Nutella Cinnamon Ring - a Great Breakfast Bread for the Weekend or Guests

The cinnamon roll breakfast ring was one of my favorite breakfasts as a child. I remember watching Mom make this many Saturdays and enjoying it's warm gooeyness for breakfast. I recently started using Nutella on a regular basis and thought it might make a good addition to the cinnamon roll ring. That was a great hunch. The taste was so powerful, it transported me right back to France in Epcot Center 26 years ago. That is when I tasted my first chocolate croissant. My son loved this breakfast ring and ate most of the Nutella half himself. Yay! Even my super picky daughter ate some of it, though she preferred the cinnamon roll half.

When I make this for breakfast, I actually start the preparation the night before because I use a loaf of frozen bread dough (just like my Mom did). I also love using frozen dough for my various monkey bread creations. I pull a loaf out of the freezer before going to bed and place it in a greased loaf pan, loosely covered with greased plastic wrap. I use cooking spray for less mess. In the morning, the dough is ready to work with. Turn the thawed and very well risen loaf out onto a floured counter or bread board and use a rolling pin to roll it out so it is a rectangle. For the cinnamon half, first butter the dough with room temperature butter, then sprinkle cinnamon (I use Penzy's Vietnamese cinnamon for the best flavor) and then sprinkle the sugar over it. On the other half, spread your Nutella. That's all that half needs! Then roll the rectangle up so it looks like a rope and shape it into a circle on the greased cookie sheet. I always line mine with aluminum foil to make clean up easy. I like things that make for an easy clean up in the kitchen!

I then make the ring pretty by using my kitchen shears and pinch cutting it around about every 2-3 inches. This makes it looks really nice and you can see the goodness inside! You then need to allow the dough to rise again and almost double itself. This takes about 45 minutes to an hour. I got up early to make sure we could eat it at 8:30 in the morning. It bakes at 350° for 20-25 minutes. Let the breakfast ring cool a little before adding the glaze. This is also very easy to make. You only need about a cup of powdered sugar and a little more than a Tablespoon of milk to make it. I change the consistency of my frosting/glaze all the time, sometimes I like it thinner and sometimes thicker, so make it to your liking. I hope you all enjoy a favorite childhood breakfast of mine, I am so glad my kids enjoy it now, too!

This is all you need to make a great breakfast:

Ingredients

1 loaf of frozen bread dough

2 Tbsp butter, softened

2 Tbsp cinnamon (give or take a little)

2 Tbsp sugar (give or take a little)

4 Tbsp Nutella (you want a nice layer on the dough, but not too much, a little goes a long way)

Glaze

1 Cup powdered sugar

1-2 Tbsp milk

You can even make extra frosting for dipping if you would like, I won't tell. Enjoy!