Cinnamon Bread (Low Carb, Gluten)

Directions

1. Sponge: combine 1T yeast, 1T sugar, 1T almond flour, 1T of wheat bran in a bowl. Add ½ cup of 105-110 degree water, wisk or fork stir well. Cover and let sit while you prep the rest.
2. Set a mesh sifter in a large bowl. Add the almond flour, vital wheat gluten, sugar and baking powder to the sifter and sift into the bowl. Do not skip the sift and then complain later.
3. Add the flax, bran, and yeast to the sifted ingredients, mix well with a wooden spoon. Weigh out the butter.
4. Check the sponge. If it is double or triple in size, you are ready to roll.
5. Add 1 cup 105-110 degree water to the dry ingredients, mix for a few minutes with the spoon until you have a somewhat coherent mass, then add the sponge and mix into a dough.
6. Roll out onto a work surface (I use a large plastic cutting board). Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes, roll into a ball and set aside.
7. Knead the butter with your palms and fingers until it is soft and not lumpy, but not melted, on that same surface, scooping it and pressing it like you would a dough. When it is smooth, knead it into the dough.
8. Knead the dough for as long as it takes to fully incorporate the butter, about 5 minutes.
9. Grease your large bowl and put the dough into it. I stretch a sheet of Saran over the center (gaps on the sides) to give support to my kitchen towel, soaks with hot water and wrung out, and laid over the top of the bowl. I wrap that in a heavier fabric and then place it all in a prewarmed oven at about 90 degrees.
10. This next step is still being tweaked. The usual thing to do is a two-hour rise.
11. This dough really bursts (I think the yeast are happy with the sugar, but there is not much of it). There are real advantages to a punch down (you have to do it for this bread anyhow). For the one pictured here, I did the two hours, had about a 3x rise that was pretty loose. I scraped it out and flattened it, and it behaved great. I pressed it out onto that same cutting board with an additional 4 inches in the long direction (onto a second board).
12. Prepare the filling: mix the Swerve with the cinnamon and the small amount of added bran, then combine with an egg into a paste.
13. I spooned out 6 portions of the paste onto the rolled-out dough and then spread it by hand.
14. Starting at one end, I pulled the edge of the dough and rolled it as tightly as I could. The short dimension of the dough sheet was picked to match my bread pan.
15. I placed the rolled dough seam-side down in the oiled bread pan and sprayed the top with oil. I lightly covered the pan with Saran, then the warm, wet towel and the thicker fabric, and put it all back in the oven (still at 90 degrees), for 2 more hours. I got about a 1.5-2 x rise out of that.
16. Remove the pan and preheat the oven to 350F. Even with the loaf pan, I use a pizza stone and a lower rack. Keep the temp at 350F for about 30 minutes before placing the loaf pan onto the stone.
17. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove and let sit for about 5 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.