Adapted from my orange cranberry bread, this vanilla-flavored cinnamon swirl quick bread is moist and soft with a thick ribbon of cinnamon-sugar swirled inside. You only need a handful of very basic ingredients and there’s no mixer required. This cake-like bread will remind you of cinnamon rolls, but takes a fraction of the time to prepare!
One reader, Nikki, commented: “I never leave reviews on anything, but this bread is phenomenal! It came together really quick and easy, but looks so impressive! And the flavor is a dream. I cannot recommend this enough! ★★★★★”
Do you ever get the baking itch? (Of course you do, why am I even asking?!) But what about the desire to make something truly warm, cozy, and comforting? Where not only that first bite soothes the soul, but the smell of it baking is satisfying too. My cinnamon swirl quick bread checks all those boxes.
This recipe is such a fan favorite, that it deserved a spot in print! You’ll also find this recipe in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
This Cinnamon Swirl Quick Bread Is:
- Melt-in-your-mouth soft & moist
- Vanilla & cinnamon flavored (even better with vanilla icing on top!)
- Very easy to make, no mixer needed
- Layered with an extra thick cinnamon swirl
- Covered with a crackly cinnamon sugar crust
In terms of texture, it’s not quite as dense as pound cake, but it’s definitely heavier than vanilla cake. I like to compare it to apple cinnamon bread and cinnamon swirl banana bread, only without the apples or bananas.
I used to make a version of this bread with buttermilk, but for today’s recipe, I swapped the 1 cup of buttermilk for sour cream and milk. I wanted a slightly denser crumb, while keeping each bite totally tender and soft. Sour cream is a magical ingredient in cakes, cupcakes, breads, muffins, and more. I found that 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup milk made the bread a little too dry and dense, but 1/3 cup sour cream and 2/3 cup milk was perfect. Brown sugar can weigh down the bread, so I used all regular white sugar. I also increased the vanilla extract and the amount of sugar in the cinnamon swirl. (Thicker swirl!) All of these small changes made a very big difference and you can see similar variations with my orange cranberry bread and peach bread recipes!
Best Ingredients to Use & Why
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of this quick bread recipe.
- Salt & Baking Soda: Flavor & rise.
- Vanilla Extract: You’ll appreciate the simple, yet unbeatable flavor of vanilla in the bread itself. If you have homemade vanilla extract on hand, use it here.
- Egg: One egg binds everything together.
- Sugar: You need sugar for both the bread batter and the cinnamon swirl.
- Sour Cream: We use sour cream for moisture and tenderness, but also because its lactic acid helps the baking soda do its job. This powerhouse ingredient plays the same important role in coffee cake, too (which you’ll love just as much as this bread!).
- Milk: Whole milk is best, but you can use a lower fat or nondairy milk in its place.
- Oil: While butter provides unbelievable flavor, nothing beats the moisture that oil provides. We use oil in this quick bread recipe (and others like strawberry bread, pumpkin bread, and lemon poppy seed bread) to produce a moist bread. Plus, the cinnamon sugar swirl and vanilla extract both provide a lot of flavor.
Extra Thick Cinnamon Swirl
To assemble the cinnamon swirl, layer half of the bread batter into your greased loaf pan. Top with almost all of the cinnamon sugar (as noted in the written recipe below, reserve 2 Tablespoons for the topping). Pour and gently spread the remaining batter on top. Sprinkle with remaining 2 Tablespoons of cinnamon sugar, then use a knife to swirl.
As you layer in all that cinnamon sugar filling, you’ll question the amount. Really? This much cinnamon sugar? Yes! For an extra thick cinnamon sugar swirl inside, we need an extra amount layered in. There’s A LOT. If you’re looking to spice up the flavor, try using a chai spice blend instead. Check out my white chocolate chai snickerdoodles and use the sugar/chai spice “topping” as the filling here. (Still reserving 2 Tablespoons of it for this bread’s topping.) There are more flavors and variations listed in the recipe notes below.
One of my favorite parts is the cinnamon sugar around the edges. Some of the cinnamon sugar from the center may seep out, creating an irresistible crisp/chewy crust.
