This cinnamon sugar sourdough bread takes everything you love about the traditional loaf and turns it into a sweet sourdough bread recipe. It starts as your classic naturally leavened loaf, but gets rolled up with a buttery brown sugar–cinnamon filling before baking. The result is a beautifully marbled cinnamon swirl sourdough with a soft and chewy interior and pockets of gooey cinnamon sugar that contrast the sourdough tang.
It smells intoxicating while it bakes and tastes even better. If you love sourdough and cinnamon rolls, you’re gonna love this bread recipe.
👉 Looking for an easier version? Try my Braided Cinnamon Bread! It’s made with yeast instead of sourdough.
Recipe highlights
- Combines classic sourdough flavor with a buttery cinnamon sugar swirl
- Baked in a loaf pan for clean slices and even baking
- Lightly sweet, but not dessert-level sweet
- Makes the best French toast of all time
- A fun way to turn a basic sourdough recipe into something extra special
Recipe overview
⏱️ Prep: ~30 mins (active) • Bulk + Proof: 4-6 hrs + overnight • Bake: 45–50 mins
🍞 Yield: 1 standard loaf
💪 Skill level: Intermediate
😋 Flavor profile: Tangy sourdough, buttery cinnamon, brown sugar. Pairs well with: Coffee, salted butter, cream cheese, honey, breakfast.
Rough baker’s timeline
If you make sourdough bread often, you may have your own way of doing things. Use this guide as a reference, but feel free to do what works for you!
This is the general flow I use for this sourdough cinnamon bread:
- Feed starter the night before
- Day 1, morning to early afternoon: Mix dough + do stretch & folds
- Day 1, afternoon: Bulk ferment until airy and elastic, then refrigerate dough overnight
- Day 2, morning: Shape with cinnamon sugar filling + proof 1-2 hours
- Day 2, late morning: Bake
This timeline is flexible, as sourdough tends to be. If you want, you could roll out the dough, fill it with cinnamon sugar, and shape it all the first day. I like to shape it the next morning because I find that it’s a bit easier to roll while the dough is cold.
Here’s a rough timeline if you want to shape on day 1:
- Feed starter the night before
- Day 1, morning to early afternoon: Mix dough + do stretch & folds
- Day 1, afternoon: Bulk ferment until airy and elastic
- Day 1, early evening: Shape with cinnamon sugar filling + chill overnight
- Day 2, morning: Score & bake!
👉 Need to master basic sourdough first? Start with my Easy Sourdough Bread recipe!
How to make cinnamon sugar sourdough bread
You can find the full ingredient list and detailed recipe instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here’s a quick step-by-step overview of how to make this recipe:
Make the dough + bulk ferment
- Mix the dough: Mix your sourdough starter, water, brown sugar, salt, and flour until you have a shaggy dough. Cover and let rest for about 30 minutes.
- Stretch & folds: Perform 4 rounds of stretch and folds, spaced about 30-45 minutes apart. The dough should become smoother, stronger, and more elastic with each round. (To stretch and fold: grab one edge of the dough, gently stretch it upward, and fold it over itself. Rotate the bowl and repeat 3 more times per round.)
- Bulk fermentation: Let the dough rise at room temperature until it’s puffy, airy, and roughly 30–50% larger in volume. This usually takes a few hours, depending on temperature.
- Cold ferment: Transfer the dough to the refrigerator and let it rest overnight. This slows fermentation and develops flavor.
Shape the cinnamon swirl
- Shape into a rectangle: Remove the dough from the fridge and gently pat or roll it into a rectangle just slightly longer than the longest side of your loaf pan.
- Add cinnamon butter: Spread an even layer of brown sugar–cinnamon butter over the surface, leaving a 1-2 inch border bare along all edges.
- Roll it: Roll the dough up tightly (like a cinnamon roll), pinch the seam closed, and tuck the ends under.
- Place in loaf pan: Gently lift the dough log and place it seam-side down into a greased loaf pan lined with parchment paper.
Final proof & bake
- Proof: Let the shaped loaf proof at room temperature for 1–2 hours, until bubbly, slightly domed, and jiggly when you gently shake the pan.
- Prep: Preheat oven to 450° F. Score the loaf.
- Bake: Cover the loaf pan with an inverted second loaf pan (or large oven-safe bowl) and bake for 25 minutes covered. Remove the cover and bake another 20–25 minutes uncovered, until deeply golden and baked through.
Sourdough bread is baked properly when its internal temperature reaches 200 – 210° F. I use a digital thermometer for a perfect bake every time!
Remember to let your cinnamon sourdough bread cool completely before slicing. If you slice into it while still warm, you may end up with a gummy texture.
