This Amish Cinnamon Bread is an easy quick bread version of Amish friendship bread with no yeast or sourdough starter required. It’s a warm and fuzzy loaf cake that exudes comfort, love, and caring. It’s like a big hug baked up in a loaf pan.
This simple cinnamon quick bread makes two loaves; one to keep, and one to give.
The soul of Amish friendship bread is sharing, and this simplified no yeast version makes sharing so much easier. Gift a loaf to a friend, a neighbor, a first responder…whoever’s making a positive impact on your life these days. I believe that more is not always better when it comes to baking, and this no-frills cinnamon bread is as delicious as anything that will ever come out of your oven. The pure flavor of zesty cinnamon is rich, warm, and so inviting. It’s definitely the star of this recipe.
Cinnamon is such an interesting spice. On the one hand it’s the most ho-hum of baking ingredients, but on the other it can be powerful and exotic when you actually let it shine (it even has a hint of heat.) A tablespoon of cinnamon gives just the right punch of flavor to this bread.
Why I use Saigon cinnamon in this bread
- Saigon cinnamon is one of several common types of cinnamon used in cooking. It’s got a stronger, spicier flavor than the common ground cinnamon you’ll find in the spice aisle of the grocery store. It has a little bit of a peppery edge, which I love.
- You can now find different types of cinnamon in bigger grocery stores, so check them out and see which ones you love. Mine is from McCormick.
One of my favorite things about this bread is the crackly crust that forms on top as it bakes.
It shatters when you slice into it, and that’s part of the charm ~ those little crispy bits are heaven! Theoretically you should let a quick bread cool before digging in, but I can never manage that. There’s something magical about slicing into warm bread; I think it has everything to do with the aroma and big moist crumbs falling every which way. The messier it gets, the better 🙂
Note: this is a sweet bread, and yes, there is a lot of sugar in the recipe but remember, you’re making two loaves, and this is meant to be a special gift-worthy treat.
What does sugar do in a quick bread recipe?
Sugar does much more than just sweeten baked goods. It affects texture, making it moister and more tender. It helps muffins, quick breads, and cakes etc. to rise higher. It promotes an appealing browning. And most of all it enhances the flavor.
How can you reduce the amount of sugar in this bread?
You can experiment with reducing the amount of sugar by about 1/3 without too much trouble, King Arthur Flour recommends reducing sugar to no more than 50% (by weight) of the flour in a quick bread recipe.
Taste of Home recommends switching out one egg white for an extra yolk when trying to reduce sugar in a recipe ~ the extra yolk replaces the lost moisture.
You can try subbing in maple syrup or honey (about 3/4 cup for each cup of sugar) but you may need to reduce the liquid a bit to make this work.
Use Stevia, a plant based sugar alternative, and follow the package instructions for baking substitutions.
When reducing sugar this bread, don’t skip the top sprinkle ~ it adds nice crunch and will help boost the sweet experience even if you’ve used less sugar in the body of the bread.
Ok, ‘nuf said about this bread, it’s good, make it. You’ll be happy.
Amish Cinnamon Bread
Equipment
- standard 9x5 loaf pan
Ingredients
Cinnamon sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Bread
- 3 3/4 cups cake flour, you can also use all purpose flour
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 3/4 cups whole milk
- 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F Grease two 9x5 loaf pans and line with parchment paper. I like to spray or butter the parchment paper itself as well, see note below. Iif you only have one pan that's fine, just bake the second bread later.
Cinnamon sugar
- Whisk the sugar and cinamon together in a small bowl and set aside.
Bread
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- In a second bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Make sure everything is well combined, then add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until there is no dry flour left, don't over mix. Lumps are fine.
- Pour the batter evenly into your two prepared pans. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top of both loaves.
- Bake for about 60-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without wet batter on it. Moist crumbs are fine.
- Cool the bread on a cooling rack, and if you have used the parchment paper, lift them out after 15 minutes or so. If you didn't use parchment, go around each loaf with a blunt knife to loosen all the edges, this bread has a tendency to stick.
Cook's notes
Nutrition
Other quick breads to try
-
One Banana Banana Bread
-
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bread
-
Easy Apple Fritter Bread
-
Cranberry Orange Bread
-
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bread
20 Comments
Rena
August 27, 2021 at 1:01 pmI made it today, it’s sooo delicious!! I reduced the amount of sugar like you suggested and add some other spices (Clove and nutmeg). It’s moist and the sugar crust is amazing! Thanks for the recipe!!
