Recipe

How to Make Dollywood’s Famous Cinnamon Bread

Baking in the American South brings the beloved recipe from Tennessee to your kitchen

Recipe by Anne Byrn

September 5, 2024

Photo: RINNE ALLEN

Within views of the Smoky Mountains, a Tennessee theme park pays homage to the queen of country music, Dolly Parton. And while a lot of people come here because they love Dolly and others because of the big-time roller coaster, the cinnamon bread, drenched in butter and cinnamon-sugar, draws crowds as well. You can re-create it at home even if you never set foot in Dollywood, where they add cinnamon icing and apple butter. I think the bread’s plenty good on its own. If possible, make the dough the day ahead and chill overnight so it will be easier to slice into, which allows the topping to penetrate deeply and create pockets so when you pull the bread apart—just as they do at Dollywood—you get cinnamon-sugar in every bite. —Anne Byrn, from her new cookbook, Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories.

Read our Q&A with Byrn here.

Ingredients

Dollywood Cinnamon Bread (Yield: one 9-inch loaf)
For the dough
- 1 cup whole milk, plus 1 tbsp.
- 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ tsp. dry yeast
- 3 cups bread flour, plus more for handling
- 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- Parchment paper for lining the pan
For the topping
- 4 tbsp. unsalted butter
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup lightly packed light brown sugar
- 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

Preparation

Make the dough: Pour the 1 cup milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until bubbles form around the edges of the pan and it scalds, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Add the butter and stir to melt. When the milk mixture cools to the touch (125°F or lower on an instant-read thermometer), whisk in the yeast.

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the large bowl of a stand mixer. (Or you can combine without a mixer and knead by hand.) Beat on low speed until just combined. Pour in the yeast mixture and beat on low until incorporated. If the dough is dry, add the extra 1 tablespoon milk.

Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is smooth and elastic, 4 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and clean up the edges.

Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight or cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled, 1½ to 2 hours.

Line a 9-inch loaf pan with parchment paper that extends over the short ends of the pan. Remove the parchment and set it aside on a baking sheet. Punch down the dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Press the dough into an 8-by-7-inch rectangle. Starting with the 8-inch side, roll up into a loaf and place seam-side down on the piece of parchment.

Make the topping and bake the bread: Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Combine both sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl and stir to combine.

Slit the loaf 6 to 8 times with a sharp serrated knife or razor blade, slicing halfway down through the loaf to create deep slits. Pour the melted butter over the top of the loaf, letting it seep into the slits. Spoon the sugar topping into the slits and onto the top of the loaf. With the ends of the parchment paper, pick up the loaf and place it in the pan. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350°F, with a rack in the middle. Place the pan in the oven and bake the bread until lightly browned and the internal temperature in the center registers 190°F, 28 to 32 minutes. Remove from the oven. Lift the bread out of the pan using the parchment paper. Place on a wire rack and let cool in the paper for 15 minutes, then serve warm.