Pro baker’s tips
Top tip
How to prevent cinnamon butter from leaking during baking:
The most common challenge with cinnamon swirl sourdough is the cinnamon butter melting and seeping out during baking. A little leakage is normal, but these tips will help keep it to a minimum:
- Use butter that’s just soft enough to spread, not melted or greasy
- Leave a border around all of the edges when spreading the cinnamon butter
- Roll the dough tightly and pinch the seam very well to seal it
- Tuck both ends underneath the loaf before placing it in the pan
- Avoid overproofing, and don’t let the dough rise in an overly warm spot
If you’re still worried about butter escaping, you have a couple of easy options:
- Skip the butter and use a simple cinnamon–sugar mixture instead
- Place a foil-lined baking sheet under the loaf pan while baking to catch any drips
Even if a little cinnamon butter escapes, don’t panic. It won’t affect the final texture of the bread and you should still have a defined swirl in the end.
Roll tightly. A snug roll helps create defined cinnamon swirls instead of tunnels or gaps.
Use a loaf pan. You can absolutely shape this bread in a banneton or as a free-form loaf, but using a loaf pan will create the cleanest swirl.
Bake fully. The cinnamon sugar swirl can make the center bake more slowly. Look for a deep golden top and an internal temperature of 200 – 210° F. If you make sourdough bread often, you may notice that this bread takes a little longer to bake than you’re used to.
Cinnamon sourdough FAQs
It’s lightly sweet — more breakfast bread than dessert. Think cinnamon toast, not cinnamon rolls.
Absolutely. Brown sugar adds a deeper caramel flavor, but white sugar works just fine.
Actually, yes. If you’re worried about melted butter dripping out of your pan during baking or just don’t feel like using it, you can totally just sprinkle a cinnamon-sugar mixture straight onto the dough instead. Use the same measurements for sugar & cinnamon that the recipe calls for.
You can, but cold fermentation improves both flavor and dough handling, especially for a shaped loaf. If you’re in a rush, feel free to bake the same day!
Covering traps steam, helping the loaf rise before the crust sets, similar to baking sourdough in a Dutch oven. It’s not 100% necessary, but it definitely has an impact!
Serving & storage
This cinnamon sugar sourdough bread is incredible served warm (or toasted), spread with slabs of salted butter. It also makes the most ridiculously delicious French toast.
Keep this bread at room temperature for up to 4 days in a paper bag or sealed container. It also freezes well for longer storage. To freeze, slice the bread and tightly wrap individual slices, then place them in a freezer bag and store for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature and then toast or briefly warm up for the best texture.
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Cinnamon Sugar Sourdough Bread
Equipment
- 9×5 inch loaf pan
Ingredients
Sourdough
- 150 grams active bubbly sourdough starter
- 315 grams warm water
- 10 grams salt
- 10 grams brown sugar
- 500 grams bread flour
Cinnamon Swirl
- 3 ounces (6 Tbsp) unsalted butter, soft
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Mix dough: Stir together 150g sourdough starter, 315g water, 10g salt, and 10g brown sugar in a large bowl. Add 500g bread flour and mix until it starts to form a rough ball. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 30-45 minutes.
- Perform stretch-and-folds: Pull dough from one side and give it a long stretch, then fold dough back to the middle. Turn bowl a quarter turn, stretch again and fold back to the middle. Repeat on all four sides, cover the dough back up, and allow it to rest again for 30-45 minutes.Over the next few hours, you’ll repeat this process of stretching and folding the dough about every 45 minutes or so. Plan to stretch and fold a total of 4 times.
- Bulk ferment: Once you’re done with all the dough stretching, allow the dough to sit and bulk ferment until jiggly, bubbly, and slightly increased in volume, 2-4 hours.
- Overnight rest: Place the covered dough in the refrigerator and let it sit overnight.
- Make cinnamon butter: The next morning, beat 3 oz soft butter with ⅓ cup brown sugar and 1 Tbsp cinnamon until well combined.
- Prep: Preheat oven to 450° F. Butter a 9×5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper, leaving parchment hanging over 2 sides of the pan for easier removal after baking.
- Shape: Gently roll or pat the dough into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface until it's just slightly longer than one of the long sides of your loaf pan.Spread it evenly with cinnamon butter, leaving a 1-2 inch border on all sides. Roll it up into a tight log and pinch the seam shut to seal it completely. Tuck both ends of the loaf under and place seam-side-down in prepared loaf pan.
- Proof: Allow the loaf to sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours, until bubbly and aerated. Score in any desired pattern.
- Bake: Place a second, inverted loaf pan over the top of the pan and bake covered for 25 minutes, then remove the pan and bake uncovered another 20-25 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 200 – 210° F.Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Notes
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