Andria Villanueva
March 3, 2021 at 8:31 amI don’t usually come back to a recipe to comment, but this bread! It’s divine! It’s become our family favorite breakfast bread! We LOVE it!! The texture is moist and has a beautiful crumb, a perfect cinnamon flavor! The sugar topping through me off at first when I took it out of the oven, but after we had our first bites, it became everyone’s favorite. Most excellent!
Sue Moran
March 3, 2021 at 8:36 amI love that you singled out the crumb, Andria, that’s what I love about it, too. Glad it was a hit!
Linda W
February 9, 2021 at 10:14 amLOVE this bread and recipe. I made two changes:
1-I used vegetable oil to generously grease bottom, sides and tube (no parchment) and took about 3 Tbsp of the cinnamon/sugar mixture and covered the bottom and sides of the pan before adding mixture then used the rest of cinnamon/sugar on top.
2-The Pan: I used an angel food tube pan (not Bundt) and made one bread only (not in the giving spirit of Amish bread but didn’t have two loaf pans and didn’t want to wait to make second). Timing to bake was one hour and forty-five minutes.
It is an awesome, moist, sweet, crunchy bread ??
Michelle
January 9, 2021 at 6:26 amI’m so excited to try this recipe! It looks so easy and delicious! I post my new creations on my Instagram page mylifeasamama18 . I’m not the best cook, but I’m giving my go at it. After I make this, I will be posting my results and pictures! I hope you come and visit my page to see how it turned out! Thanks for sharing the recipe! I will be coming back for more!
Tee
January 1, 2021 at 2:47 pmHi there. This looks delicious! Any chance there is a gluten-free option?
Sue
January 1, 2021 at 5:53 pmI’d suggest trying a good gf baking mix like Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour.
Paula
January 2, 2021 at 9:14 pmHi! I took took them out of the oven and I used almond flour (and Splendato make it low carb). They look and smell great! I’ll let you know how they taste!!
Paula
January 2, 2021 at 9:31 pmSo it’s the moistest loaf I’ve ever had. I will use monkfruit sweetener next time for the topping instead of splenda because it doesn’t “melt” the same
Candice
June 25, 2020 at 5:31 pmBeautiful loaf of bread! Would this work with a neutral oil such as coconut or grapeseed oil instead of vegetable oil? Thank you.
Sue
June 26, 2020 at 7:17 amYes, that will work.
Candice
June 26, 2020 at 8:18 amThank you.
Glenn
June 2, 2020 at 3:57 pmHi Sue,
I made this today and my Husband and I just enjoyed a slice with our evening tea. It is delicious, albeit a bit messy from the sugar topping. So easy to make and one loaf will be sent home with our Daughter after her visit tomorrow. So happy to have a recipe that helps to use up my cake and pastry flour. Will definitely make again. Thank you!
Sue
June 3, 2020 at 6:26 amThanks so much Glenn!
Pat Larson
June 2, 2020 at 3:53 pmSue, my family said give that recipe six stars. It came in my morning email and I tried to ignore but eventually caved and baked up two loaves. They are perfect. Light, extremely flavorful in all the good ways, and very easy to make. You do a very good job of writing recipes with both your ingredient lists and assembly of batter. I read all the comments about the sugar, but if you slice one loaf into sixteen pieces (yes the piece will be large enough to enjoy), you are only getting two tablespoons of sugar (minus the topping). That is less than a can of regular soda.
Sue
June 3, 2020 at 6:26 amYay, I’m so happy you made this so quickly Pat, thanks!! And I agree with you about the sugar 😉
Michelle
June 6, 2020 at 3:01 amThis recipe sounds and looks delicious!
If I were to portion this to cook as muffins instead how long should I bake them?
Sue
June 6, 2020 at 4:35 amCheck after 12-15 minutes.
Anne
June 2, 2020 at 7:05 amRecipe looks great but I’m having a difficult time pinning it. Pinterest tab is not connecting. Would love to save this for later.
Sue
June 2, 2020 at 8:05 amI checked and it’s working for me, maybe try again Anne, and if you still have trouble, let me know and I’ll see if we can troubleshoot it.