Cinnamon Bread...YUM!

Vann and I made some cinnamon bread this morning from our new cookbook, The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book by Kelly Rudnicki.  This is a great cookbook if you have a lot of food allergies in your family.  We don't have any food allergies, but as you all know, my little Chaycers is lactose intolerant so, I was looking for some fun things to bake that didn't include regular milk.  I thought it would also be helpful to see some actual recipes with soy or almond milk so, I can become more confident in my cooking and baking when I'm substituting in a regular recipe.  So, here's the recipe we tried:

Cinnamon Bread 
Recipe by: Kelly Rudnicki
Bread:

• 1/4 cup dairy-free shortening
• 3/4 granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp water
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup soy or rice milk

Topping:

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp melted margarine

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and spray a loaf pan with dairy-free baking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the shortening and sugar, adding the water as the mixer runs.  Beat until fluffy.

In a separate mixing bowl, sift together the remaining dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Add the dry mixture to the shortening mixture, alternating it with the soy milk.

In a separate bowl, mix together the topping ingredients.  

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.  Sprinkle the batter with the topping mixture.  Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the topping is crusty brown.  Cool 10 minutes before slicing.  

The house smelled amazing as this was baking!  And it tasted wonderful too.  The kids loved it!  The topping is sweet and crunchy...the bread is soft and cinnamony (I'm making up new words, I know :) )...all around deliciousness!  We will definitely be making this again.  

To go with our construction theme, today the kids made a construction vest.  They thought it was super silly to make a vest out of a large paper bag.  Mia was busy cooking in the play kitchen with hers on all morning after we made them...it was cute!

Vann in his construction vest.  I know that looks like scribbles, but he was playing Power Rangers as he was decorating it...so those lines are 'double strikes' and 'baracuda blades'...all Power Ranger moves :)

Cute little Chayce...of course when I wanted a picture of him in his vest, he didn't want to cooperate...at least I got a big smile :)