Looking for a yeasted cinnamon swirl bread? See my homemade cinnamon swirl bread.
How to Freeze Quick Bread
Freezing quick breads is a lot like how to freeze cakes.
- Step 1: Bake and completely cool quick bread.
- Step 2: Once the bread cools completely, wrap it in Press & Seal or plastic wrap. From one baker to another—Press & Seal is the best product for wrapping baked goods. I find regular plastic wrap too thin, clingy, and frustrating. It definitely works, but Press & Seal is easier to use and I’ve honestly found that it keeps my food fresher. (Not working with this brand, just really love it.)
- Step 3: Write the type of bread and use-by date on a large piece of aluminum foil. For best taste and texture, don’t freeze quick bread for longer than 3 months. You could stretch it to 4 or 5 months, but the sooner you serve it, the fresher it tastes.
- Step 4: Wrap the bread in the aluminum foil and place in the freezer. You could place the wrapped bread in a freezer container or freezer-friendly zipped top bag, but I often just freeze it after wrapping in aluminum foil.
- Step 5: Freeze for up to 3 months. To thaw, transfer the frozen bread to the refrigerator one day before serving. Sometimes I forget and just let the bread thaw at room temperature for several hours, but it’s better to thaw at a slower rate in the refrigerator. Make sure you thaw bread while it’s still in the wrapping. Don’t unwrap before thawing.
Baker’s Tip: Two layers of wrap is key! The first layer keeps the bread fresh and the aluminum foil ensures no condensation will seep in. Double layer = maximum freshness and no freezer burn. Moisture is the enemy, so don’t be afraid to add another layer of Press & Seal or aluminum foil.
Print
Cinnamon Swirl Quick Bread
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This vanilla-flavored cinnamon swirl quick bread is moist and soft with a thick ribbon of cinnamon-sugar swirled inside. Feel free to turn this recipe into muffins or mini loaves. See recipe Notes below. This recipe is also in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
Cinnamon Swirl
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
Bread
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup (160ml) whole milk, at room temperature*
- 1/3 cup (75g/80ml) vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup (80g) full-fat sour cream (or plain yogurt/Greek yogurt), at room temperature*
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- optional: vanilla icing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Spray a 9×5-inch or 8×4-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
- For the Cinnamon Swirl: In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Set aside.
- Make the Bread: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, milk, oil, sour cream, egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then whisk just until combined. Avoid over-mixing. The batter should be thick and creamy.
- Pour/spread about half of the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle almost all of the cinnamon-sugar evenly on top (reserve about 2 Tablespoons for topping). It’s a very thick layer of cinnamon-sugar. Carefully pour/spread the remaining batter evenly on top. The top layer of batter will try to stick to the cinnamon-sugar filling, making spreading a little more difficult, but use a spoon to carefully spread it out as best you can. Sprinkle the remaining 2 Tablespoons of cinnamon-sugar on top. Using a knife, make a large swirl down the loaf pan, as shown in the video tutorial. Avoid over-swirling, which will mix the layers together too much.
- Bake the bread for 50–65 minutes, tenting loosely with foil about halfway through to prevent the top from over-browning. Bread baked in an 8×4-inch pan takes closer to 65 minutes. Poke the center of the bread with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, the bread is done. Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool in the pan set on a cooling rack for 1 hour. After that, remove the bread from the pan and let it finish cooling directly on the rack.
- Drizzle with icing, if using. Slice and serve. Cover and store leftover bread at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: For longer storage, you can freeze the glazed or unglazed bread for up to 3 months. See details above the recipe. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before glazing (if needed) and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×5-inch Loaf Pan or 8×4-inch Loaf Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cooling Rack
- Sour Cream & Milk: I use a mix of sour cream and whole milk here. The crumb is tighter and more tender—you’ll love it. Using all milk creates a thinner batter that can overflow and take much longer to bake. That being said, feel free to use 1 cup of buttermilk instead of the sour cream and whole milk option here. You can make your own DIY version of buttermilk if needed. Add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar or lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup. Then add enough whole milk to the same measuring cup until it reaches 1 cup. (In a pinch, lower fat or nondairy milks work for this soured milk, but the bread won’t taste as rich and moist.) Stir it around and let sit for 5 minutes. The homemade “buttermilk” will be somewhat curdled and ready to use in the recipe.
