Dollywood-Style Cinnamon Bread

This Dollywood-Style cinnamon bread recipe is a way to enjoy the famous bread sold at the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, in the Smoky Mountains ofTennessee. Even if you'll never get a chance to visit the theme park, you'll get to enjoy this amazing cinnamon bread. 

The original version is baked daily in The Grist Mill (which is over 100 years old/plus they mill their own flour) right there in Dollywood. Evidently they sell over 350 loaves an hour! It's served with either vanilla icing or apple butter. 

I've seen this bread described as the "soft inside" of a cinnamon roll. It consists of a soft and buttery dough that is shaped, sliced, and drenched in a cinnamon, sugar, and butter mixture before baking. This makes the best pull-apart bread (with really generously-sized slices)! 

At the Grist Mill, they serve it with either vanilla icing or apple butter for drizzling or dipping, but it's just as wonderful unadorned. 

Dollywood Cinnamon Bread Ingredients:

You just might have everything you need already! 

From the Fridge: Whole milk and unsalted butter.... lots and lots of butter, both in the bread and the topping. 

From the Pantry: Instant yeast, bread flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. 

To Make this Dollywood Cinnamon Bread:

First, you make the bread dough. Start with scalding the milk and then adding the butter to melt it. Once the mixture has cooled, add the yeast to the liquid. 

Next, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and then add the milk mixture. Knead with the dough hook until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes on medium speed. Cover and let rise until doubled, either at room temperature or in the refrigerator overnight. 

Once the dough has doubled, shape it into a loaf and cut it part way through into about six to eight slices. 

To Add the Butter and Cinnamon Filling: 

The original recipe calls for drenching the loaf with melted butter and then sprinkling a cinnamon sugar mixture into the slits and over the top. I combined the butter with the cinnamon sugar mixture and inserted it into the slits and over the top. You can do it either way. 

Finally, let the shaped loaf rise for about  45 minutes, until doubled, and bake the loaf for about 30 minutes (or more, depending on your oven). Definitely serve this bread warm! 

About the Recipe: 

This recipe is adapted from Anne Byrne's Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories. I received a copy from Melissa's Produce. It's a gorgeous book with almost 500 pages of recipes and stories.

About the author: "Anne Byrn is a New York Times bestselling food writer and cookbook author based in Nashville, Tennessee, where she learned to cook and bake as a child alongside her mother Bebe. Every holiday shared with her large extended family of cousins offered infinite opportunities to bake. For fifteen years she was the food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and she attended La Varenne École de Cuisine in Paris, receiving an advanced certificate. But while raising three children and cooking for a busy family she embraced some shortcuts and wrote the bestseller, The Cake Mix Doctor, one of Southern Living magazine’s top 100 cookbooks of all time. She is also author of Baking in the American South, American Cake and Skillet Love. When she isn’t baking and gardening, Anne writes a weekly newsletter called Between the Layers on Substack."

The 200 recipes in the book come from 14 states, from department stores, cafeterias, tea rooms, boarding houses, churches, synagogues, and home kitchens. The section on cornbread is epic. 

The book is such a fun read. One of my favorite recipes from the book is the one for Nina Cain's Batty Cakes. 

More Cinnamon Bread Recipes You May Also Enjoy:

Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls

Strawberry Cinnamon Roll Cake

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough

Cinnamon Nut Roll Coffee Cake

This month's Bread Baking Babes' recipe is this Dollywood Cinnamon Bread! If you'd like to share your version, be sure to join our Facebook page and share your photos! 

Kelly - A Messy Kitchen

Elizabeth - Blog from OUR Kitchen

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Bread Experience

My Diverse Kitchen

Dollywood-Style Cinnamon Bread

Yield: 16

Author: Karen Kerr

Prep time: 1 HourCook time: 30 MinInactive time: 8 HourTotal time: 9 H & 30 M

This Dollywood-Style cinnamon bread recipe is a way to enjoy the famous bread sold at the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, in the Smoky Mountains ofTennessee.

Ingredients

For the Dough

• 1 cup whole milk plus one tablespoon
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick/57 grams) usalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3 cups (360 grams) bread flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the Cinnamon Filling

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (48 grams) lightly packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

To Make the Dough

1. Heat the milk over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until just scalded (bubbles on the edges but not boiling). Turn off the heat and add the butter and stir to melt. Let cool to 125 degrees F or less and then whisk in the yeast.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the milk mixture and mix with the dough hook on low until combined. If it's too dry, add milk by the tablespoon.
3. Bring the mixer speed to medium and mix for about 4 to 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in the refrigerator overnight. You can also let it rise at room temperature for about 90 minutes, until doubled.
4. Line a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Remove the parchment and set aside on a baking sheet.
5. Deflate the dough and press it into an 8 by 7 inch rectangle. beginning with the 8 inch side. roll up the dough into a loaf and place it, seam side down onto the parchment.

To Make the Topping and Assemble the Loaf

1. To Make the topping: melt the butter and then combine the sugars and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Combine the butter and cinnamon sugar.
2. Slit the loaf 6 to 8 times with a serrated knife and then stuff the slits with the butter and sugar/cinnamon mixture. Using the parchment, lift the loaf into the pan and cover with the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
3. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.
4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, until an internal temp reaches 190 degrees F. Cool a bit on a wire rack. Serve warm.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

173

Fat (grams)

6 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

4 g

Carbs (grams)

27 g

Fiber (grams)

2 g

Net carbs

25 g

Sugar (grams)

8 g

Protein (grams)

3 g

Cholesterol (grams)

15 mg

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