart-bread/
I followed the recipe exactly. I did use my KA mixer for about a minute just because I was a tad lazy :) 

Instructions: http://totallyloveit.com/braided-cinnamon-rolls/

So, here it is... if you can make a cinnamon bun, you can make this bread. It looks amazing. It tastes as good as it looks. It looks like you put in tons of effort... but your friends don't have to know there's only like 2 extra steps added onto a traditional cinnamon roll! I hope my pictures will do enough of the explaining... just remember after you shape the wreath, pinch the ends together tight so it stays while baking. I found that 400 degrees was a tad high for this bread, I reduced it to 375 for 15 minutes and 350 for the remaining 15 minutes.

Ideally roll out a rectangle around 16 inches by 20 inches, and square off the corners,
I didn't do this, so I just sliced off the uneven ends after rolling it up 

Mine was a little jagged because I was afraid to use my knife on my marble slab :/
Next time I will used my cutting board for less jag-gity cuts

Lay the 2 halves fillings side up and cross them one over the other
Make sure that the filling side is always facing up! 

Connect the ends to make a wreath shape 

~Love~