The only thing better than walking into a room filled with the smell of baked bread is taking a warm bite from the slice in your hand.

Helena is fortunate to have a healthy list of quality bakeries offering an assortment of whole grain, sweet and specialty breads.

One of my favorites is the cinnamon swirl from Great Harvest. It is a yeasted bread made with part white and part wheat flour, which is rolled out and spread with gak (a baking term in this case means a combination of brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and a touch of white flour). Then the bread is rolled into a log shape and baked to perfection. When sliced, the swirls of gak make the bread almost pretty to look at.

Cinnamon swirl bread makes French toast to die for, breakfast toast second to known, perfect afternoon treat on a cold March afternoon, or a sensual dessert after a light dinner.

Bobbi Ecklund, owner of Great Harvest, says her customers tell her they don't toast it too long, but just enough to crystallize the sweetness.

The bread is made three days a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and is $5 a loaf.

Ecklund says at the end of the day, the bakery's best seller is honey whole wheat.

"It's our everyday bread," she said. "From a specialty bread perspective, it's (cinnamon swirl) our number one seller."