Cinnamon Swirl Bread and Water Parks

I am branching out and taking risks with my MAD bread making skills! We had planned an overnighter at an indoor water park hotel and I thought this Cinnamon Swirl Bread would be perfect for a late night or early morning snack. 

I WAS RIGHT!!!

It's absolutely delicious!

I used this recipe from The Idea Room, but I had to tweak it a little since I didn't have rapid rise yeast.

Here are my revisions (based on some super advice from a bread guru)...

I decreased the milk to 1 1/4 cups.
Then I dissolved 3 tsp. of active dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water

She said that you want to use the same amount of liquid, but you'd need water to dissolve the yeast. Very smart.

(P.S. I didn't heat the milk on the stove top either. I just warmed it in the micro at 45 second intervals until I thought it felt right)

You may have to adjust the rise times a little, but I didn't really. It came out beautifully except that it sort of looks like the elephant man version of cinnamon swirl bread. It was ginormous! Next time I'd like to try to use longer pan from IKEA that The Idea Room mentions.

Here's a little snapshot of the Water Park Weekend too...

A little bit of sunshine on the COLDEST day of the year so far!