A Sweet Master variation with a laminated swirl. Most active step in the book — but the result is bakery-window pretty.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 360 g | Or 50/50 bread + all-purpose for a softer crumb |
| Whole milk | 140 g | Warmed to body temperature |
| Warm water | 20 g | About 85°F |
| Soft butter | 60 g | Room temp — soft enough to dent with a finger |
| Granulated sugar | 50 g | Sweet but not dessert-sweet |
| Active starter | 80 g | Fed 8–12 hr earlier, passes float test |
| Egg | 50 g | One large egg, beaten |
| Fine sea salt | 8 g | Added after autolyse |
| Brown sugar | 60 g | For the swirl |
| Ground cinnamon | 8 g | Mixed with the sugar |
| Soft butter | 20 g | Spread thinly before the swirl |
Because my starter is fed with organic whole wheat flour, roughly 50 g of the total flour in this recipe is whole wheat (about 10% of the total). It’s a subtle background note, not a wheat loaf — but it’s part of the character.
Weights use baker’s percentage — the starter’s flour and water are subtracted from the totals. Use the calculator to scale.
New to sourdough? Learn how to make your own starter.
Method
1Build the Sweet Master through bulk
Follow the Sweet Master all the way through the 1-hour bulk rise. You can also use your oven's proof setting at ~100°F — it'll get there in about 45 minutes. Same target either way: ~50% growth, puffy and bubbly.
2Mix the swirl filling
Combine 60 g brown sugar and 8 g cinnamon in a small bowl.
3Roll out the dough
Lightly flour your counter. Scrape the dough out. Gently pat and roll into a rough 25 × 35 cm rectangle. Don't fight it — if it springs back, let it rest 5 min and try again.
4Spread butter and swirl mix
Spread 20 g soft butter thinly over the dough, leaving a 1 cm border. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar evenly over the butter.
5Roll up tight
Starting from one short edge, roll the dough up tightly into a log. Pinch the seam closed. Pinch the ends closed.
6Into a loaf pan
Place seam-side down in a buttered 23 cm loaf pan. Cover.
7Cold retard (12–14 hours)
Into the fridge. Overnight. This IS your final proof. No separate room-temp proof needed before the fridge — the cold and the time do all the work.
8Bake
425°F for 20 min, then 400°F for another 25–30 min. Internal temp 200–205°F. Tent with foil if the top browns too fast.
9Cool
Out of the pan onto a wire rack. Full hour. The swirl needs to set.
Compared to
The published recipes I learned from and measured mine against. Respect to the bakers who came first.
The classic cinnamon-swirl sourdough. Yours uses the Sweet Master enriched dough as the base — same butter/sugar/cinnamon filling, simpler lamination.