Maple Cinnamon Sourdough Bread Recipe

This maple cinnamon sourdough bread is truly incredible! There are so many different ways that you can enjoy it year around, such as toasting it like a bagel and topping it with cream cheese. Or in the fall, top it with apple butter or pumpkin butter. It even tastes wonderful all by itself, warm right out of the oven! If cinnamon rolls and monkey bread combined into a sourdough loaf, this would be it. It’s the perfect balance of soft, fluffy, sweet, and cinnamon filled goodness!

What to Do with Maple Cinnamon Sourdough Bread

There are countless ways that you can enjoy maple cinnamon sourdough bread! Some of the best ways include:

• As toast with butter for breakfast
• As toast with pumpkin butter, apple butter, or honey butter
• In place of ordinary bread in French toast casserole
• Toasted as a bagel, and topped with cream cheese
• Replace ordinary bread when making cinnamon toast
• Make monkey bread or pull-apart bread
• Make a bread pudding

Supplies Needed

• Bowls: I use the bowls from my glass bowl set.
• Spatula: I prefer a silicone spatula for this recipe.
• Measuring cups and spoons: These measuring cups and these measuring spoons are my favorite.
• A baking pan or dish: I use my stainless steel baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper, but you can use a well-oiled 9”x13” baking dish or bread loaf pan instead if you’d like.
• A cooling rack: I use this black one, but you can use anything that you have.
• A rolling pin: I use a wood rolling pin, but you can use whatever you like.
• Optional but helpful: Using a pastry brush and a bench scraper are helpful but not required.

Ingredients

• Sourdough starter: Fed and active (not discard). Feed your starter 4-6 hours before you start making your dough to make sure it’s nice and bubbly! Learn how to make a sourdough starter here.
• Salt: I use fine sea salt. For topping the dough at the end, I like flaky sea salt.
• Filtered water: At room temperature.
• All-Purpose flour: I prefer unbleached all-purpose flour.
• Coconut oil: Or other neutral-flavored oil of your choosing, as long as it is liquid at room temperature.
• Pure maple syrup: I use organic pure maple syrup.
• Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon: You may use cinnamon alone, or for an extra special treat you can use a pumpkin or apple spice blend (such as nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and/or ginger).
• Egg: To make an egg wash.

Directions

Prepare the Dough

In a large bowl, carefully stir the sourdough starter, salt, water, and maple syrup together with the spatula. The goal is just to start breaking up the sourdough starter. This will not combine uniformly.

Add the flour and stir everything together to combine. You will likely need to use your hands at the end to combine everything thoroughly.

Optional: If you have time, come back after 30 minutes and stretch the dough from the sides and fold it into the center (this will take about 6-10 folds). This helps to develop the gluten, and also incorporates more air into the dough for a fluffy bread in the end.

Cover the bowl with wrap or a tea towel, and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 4-18 hours, or until doubled in size.

Make the Cinnamon Sugar Swirl Mixture

In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour until combined.

In a separate bowl, make your egg wash by beating the egg and water together with a fork. Or, you may simply use water instead, though it does not work quite as well.

Assemble the Bread

Once the dough has risen, lightly oil a work surface, and then turn your dough out onto surface.

Use the rolling pin to shape the dough into a large rectangle.

Next, brush a layer of the egg wash over the top of the dough, and then sprinkle about a third of the cinnamon sugar over the top of the dough.

Fold both of the long sides of the dough inward to meet in the middle.

Repeat the process of covering with egg wash and then sprinkling half of the remaining cinnamon sugar.

Fold the two short ends of the dough inward to meet in the middle. It helps if you overlap them a bit and pinch them together, so as not to lose too much cinnamon through the seam.

Place the dough onto a prepared baking sheet, seam side down.

Rub a bit of coconut oil on top of the dough, and then cover with wrap or your tea towel for the final rise. Allow to rise for 2-4 hours until it’s fluffy, nearly doubling in size again.

Place the egg wash in the refrigerator for use in the next step, and reserve the remaining cinnamon sugar as well.

Top the Dough and Bake

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Use your fingers to dimple the dough all over, gently stretching the dough to be as thin as you like.

Because of the layers of cinnamon sugar, it may not dimple quite as well as a standard focaccia bread, but that is just fine.

Brush the top of the dough with egg wash and the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture. Top with flaky sea salt, or just a few pinches of fine sea salt or table salt.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and baked through.

Remove from the oven, transfer to a cooling rack, and allow to cool for at least 25-30 minutes before slicing…if you can wait that long!

Store leftovers in an airtight bag or container for up to 4-5 days.

Fresh-Baked Maple Cinnamon Sourdough Bread for Breakfast Schedule

While the amount of time that this dough takes from start to finish is sometimes about 24 hours, the actual hands-on time is minimal! Here’s how you can fit this beautiful bread into even a busy schedule, and get it done in time for breakfast!

Day 1:

1. Feed your sourdough starter just before going to bed, so that it is nice and bubbly the next morning.

Day 2:

1. First thing in the morning, make your dough and perform the optional stretch and folds. Allow to rise all day.
2. In the evening, follow the directions for shaping the dough and adding the cinnamon sugar swirl to the inside. Allow the dough to complete the second rise in the refrigerator, so that it can be baked the next morning without over-rising.

Day 3:

1. First thing in the morning, remove the dough from the fridge. Allow to come to temperature, for 30 minutes to 1 hour, before dimpling, topping with remaining cinnamon sugar, and baking.

More Like This…

• Sourdough Cinnamon Swirl Bread
• Sourdough Pumpkin Pie
• Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
• Sourdough French Toast Casserole (using this recipe as the bread!)
• Basic Sourdough Focaccia Bread

Be sure to pin the recipe for later!