Coffee Cake Braid (or Ring)

Cinnamon braid sliced and arranged on a platter

This braided coffee cake starts with a tender, no-knead dough and delivers sweet flavor adventures with your choice of fillings from warm, buttery cinnamon-sugar to indulgent chocolate-pecan to tangy cream cheese & jam.

Course Breakfast, Brunch, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword braid, bread, chocolate, cinnamon, cream cheese, dough, glaze, heirloom recipe, pecans, wreath

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 25

Resting Time 1 10

Total Time 2 20

Servings

Calories 311kcal

Equipment

large mixing bowl
small saucepan
electric mixer (optional - you can beat this dough by hand)
medium mixing bowl (cinnamon filling or cream cheese filling)
medium sauce pan (chocolate filling)
small mixing bowl (optional, for glaze)
rolling pin
large baking sheet
measuring cups (or kitchen scale)
measuring spoons

Ingredients

Dough

3 cups flour divided
¼ cup sugar
1 package quick rise yeast
½ tsp salt
½ cup milk
½ cup butter softened
¼ cup water
1 egg

Cinnamon Filling

½ cup brown sugar packed
½ cup chopped pecans
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter softened

Chocolate Filling

¾ cup chocolate chips
⅓ cup evaporated milk
2 tbsp sugar
½ cup chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese Filling

6 oz cream cheese
¼ cup sugar
1 tbsp butter softened
1 tsp lemon juice
¼ cup jam any flavor

Vanilla glaze (optional)

1 ½ cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch salt

Cream Cheese Glaze (optional)

1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
1 ½ oz cream cheese. softened
4 tsp milk room temperature or warmed
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch salt

Lemon Glaze (optional)

1 ½ cups powdered sugar
4 tsp milk
2 tsp lemon juice
1 pinch salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Dough

In mixing bowl, combine 2 cups (260g) of the flour with the sugar, yeast and salt.
3 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 package quick rise yeast, 1/2 tsp salt
In saucepan heat milk, butter, and water To 120° - 130°F. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and beat just until moistened.
1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup water
Add the egg and remaining 1 cup (130g) flour, beat until a smooth dough forms. The dough will appear very wet, do not be tempted to add more flour or your bread will not be as soft and tender.
1 egg, 3 cups flour
Shape the dough into a ball. Do NOT knead the dough. Cover the dough and let it rest for 10 min while you make the filling.

Cinnamon filling

In a bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon until the ingredients are evenly distributed and no lumps of brown sugar remain.
1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1 tsp cinnamon

Chocolate Filling

In a medium sauce pan, combine the chocolate chips, evaporated milk and sugar. Cook and stir over low heat until the chocolate is melted.
3/4 cup chocolate chips, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, 2 tbsp sugar
Remove from the heat and immediately stir in the nuts, vanilla and cinnamon.
1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese Filling

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, butter and lemon juice until smooth. Refer to the instructions for the braided or ring assembly for adding the jam.
6 oz cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp lemon juice

Braided loaf assembly

Roll the dough into 15'X 10" rectangle on a large greased (or parchment lined) baking sheet.
For the cinnamon version: spread the butter over the surface of the center third of the rectangle (from short end to short end), spread the cinnamon sugar mixture over the butter.
2 tbsp butter
For the chocolate pecan version: spread the filling down center third of the rectangle (from short end to short end).
For the cream cheese version: first spread the cream cheese mixture down the center third of the rectangle, then top the cream cheese mixture with the jam.
1/4 cup jam
With the filling in place, on each long side cut 1" wide strips perpendicular to the filling and extending about 3" in toward the filling. The strips should match on both sides of the filling.
Starting at one end, fold the strips inward at an angle and across the filling, alternating strips from side to side until all the strips have been used. Pinch the ends of the loaf to seal them.

