We Knead to Bake 27 Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread

This month, Aparna chose for us in We Knead to Bake Group a rather easy bread and similar to the cinnamon rolls we baked earlier in the group.The Orange and Cinnamon Swirl bread is a typical American style breakfast bread and is sweet. It has a nice combination of ingredients and I personally prefer the cinnamon flavour.
Aparna had chosen this bread from a book she had to review. She made changes to her personal prefernce while she gave us the exact recipe to work with. i must say that I went with her measures and still had a nicely sweet bread.
I am currently travelling and this post is late as I had to juggle the time to bake the bread and then write the post. Given below is a copy from Aparna's post while the change I made was using strawberry preserve in the place of the apricot preserve and omitted the egg. I substituted for the egg with extra milk.

Orange and Cinnamon Swirl Bread

(Reproduced with permission from 500 Breads by Carol Beckerman)
(Makes TWO medium size loaves)

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon sugar
2/3 cups warm water
2 teaspoon active dry yeast
3&1/2 cups al purpose flour
2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs (or substitute, as required)
Juice and grated rind of an orange
5 tablespoons apricot/ strawberry preserve
1 tablespoon cinnamom powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
Oil for greasing

Method:
Grease two 8"X4" loaf tins with some oil.
dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water and sprinkle the teast. Allow it to proof for 10 to 15 minutes.
in a large bowl, mix flour, salt and 3 tablespoons sugar. Add the liquid yeast, eggs (or milk), the juice and the zest. Work this to a somewhat firm dough.
Turn the dough on to a loghtly floured surface and knead to a smooth, elastic but somewhat firm dough. Place the dough in a large, oiled
 bowl, cover and set aside in a warm place to double in its volume for about an hor and a half.

Turn the dough back on to a lightly floured surface, punch it down and gently knead again until the dough feels firm.
Divide the dough into two and roll out each into a 13"X6" rectangle.
Spread the preserve on each surface, sprinkle the brown sugar generously on top of the preserve and then the cinnamon powder.
Roll both rectangles each in a swiss roll like loaf.
Place each roll into the two prepared loaf tins.
Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Bake the breads for 30 to 35 minutes until the top of them is golden.

While tapped under they should sound hollow. Remove from the loaf tins and cool on wire racks.

Serve as a breakfast bread with tea or simply with tea or coffee anytime of the day.

Notes:
You may or may not use the eggs.
You might want to omit the 3 tablespoons sugar if you want your bread somewhat mildly sweet. brown sugar may be substituted with regular sugar.
Again, you may reduce the quantity of brown sugar to tone the sweetness down.
Apricot preserves work the best, but the strawberry preserve was close enough. Use the exact measures of the preserve as too less will leave a bland bread while too much will make it ooze and messy.
Adjust the flour or liquid to achieve a smooth, elastic but somewhat firm dough. Exercise caution with the flour or liquid as the texture will depend on them.
Try to keep the rolling measurements. I rolled it too thin and the bread had an ugly tear on the crown in my first attempt.
Roll the swiss like roll tightly enough and seal the edge well brushing a little water if needed. Place the seam side down while baking.