This amazingly easy cinnamon bread is the perfect sweet bread to have with breakfast or as a dessert. This cinnamon swirl bread it topped with loads for crumbly streusel and topped with icing for the perfect finish.
Some days I crave the sweetness and smells of cinnamon rolls, but don't want to go through all of the steps and time it takes to make it. On days like that, I make this amazing easy cinnamon bread and I get everything I wanted!
The brown sugar streusel topping is rich and crumbly and it's such an easy recipe because it is a cinnamon bread recipe without yeast. You don't have to wait for it to rise, you just layer it, bake it and eat it!
If you are up for making cinnamon rolls from scratch then check out this recipe for the best cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting!
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Now for the great debate...
Is it Cinnamon roll bread? Cinnamon swirl bread? or Cinnamon streusel bread?
I really debated what to call it. This recipe really falls into all 3 of these categories. It's similar to cinnamon rolls, its swirly and it's spilling over with that amazing crumb topping. My kids went bonkers over this recipe, so please give it a try!
I would like to add that using high quality ingredients really makes a difference. I say this on most of my recipes, but it's true! If you are going to all the work of making a recipe, you want your star ingredient to be good quality.
🔪 Instructions
How to make cinnamon bread from scratch:
How do you make cinnamon quick bread? First I want to specify that this is a no yeast recipe and is also made with no buttermilk. It's a super easy quick bread recipe and you don't need a bread machine at all!
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
Start out with a good quality mixer, like a KitchenAid and cream together 1 stick of softened butter and ¾ cups of the granulated sugar with the paddle attachment. Add the egg and mix together again. When these ingredients are combined, add the milk, sour cream and vanilla.
For the dry ingredients, sift together the all purpose flour, salt, ground cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder. Mix it together with the wet ingredients until well combined and smooth.
What is streusel topping made of?
Streusel topping is generally made with brown sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon and combined until crumbly.
I love streusel! It is cut together until it turns into little pea sized crumbs and added to the top of cakes, muffins, coffee cake, breads and other pastries. For this recipe, we will be making extra, and adding some if it into the middle of the bread batter to make it a beautiful cinnamon swirl loaf.
How to make streusel topping more crumbly:
The key is to this crumbly streusel is to use cold butter and a pastry cutter. You don't want your butter too soft, and you don't want it too cold. Just take it out of the fridge for about 10 minutes before making the streusel.
Add the butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and a dash of salt in a large mixing bowl. With your pastry cutter, cut all of the ingredients together for several minutes until it turns into coarse crumbs about the size of a pea or a little larger.
If you use a mixer, you will not get the crumbly texture that you need in a streusel topping. You don't want it to be smooth, you want it to be chunky.
Putting together the cinnamon quick bread:
This recipe makes one loaf of bread. Prepare a bread loaf pan by buttering it and dusting it with flour. This will ensure that your cinnamon loaf will not stick to the sides of the pan.
Pour half of the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Take several tablespoons of the streusel mixture and sprinkle it over the batter.
Spoon the remaining batter into the pan on top of the streusel. If you want it to be a swirl bread, take a butter knife and swirl it through the batter just a few times.
Add the rest of the crumble topping to the top of the batter and place it in the pre-heated oven. Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Baking time may vary from oven to oven.
Cinnamon Bread with Icing, how to make icing for cinnamon roll bread:
After the cinnamon loaf has cooled for 10 minutes, take a knife and loosen it from the edges of the pan. Let it cool completely and carefully remove it from the pan and onto a serving platter.
Making icing with powdered sugar is super easy! Add the powdered sugar to a medium mixing bowl. Whisk in 2 teaspoons of milk until it is smooth. If it is still clumpy, add another ½ teaspoon of milk at a time until it has the right consistency.
Drizzle the icing over the top of the cinnamon bread and serve with a cup of coffee! YUM!
If you like this recipe check out some other popular recipes from A Pinch Of Adventure:
- Lebanese Baklawa (Baklava recipe)
- Brown Sugar Brownies
- Dark Chocolate Mousse
- White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
- Lemon Berry Mascarpone Cake
Like this recipe? Don’t forget to rate it below and follow me on Instagram!
📖 Recipe
Cinnamon Streusel Bread - Cinnamon Quick Bread with Icing
Ingredients
For the quick bread
- 1 stick butter softened (I use salted)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teas vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour all purpose
- ¾ teas salt
- 1 teas ground cinnamon
- 1 teas baking soda
- 1 teas baking powder
For the streusel topping
- 5 tablespoon butter cold
- ⅔ cup brown sugar packed
- ½ cup flour all purpose
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
For the icing
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 teas milk
Instructions
Quick Bread Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F
- With an electric mixer, cream the softened butter and ¾ cup sugar together until smooth
- Add the egg and mix well
- Add the milk, sour cream, and vanilla and mix together
- Sift the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder together
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined and smooth
For the streusel
- With a pastry cutter, cut the cold butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and flour together until it is crumbly. The crumbs should be about the size of the pea or a little larger. They will not be uniform in size
- Add half of the batter to a prepared pan. Add 3-4 tablespoons of the streusel mixture on top.
- Spoon the rest of the batter in top and even it out
- With a knife, swirl the batter together just a little bit (optional)
- Add the rest of the streusel topping evenly over the top of the batter
- Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (could be longer depending on the oven)
- Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk until it is smooth. Only add 2 teaspoons at first to see if it's the right consistency. If it is still dry or lumpy add ½ teaspoon at a time until it is smooth
- Let the bread cool for 10 minutes then with a knife, loosen it from the edges. After it is completely cool, carefully remove it from the pan and put it on a serving dish
- Drizzle the icing over the top. Serve and enjoy!
Tammy Horvath
I love this recipe. Anything made with cinnamon is delicious.
Jasmine
Decided on this recipe for mininloafs to give as gifts this Christmas because of the rating. We mixed up 8 batches of this recipe and each and every loaf was moist and beautiful. We were to sparing with the crumble inside and on top so we has about a half cup leftover but the loafs were still yummy, pretty and the cake was very moist. 10/10 and this is from someone who just spent that last 6 hours baking this recipe.
Emily A.
I am glad you enjoyed it Jasmine and thank you for your feedback <3
Allison Peteet
I am absolutely going to make this! I love everything struesel!
Sabrina DeWalt
Well it looks like I'm going to have to buy a pastry cutter after all.
HelenMae
You can just use your fingers and crumble it or cut into it with two Knowles cross crossing - works just as well
Emily Ackerman
good to know! thanks!
Stephanie
This looks amazing! I can't wait to try it. I totally see why the kids love it.
Kendra
This looks fantastic! I need to try this out with some gluten-free flour to see how it turns out. Yum!
Marianne
Looks delicious! Cinnamon anything is my fave! This may be the perfect treat for a brunch! Will Pin for later!
Cindy Moore
Looks like a wonderful quick bread recipe that I could perhaps veganize!
Kiera Gosse
I can already smell this! Yum
Heather
I love cinnamon bread and this sounds incredible!
Alf
This bread was DELICIOUS!!!! My new favorite breakfast bread!
Emily Ackerman
I am so glad you enjoyed this! It's one of our favorites too!
Rebekah
Hi! I tried this recipe and it did not turn out like the picture and it was very salty. I don’t know what I did wrong lol. Are you sure it’s one stick of SALTED butter and 3/4 t of salt in the batter?
Emily Ackerman
salted butter plus 3/4 teaspoons salt shouldn't be too much. If it seemed like it to you, just leave out the salt next time. I have gotten rave reviews on this recipe, so if that's too much salt for you, just cut it back next time. thx