Woman in Real Life: Cinnamon Toast Sweet Loaf (Vegan)

Cinnamon Toast Sweet Loaf - a fluffy and delish vegan snack bread that pays tribute to both cinnamon toast and cinnamon rolls

When I was a kid, I enjoyed eating toast topped with margarine and a sprinkle of cinnamon/sugar mix. (Put cinnamon and sugar in a spice jar at a ratio of about 1 to 3.) Even today, if I'm feeling snacky in the evening and we don't have any treats in the house, I'll fall back on this quick and tasty sugary snack.

This Cinnamon Toast Sweet Loaf pays tribute to my good old reliable childhood snack. I adapted (veganized) this recipe from one in The MacDonald Mixing Bowl 500 Down-east Recipes, a cookbook created by a collective of women in Nova Scotia, complete with ads in the back for local spots like Truro Lanes, The Family Fun Centre.

Cinnamon loaves must have been popular with the women of the Truro area, because there are two almost identical cinnamon loaf recipes in a row. For my version, I used coconut sugar mixed with cinnamon for the topping/filling rather than the brown sugar that was called for (although you could use brown sugar too) to healthify it a little bit. I'm not claiming this loaf is health food, though. It has quite a bit of sugar in it. But it's homemade so that's something, right?

Although I'm calling this a Cinnamon Toast Sweet Loaf, the texture is nothing like that of toast - in fact it's nice and fluffy. My daughter says it's like eating a "cinnamon swirl roll in bread form." Despite the sugar mix topping, it's not "super duper sweet," says my daughter. "It could use a glaze." I don't tend to agree, as I didn't want it to be sweet like a dessert. I wanted it to be closer to a breakfast possibility - you know, for those days when the snow is falling outside, the temperature dips below zero and you just want a cup of tea and a comfort breakfast you eat from one hand. There are days when smoothie bowls just won't do.

If you don't have any egg replacer powder in the cupboard, I'm sure a couple of flax eggs will do just as well, although I haven't tried it yet. I would also like to try making this with spelt flour rather than all-purpose flour. (Normally I bake with light spelt flour but I just haven't stocked up lately.) If you like coconut oil, you could try that in place of the vegan margarine.

The ingredients are pretty darn simple - nothing odd. Of course, one ingredient you cannot do without is cinnamon. That's what gives this loaf its delicious flavour. Cinnamon is also said to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and health-protecting benefits. So this is health food after all!

Questions For You

Did you have cinnamon toast as a kid? Do you have it now? What do you like to eat for breakfast on slow mornings when the snow is falling?

6 vegan recipes that use health-boosting cinnamon

6 Other Recipes With Cinnamon

Cape Breton Molasses Cookies
Moist & Delicious Vegan Carrot Cake
Vegan Hot Chocolate
Peach Pie Smoothie Bowl (in case it is a smoothie bowl kind of day)
Lunchbox Carrot Mini Muffins
Quick Vegan Spelt Cinnamon Rolls With Icing (cinnamon rolls that don't take all day to make!)

Cinnamon Toast Sweet Loaf (vegan)

by Joann MacDonald

Cook Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour

Keywords: bread breakfast dessert vegan

Ingredients (1 large loaf)

4 tablespoons coconut sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 cup organic sugar
1/4 cup vegan margarine
2 teaspoons egg replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup almond milk mixed with 1 tablespoon vinegar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Grease a regular loaf pan.

In a small bowl, mix coconut sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together sugar, margarine, egg replacer mixture and vanilla with an electric mixer.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients alternately with almond milk mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir until combined.

Pour half of the batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top. Add remaining batter. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture on top. With a knife, swirl the cinnamon/sugar mixture into the top half of the batter slightly.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out dry.

*This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after following a link, Woman in Real Life will receive a small commission. Your price is not affected.