Cinnamon is one of my favorite things about fall. That and getting to wear my boots all the time and bundle up in scarves and sweaters (in other words, the cute part of my wardrobe). And the crisp chill in the air and the leaves changing color. It’s definitely my favorite time of year and I look forward to cinnamon flavored everything.
When I was a kid, my dad would make me cinnamon toast (buttered toast with cinnamon and sugar) and every once in awhile, we would have cinnamon raisin swirl bread and he would make my cinnamon toast with that. Heaven. There’s nothing like curling up in a blanket on a fall morning with a warm piece of cinnamon toast made with cinnamon raisin bread. Nothing compares.
Cinnamon raisin swirl bread held a special place in my heart as the perfect treat, until I briefly had a crazy old Scottish lady (and I mean the “sleep-on-the-floor-of-the-closet-and-talk-constantly-about-my-dog-who-died-ten-years-ago-as-if-he-were-still-alive” kind of crazy) as my roommate in college and I am not exaggerating when I say that the only thing she ate was toasted cinnamon raisin bread. It got to a point that the sickly sweet aroma of the toast mixed with whatever I was eating and turned me off cinnamon raisin bread entirely. When I became vegan, I didn’t care that I couldn’t find a reasonably priced loaf of vegan cinnamon raisin bread. I was over it.
Fall has been teasing us here in southern california. It will be cool for a moment, then goes right back to being hot. I want so badly to be bundled in my cute fall clothes, my house smelling of cinnamon, but mother nature is not allowing it right now. So I’ve kind of been forcing it- wearing a scarf with my tank top, lighting fires in the fireplace in the evening, and using cinnamon in everything. I even made some gluten-free cinnamon raisin bread in hopes that Fall will get it’s butt in gear.
When that didn’t work, I decided to make an even more cinnamon-y dish using that bread. I decided to make baked oatmeal with chunks of cinnamon raisin french toast mixed throughout. In case you didn’t know, my man, The Chickpea, can turn regular vegan french toast into fabulous french toast, by adding some chickpea flour to the batter that you soak the bread in. I soaked the cubes of cinnamon raisin bread in my chickpea flour batter with rolled oats and even more cinnamon. I even threw in some apple for good measure. It was incredible. Like, “I-just-want-to-eat-this-until-I-explode” kind of incredible.
My baked apple cinnamon french toast oatmeal didn’t exactly scare summer off, but my family loved it and the tiny bit that was leftover made for great breakfasts on the go for a few days. I just portioned the leftovers out into small containers, then in the morning, just drizzled some almond milk over it and heated it in the microwave. It made every morning feel like fall. The wafts of cinnamon-scented steam floating into the air while I savor each bite, wearing a scarf and boots, temporarily forgetting that it’s actually 80 degrees out.
gluten-free cinnamon raisin swirl bread
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup of raisins
- 4 dates, chopped
- 1 cup + 2 T of almond milk + several tablespoons to drizzle over the bread
- 1 packet of dry yeast
- 1/3 cup + ¼ cup date sugar, divided
- 1 tsp vegan sugar
- 4 cups gluten free all-purpose flour,
- 3 tsp of xantham gum (optional)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp + 1 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- couple dashes of nutmeg
- ¼ cup of silken tofu, pureed
- 1 flax egg (1 T flax meal, mixed with 3 T warm water and allowed to set until “gelled”)
- 3 T coconut oil, melted
Instructions
- Lightly spray a loaf pan with vegan cooking spray.
- Soak raisins and chopped dates in a small bowl with hot water. Let stand 20 minutes then drain well.
- Heat 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of almond milk over low heat on stove in a small saucepan to between 100° and 110°. Remove from heat.
- Combine warmed milk, sugar, 1/3 cup date sugar, and yeast in a large bowl, stirring until well dissolved. Let stand 5 minutes.
- Combine flour, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg (and optional xantham gum).
- Add tofu, flax egg, and coconut oil to milk mixture. Stir well with whisk until combined.
- Add to flour mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead raisins and dates into dough. Sprinkle the top with flour to prevent it from sticking to rolling pin.
- Roll dough into a 14 x 7-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Lightly coat surface of dough with cooking spray.
- Combine ¼ cup date sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle sugar mixture evenly over dough then press sugar mixture into dough so it will adhere.
- Roll up rectangle tightly, starting with a short edge, pressing firmly. Pinch seam and ends to seal.
- Place roll, seam side down, into lightly greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise 1 hour (It won’t rise very much. This will be a dense bread.)
- Preheat oven to 350°. Uncover loaf and drizzle about 3-4 tablespoons of almond milk over the top of the loaf. If a lot of the milk pools at the bottom of the pan, drain some of it out (a little is okay and will help keep the bread moist).
- Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, drizzle with 2-4 more tablespoons of almond milk, cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake for 30 more minutes. Let it cool in the pan for about five minutes before removing and transferring to a cooling rack. Slice and serve warm, slathered in a little vegan butter. Enjoy!
Notes
Recipe slightly adapted from Momables.