Ring loaf assembly

Roll the dough into 15x 12" rectangle on a floured surface.
Spread the filling to within 1/2 " of the edges (for the cream cheese filling spread with the cream cheese mixture only, set the jam aside for now).
Roll up jelly roll style, starting with a long edge. Pinch the seam to seal it and place the roll seam side down on a greased (or parchment lined) pan. Form the roll into a circle and pinch edges together to complete the ring. (You can put an oven safe ramekin, generously buttered on the outside, in the center of the ring to help form a more even circle and to keep the dough from filling in the center as it rises)
With scissors cut from the outside edge inward toward the center of the ring. Each cut should extend 2/3 of the way through the dough and filling and be spaced about 1 1/2" apart. Separate the pieces, twisting each one slightly in the same direction to show the filling.
For the cream cheese filling place about 1 tsp of jam on the exposed area of each slice.
1/4 cup jam

Rising and baking

Cover the shaped loaf and let it rise in warm place for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 350°F. When the loaf is puffy, with a marshmallow like consistency and a small indentation pressed into the dough slowly fills back in, bake the loaf in the preheated oven for 20-25 min or until golden brown.
When the bread is done baking, remove it to a wire rack to cool. If desired, drizzle with the glaze of your choice. Slice and serve immediately or store in an air tight container.

Optional: Vanilla Glaze

In a small mixing bowl, combine the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and salt. Whisk until smooth. The glaze should fall of your whisk in ribbons. If it is too thick, add more milk. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tbsp milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 pinch salt

Optional: Cream Cheese Glaze

In a small mixing bowl, combine the powdered sugar, milk, lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Whisk until smooth. The glaze should fall of your whisk in ribbons. If it is too thick, add more milk. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, 1 1/2 oz cream cheese. softened, 4 tsp milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 pinch salt

Optional: Lemon Glaze

In a small mixing bowl, combine the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and salt. Whisk until smooth.The glaze should fall of your whisk in ribbons. If it is too thick, add more milk. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 4 tsp milk, 2 tsp lemon juice, 1 pinch salt

Notes

According to my sister, mom would always put extra filling in the cinnamon version of the braid, I expect she did the same with the chocolate version. If you'd like to do the same, increase the filling ingredients by 1 1/2 - 2 times. I don't recommend doing the same with the cream cheese filling as it is much looser and more likely to run out of the bread (especially the jam).
As with other recipes of mom's that call for nuts, she omitted the nuts from this recipe. For the cinnamon version, replace the nuts with an equal amount of brown sugar instead (so 1 cup of brown sugar for the original filling amount, or 1 1/2 - 2 cups brown sugar for the increased filling amount).
According to my dad and sister, mom pretty much enrobed the loaf in glaze when she made it and gave it a pop of color with sprinkles. If you'd like to take that approach, you'll need to double the glaze recipe that I've included here (whichever one that you choose to use - mom likely used a variation of the vanilla glaze recipe, I'm partial to the cream cheese glaze - except for on the cream cheese filled loaf, for that I prefer the lemon glaze). As soon as the glaze is covering the bread, before it sets, distribute sprinkles of your choice over the top.
The recipe says not to include any jam inside the roll when creating the cream cheese ring shaped loaf. I found that if I used a very thick jam, one that is more fruit pieces than jam, I could sneak a bit of it into the roll (basically a few lines of jam across the cream cheese filling before rolling it up). I still put the 1 tsp of jam on each exposed slice after shaping the loaf so, if you want to try this, you'll need closer to 1/2 cup instead of 1/4 cup jam.
I thought that the cinnamon in the chocolate filling was overwhelmed by the chocolate, especially if you choose to use a darker chocolate. I found increasing it to 1/2 tsp allowed the flavor to come through much better, feel free to play with this to your own taste.
I tested the recipe with both the rapid (quick) rise yeast it calls for and active dry yeast. They do both work. However, if you are going to use active dry yeast you will need to make a few changes:
- Take the 1/4 cup water and 1 tbsp of the sugar from the dough ingredients, mix together and warm to about 115°F. Add the yeast and let it bloom.
- Add the bloomed yeast to the mixing bowl during the second step in making the dough.
- Continue with the rest of the mixing, resting and shaping processes as written.
- For rising, you'll need to allow more time - how much more is going to depend on the conditions in your kitchen, but it is likely to be about double or more rising time. You'll still be looking for the same signs that the dough has risen enough before baking the loaf.
The recipe says to roll out the dough but I think it is easier to pat and stretch the dough into shape by hand. That allowed me to get a much cleaner rectangle than using a rolling pin.

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