During sugar-free January, I couldn’t kick the craving for cinnamon. All I wanted to eat was cinnamon swirl bread and more specifically, this bread from Semifreddi’s back in California.

As a kid, my parents single-handily (not really) kept this bakery a float by our love of this cinnamon bread! My mom would break off the bread in big chunks and toss it in the microwave for a second to heat it up. It was delicately sweet, full of cinnamon and just so tasty that it would put a smile on my face!

On my instagram I reached out to the community and asked why we crave cinnamon. My friend Ali is a nutrition coach and wellness expert, she reponsed and said that cinnamon detoxes the body so it makes sense to why I was craving cinnamon on my sugar detox.

Does this mean that if you eat a cinnamon roll it eliminates the sugar? Nope, but it was a great learning for me because the reason that I set out on sugar-free January was to reset my hunger cues and become more in tune with my body. I truly felt like that month of 0 sugar really helped get my body in a groove again.

I set out on this recipe just to test it and see if it would work and guys…it did! The cinnamon bread of my gluten-free dreams is here for you! It is sweet, cinnamony and full of wonder! Let’s bake!
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Gluten-Free & Dairy Free Cinnamon Swirl Bread
- Prep Time: 90 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 Minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf of bread 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: baking
Description
gluten-free, dairy free, sweet, cinnamony and full of flavor! with the perfect pull apart texture!
Ingredients
- 5 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour
- 1 1/2 cup of warm water (110°F)
- 1 packet of active dry yeast
- 3 tbsp of sugar (more for the cinnamon mix see below)
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- 2 egg whites
cinnamon mixute
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1 tbsp of ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a bowl add your 1 tbsp of sugar and your packet of yeast
- Next pour into the same bowl your 1 1/2 cups of warm water
- Whisk together and set aside for the yeast to activate for 5 minutes
- In a bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip your egg whites into medium stiff peaks about 6 minutes
- Once your egg whites are medium stiff peaks, add the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar to the egg whites while your continue to whisk
- Next add in your 1 tbsp of baking powder while you continue to whisk
- Keeping your mixer on, pour your activated yeast water into the egg whites and sugar
- Stop your mixer and add in your 5 1/2 cups of flour about 1 cup at a time with the mixer on low speed
- Once combined your dough will still be tacky, since this is gluten-free flour it doesn’t look like traditional dough, toss about 1/4 cup of flour on top of the dough and using a spatula pull the dough away from the bowl with the flour you tossed on the top of the dough
- Using that surface flour form the dough into a ball and set in a bowl to rise for 1 hour covered near a heat source *this is when I pre-heat my oven and toss the bread right next to the oven*
- After the hour is up, your dough should have doubled in size, section the dough in quarters, flour your counter and gently press the dough in to about a loaf pan length rectangle that is about 1/2″ to 1″ thick, do that with the second half of dough
- Gently sprinkle about 2-3 tbsp of cinnamon sugar mixture over each half that you just pressed out
- Rolling each piece into a log, folding the cinnamon into the dough, you will end up with two cinnamon stuffed bread rolls
- Gently, not to deflate the rise, fold the two pieces over eachother twice to form a twist
- Place the twist into a greased and floured loaf pan
- Sprinkle with 1 tbsp of the cinnamon sugar mixture and let the bread rise for 20 minutes
- Once it has puffed a second time, place in your 350°F oven to bake
- Bake for 1 hour, rotating half way through the baking
- Remove and let rest for 1 hour before eating!
Keywords: baking, gluten-free cinnamon bread, gluten-free bread, bread,
After tests and tests this recipe is ready! I can’t get over that gooey cinnamon swirl that just gets better the more you eat it! If you guys are more comfortable making it monkey bread style feel free to ball the dough and coat with cinnamon sugar, fill your pan and cook!

The big key to this recipe is allow it to rest after baking, this really sets the bread and let’s it finish baking in the pan.
I have been eating this bread non stop. Slicing it, placing it in the toaster and adding a little vegan butter. I MEAN DROOL! DELISH, OMG, GUYS!
That is all, please go make this bread and live out my childhood and gluten-free dreams!

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