- Optional Additional Flavors: Feel free to use the chai spice swirl noted above. Or add 1 cup of peeled, chopped apples to the bread batter or even 1 cup of raisins, chopped walnuts or pecans, or dried/fresh/frozen (do not thaw) cranberries. You can also add 1 Tablespoon of fresh orange zest to the bread batter OR cinnamon sugar swirl. Also, the orange glaze from this cranberry bread would be delicious on this bread.
- Muffins: Grease a 12-count muffin pan or line with liners. You will need a 2nd pan for 2 additional muffins as this recipe yields around 14. (Or bake in batches.) Prepare cinnamon swirl and batter in steps 2 + 3. Spoon batter evenly into liners, filling each halfway. Sprinkle each with a heaping spoonful of cinnamon sugar. Top with more batter, filling to the top. Sprinkle each with a dusting of cinnamon sugar. Use a knife to swirl the batter/cinnamon sugar in each. Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C) then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 20-22 minutes, give or take. Cool muffins for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling. Makes 14 muffins.
- Mini Loaves: Grease a mini loaf pan. Prepare cinnamon swirl and batter in steps 2 + 3. Spoon batter evenly into greased cups, filling each halfway. Sprinkle each with a heaping spoonful of cinnamon sugar. Top with more batter, filling to the top. Sprinkle each with a dusting of cinnamon sugar. Use a knife to swirl the batter/cinnamon sugar in each. Bake at 350°F (177°C) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Bake time and yield depends on the size of your mini loaf pan.
Reader Comments and Reviews
New family favorite! We love cinnamon desserts and I believe we just found a new favorite cinnamon treat! It was quick and fun to make. The sour cream and milk combination made a wonderful texture. Great recipe!
Super simple to make! Smells fantastic while baking and tastes delicious. Another great recipe Sally, thank you
This is so good! I can’t wait to do it again wi seeth chai spices.
I just made this recipe over the weekend, but did the muffin version. This was a great way to usher in the fall baking season and so easy to make! They were a hit in our house, with moans of joy coming from my husband. They went so quickly and my son was disappointed there were no more for breakfast this morning. I guess I’ll need to make some more!
I love that I did not have to pull my mixer out to make this recipe. It is super easy to put together and the swirl turned out beautifully. I, like a previous comment, had some dry cinnamon/sugar mix on top after baking, but probably I just put too much on. It looks and tastes delicious! Would definitely recommend to anyone, no matter what baking level.
The PERFECT quick and easy recipe for me to whip up with my kids during their remote learning lunch break. I made two loaves (because I knew it would be good), and added apples to one and pears to the other. Both turned out BEAUTIFULLY. And they’ll be the perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee or tea on these cooler mornings.
This bread is fantastic! Although I didn’t get to taste it myself because I’m on Whole30, my family raved about it. I made mine with apples and it was the perfect treat to kick off fall!
Wow! This was such a yummy and easy recipe to make. My entire house smells delicious and it is the perfect afternoon snack… or breakfast! It comes together easily and has the perfect texture and flavor!
Where do I even start with this recipe? Simple ingredients made into an amazing breakfast for my family! Whipped this up in no time and the smell in the kitchen alone was enough to tell you how good this bread was! Melt in your mouth good and perfect with a nice hot cup of coffee.
Delicious! Very easy to make, I had all the ingredients on hand which was nice. I’m actually planning to make a couple batches to put into small tins and give out to friends! My 2.5 year old helped me and we loved how good it made the house smell too ☺️
This recipe is so quick tasty! People asked me if it was some sort of “brown butter” dessert because they felt it was soo fragrant that there HAD to be butter in it! Nope! Just lots of sugar and cinnamon!
This recipe produced a yummy loaf of cinnamon goodness!! It really was quick and all of the instructions set me up for success! I took this to a meeting and everyone loved it. Thanks for another amazing recipe!
