Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Note/Suggestions:  If you have a bread machine, scroll to the bottom recipe for the bread machine version of this recipe.

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup milk
  • 2 tsp dry yeast
  • 1 ½ cups unbleached bread flour
  • 2 cups white wheat flour
  • 1 ½ tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 Tbsp butter melted
  • 1 cup raisins

Directions:

  1. Spray the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with cooking spray or brush with melted butter.
  2. In a small bowl, mix the milk and brown sugar together until the sugar is dissolved.
  3. Sprinkle the yeast into the milk mixture and let rest for 5 minutes, then stir to complete dissolve any solids.
  4. In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour salt and cinnamon. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, melted butter and milk mixture and mix until a soft sticky dough forms. Add additional milk a teaspoon at a time if the dough is too stiff and dry.
  5. Turn the dough out onto a floured clean surface and knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and shiny.
  6. Spray the inside of a large bowl with cooking spray and put the dough in the bowl and cover with a dish towel and let stand for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
  7. Punch down the dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured clean surface then roll it into a rectangle about 8” x 12”.
  8. Sprinkle the raisins over the surface of the dough. Roll the dough up into a tube shape starting on a short end of the rectangle so that you end up with a tube about 8” long.
  9. Place the tube into the prepared loaf pan seam side down. Cover with a dish towel and let rest for 30 minutes. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees.
  10. Before you put the bread in the oven brush the surface with a glaze made of 1 egg yolk and 1 Tsp of water whisked together.
  11. Bake the bread for 45 minutes at 400 degrees, then an additional 30 minutes at 350 or until golden brown. When the pan is cool enough to handle, turn the bread out onto a wire rack to cool.

Need easy? Use the bread machine. Set it to the basic bread or white bread setting. When the buzzer goes off signaling the time to add fruit or nuts,  add the raisins; generally it is after the dough has risen for the first time. Add the ingredients in the order listed. The yeast is always last in the bread machine.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cups of warm water
  • ¼ cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 ½ Tbsp butter, melted
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1½ cups of bread flour
  • 2 cups white wheat flour
  • 3 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1 cup raisins to be added at buzzer