This recipe creates a very dense bread. If you are looking for a light, fluffy piece of gluten-free cinnamon raisin bread, this is not the best recipe for you. Even though it’s dense, it’s delicious and it’s absolutely fantastic in the Baked Apple Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Oatmeal.
baked apple cinnamon french toast oatmeal
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond milk
- 1 cup vegan creamer
- 1 cup chickpea flour
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 3 T cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- dash of nutmeg
- dash of salt
- 5 cups vegan cinnamon raisin bread, cubed
- 2 cups rolled oats (gluten free, if necessary)
- 1 small green apple, cut into small chunks
Instructions
- Combine the milk, creamer, chickpea flour, maple syrup, cornstarch, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large baking dish (9 x 13 or similar). Whisk together until smooth (some small bumps are okay).
- Add the oats to the milk mixture and combine. Add the bread cubves and apple chunks and mix to make sure all pieces are fully coated. Use the back of a spatula to lightly press it all down. Cover and refrigerate over night.
- Preheat the oven to 375. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm with maple syrup. Enjoy!
First time here? Check out the rest of my Chickpea Love Affair Vegan MoFo Entries!
Thank you so much to everyone who supported Keepin’ It Kind in the Walk for Farm Animals this last weekend! We reached our goal of $500 and we couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you. Your kindness has truly overwhelmed me.
***At the time this post was written, Hurricane Sandy had not been announced yet, and I realize that this post might be rather insensitive to those dealing with horrid weather conditions right now. Please forgive me!***
Photography by Chris Miller
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This is very cool! I love how you merged french toast and oatmeal and made it perhaps better than the two on their own! I can’t wait to give this a shot
Thank you- it is such a great comforting fall breakfast. I hope you like it!
Ohhhh, fabulous, delicious experiments, Batman! This looks like a fall feast and a half!
Thank you, Bex- it totally was!
i love cinnamon, too! i eat it all year round, but it’s particularly comforting in the fall.
i love your baked french toast oatmeal. it looks so delicious, hearty, and comforting.
THank you, Caitlin! I use cinnamon all year-round too, but it just seems to taste and smell better in the fall for some reason.
Delish, Kristy!! We are in full-fall-swing here, wish I could share it with you
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Thank you, Annie! I love your new profile picture- you’re so pretty!!!
what an experiment! apple and cinnamon is my favourite fall combo! what amazing and hearty recipes you came up with! this makes my apple pie, apple smoothie and whatever apple dessert i made in the past few weeks look sad.. haha
Apple smoothie, you say? That is something I could get on board with right now! Sounds SO good! Thank you for stopping by, Alexia!
Thank you for sharing our recipe!
It’s my pleasure! Thank you for sharing it to begin with!
Oh how fabulous! I don’t think there would have been any leftovers of that here! So creative Kristy!
Looks beautiful Kristy! I love all the same things you do about fall..I hope it comes soon! That is a gorgeous bread!
Thank you, Shira! I have my fingers crossed that fall will come soon, but I feel a little selfish with the hurricane that’s going on on the other side of the US. ;-/
those swirls those swirls! i think i ate cinnamon swirl bread every evening for an entire semester during my grad school before i couldnt stand it anymore. my love came bac when i started baking myself. i can have the warm bowl of spices and french toast every morning! i looked at the picture of the bread and scrolled down to confirm if it was a gf bread
love them perfect swirls!
Isn’t it funny how we overdo our favorite things until we can’t stand them anymore? I do it all the time. And the bread, although very dense, was so good, especially warmed with some melted vegan butter on it- so hard to believe it’s GF!
Trader Joe’s has a cinnamon raisin bread that’s vegan, and my mom goes crazy for it. It would be fun to make this homemade swirl bread for her. I don’t have all-purpose gluten free flour. Would regular all-purpose flour work, and if so, would I have to change any of the other amounts?
I hadn’t thought about how the cuteness of a wardrobe in a particular season might skew our feelings about it, but that makes sense. No wonder I love summer with all of its sundresses. My fall wardrobe is rather lackluster; although, I do enjoy a pair or two of boots! Can we just trade weather? I’ll happily send you some blustery winds and crisp autumn leaves, if I can have a nice heatwave for tank tops and sandals!
Trader Joe’s, eh? I think I’ll be checking that out soon…
I think regular flour would actually be better, to tell you the truth. I was just following a gluten-free recipe, but though it was delicious, it was very dense, which I find to be common of some gluten-free baked goods. If you did do the switch, I would leave out the xanthum gum. You probably wont need as much almond milk to drizzle over the top while before baking either.
I love my sundresses too, but I would trade you weather in a heart beat!
I feel all warm and cozy just reading this post – I love cinnamon anything!
Growing up my mom would toast white bread, lather on some butter with a healthy dose of cinnamon cugar- it was definitely one of our favorite treats
Oh, meeee toooo!
And cinnamon toast was ALWAYS on white bread. I always felt punished when my dad would get wheat bread instead of white. Now, I’m totally the opposite when it comes to sandwich bread.