The recipe was easy to follow; with bonus points for not requiring a trip to the store for any special ingredients. I added some raw, small-diced apples to the filling as another reviewer suggested just because I had a bunch. I forgot to cover with foil as indicated in the recipe to prevent over browning and it still came out fine. Mighty tasty. Definitely filing this one for future use.
Delicious and simple to make! The cinnamon-sugar flavor in The bread was wonderful.
This was delicious and super easy to make. My kids loved it, too, which is always a bonus.
This was such a fun recipe! I couldn’t wait to try it when it was baking; it smelled so good! My only problem was that some of the topping fell off when I took it out of the pan, but I think I just left too much on top. I’ll probably try putting raisins in next time.
This bread is so delicious and made my house smell absolutely incredible! Looking forward to trying some different variations – I think next time I’ll add some pumpkin pie spice to the swirl. Cranberry orange would be delicious as well.
I made this bread yesterday during a work from home “break” 🙂 The whole house smelled wonderful! Easy but delicious recipe!
I love this recipe so much- quick and delicious! AND it makes AMAZING french toast!!
This bread was delicious and not to difficult to do. My family loved it!
Hi Sally,
Can i subs vegetable oil with butter?
The only cinnamon bread recipe you’ll ever need. Simple to make and incredibly delicious. The one thing I would say is the cooking spray didn’t quite cut it at far as getting the loaf out of the pan, but that could just be the one I used. Delicious!!
I was excited to try this, because as a mom of 3 I’m all about quick and easy!! It went together pretty easily, but the final product disappointed me. I guess the “cakey” part felt a little tasteless to me? It wasn’t bad at allllll but I had high expectations and hopes and felt a little let down.
My finace was skeptical when I showed him this recipe, but once it was baked he couldn’t stop eating it. So good and so easy! Going to be a household staple.
This quick bread has officially become by go to snack! I made this for my family thinking I’ll be the only one eating it (because they don’t have biggest sweet tooth) but it was all gone by the end of the day!! I’ve made this delicious quick bread 3 times in the span of a week!! So it’s safe to say, this recipe is absolutely amazing and my family loved it!
This is one amazing recipe! What is there to not love when there is cinnamon sugar doing a swirl dance in the bread which is really a cake and there is also this yummy vanilla flavor?!? And it is a treasure when it can be made in a jiff! My kids just loved it and told me it tasted just like their favorite Trader Joe’s cinnamon cake.
Kids are the best critics and if you hear such comments, then it’s got to be a keeper recipe right! So yes, I am keeping this one just like your chewy chocolate chip cookies recipe . Thank you so much for such an amazing recipe!! I posted my pic on IG as well and tagged you!
I wish I can give this recipe more stars!!
This looks absolutely amazing! Quick question re: substitutions. Could I use plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream? And do you have a recommendation for how to make gluten free? Thanks!
Hi Jen! You can use plain greek yogurt instead of the sour cream. I haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, but let me know if you do!
The crumb on this bread is STUNNING. I added diced apple in the center and it added the best amount of bite to this otherwise soft, moist, delicious bread. Next time, I might add a brown sugar/flour/butter crumb topping just to see the effect!
Alisha,
I was thinking of adding apples, too.
Did you use raw apples? or did you cook them slightly to soften first?
I used raw apple. Given the long baking time of the recipe, my apples were cooked and soft. To make sure they came out soft, I chopped my peeled apple into thin slices and chopped the slices into smaller pieces.
Super quick, easy and delicious! Was very happy with how this turned out. Would like to try this recipe again with the apples, I think that would put this over the top.
it absolutely elevates the bread!
I wanted to bake something quick on a weekday that both of us parents and our two picky kids would enjoy. This hit the spot! I used reduced fat milk since that’s what we have on hand. On half (the “parent” side), I added pecans on top of the cinnamon filling and on the top of the batter. I skipped the icing since I was going for a quick bake. I really enjoyed it, and my kids asked for seconds. Thanks for another great recipe!
So easy to make and delicious!