Coffee Breakfast

Incredibly-moist quickbread with a iseep, dark cinnamon swirl inside. Oh, there’s chocolate chips too!

You see this bread here?

It was supposed to be heavily drizzled with a vanilla glaze, BUT… was too incredible as is! Drenching it in a glaze would take away from all of it’s cinnamon, brown-sugary, chocolate chippy flavor.

I found myself sneaking a small piece after breakfast, after my workout, and heck – I even replaced my nightly popcorn bowl in the name of swirled quickbread. If I hadn’t promised Kevin’s motorcycle friends (yes, I’ve been on it. yes, it’s frightening!) a few slices, then we’d probably polish off every last sugary crumb in only 2 days.

I’ll never tire of cinnamon swirl bread. Growing up, my favorite school morning breakfast (umm besides strawberry toaster strudels) was cinnamon swirl bread, toasted and buttered. It sounds pretty boring, but if you’ve ever had a piece of buttered cinnamon-swirl bread, then you know what I’m talkin’ about!

I craved the same comforting flavors last week and before I knew it, this quick bread came to life. As I reached for a few pecans to toss into the batter, I accidentally grabbed the chocolate chips instead. Oops?

Swirled with cinnamon sugar, topped with more, and dotted with teeny tiny chocolate chips. It’s almost like cake – soft, tender, and moist. I mean common, look at that deep, dark ripple of cinnamon!

Baking science alert!

Imparting moisture are a few of my very favorite baking ingredients: oil, buttermilk, and brown sugar.

(1) First, the oil. I use oil in my Super-Moist Carrot Cake recipe and knew it was exactly what this quickbread needed. Butter is a fat that gives unbeatable flavor in my recipes, but nothing beats the moisture that oil brings – especially to muffins, cakes, and quick breads. There is so much flavor from the cinnamon, brown sugar, and chocolate chips that the flavor of butter would disappear anyway.

(2) The buttermilk. Don’t try to substitute the buttermilk with anything! Buttermilk is what makes my Triple Chocolate Cake so darn moist. You absolutely need buttermilk for this quick bread recipe. The lactic acid present is what will allow the baking soda to produce the leavening gas (carbon dioxide).

Don’t have buttermilk? Most folks don’t typically keep buttermilk in the house. Save yourself a trip to the store and make your own at home. Measure 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup. Then, add enough milk (1%, 2%, or whole) to the same measuring cup until it reaches 1 cup. Stir it around and let sit for 5 minutes. The homemade “buttermilk” will be somewhat curdled and ready to use in your recipe.