Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I really needed to make something for breakfast. Last little while, I guiltily went to Starbucks to buy their "baking." I feel guilty cos 1) I can make them 2) it costs unnecessary spending 3) I know what I put in and control the ingredients whereas with them, I don't.

Anyways so Saturday, I decided to bake something with cinnamon with some old Digweed CDs. I wanted something cinnamon not because I crave it but because the last time I baked I accidentally mixed flour and sugar with my cinnamon and it's bothered me since!!!! I felt I had to use it up.

I wanted cinnamon buns but the recipe I had needed buttermilk and I didn't want to go out and buy. So I had a choice of stacked cinnamon bread (from my Wooden Spoon Bread book) or Cinnamon Raisin Bread (from the Kitchen Aid Baking Companion). Since I never used the Kitchen Aid book, I decided to try it's recipe.



I bought this book a long time ago. It's actually one of the reason why I decided to have a New Year's resolution of not buying a recipe book unless I finish making everything in one recipe book (that New Year resolution is partially successful in that I haven't bought any recipe books but failure because I'm not going to complete 1 recipe book by the end of this year. By 2012, I'm gonna be buying!!

Back to the book...I bought it and then realized it's called Kitchen Aid Companion for a reason... You use it with your Kitchen Aid appliances. I thought that as long as the recipes looked good, I'd do without the appliances. Well I never used this book, even after I got my stand mixer.

So today I decided to make cinnamon raisin bread.



First mix flour, yeast and a little salt in the mixer bowl.



Then melt butter in a saucepan.



And add milk and honey to the butter. Heat but don't boil.



Then whisk 2 eggs.



and remove from heat.



With the dry ingredients, add raisins. This brand reminds me of the Halloween raisin treats that my brothers and I hated. Now I love this brand because it reminds me of that memory (yes, I'm quite sentimental).



Mix the raisins



And turn mixer on low while adding the egg milk mixture.




Mix on low until it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.



Let it sit for about 1hr to rise.

At this point, I was not happy with the recipe. 1) was because the yeast granules were not dissolved. I like recipes that let the yeast soften (sit in liquid for 10 min) because I know the yeast is active and incorporated in my dough. This one didn't have to soften the yeast so I had to add more liquid in hopes of dissolving the yeast granules. Eventually I left the undissolved granules alone to see what happened. Seemed fine bit still not like that concept of cooked yeast granules.

2) was that while mixing, all the raisins went to the bottom and was squashed by the dough hook of the stand mixer. This made the raisins in the bread look terrible. Not sure if could have done differently but the recipe should warn that this might happen.

Anyways back to the recipe...

While waiting for the dough to rise, I prepared the filling. It was cinnamon and sugar.



Once dough was double in size, I punched it.




Then I rolled it into a rectangle. I'm really bad at rolling things out. It never looks like the shape it's suppose to be.




Brushed melted butter and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar.




Rolled it up.



Pinched the seams to make a loaf. Put it in the pan and let it rise.



After 1 hour and dough has risen, the put in oven bake for about 35 minutes. I forgot to turn halfway baking. Doesn't matter. Baking wise, it made no major difference. Can you see the squashed raisin on top of the loaf?



Once done baking, brush melted butter on top and sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture on top.



Let it cool on wire rack.



And voila!!!


Final Thoughts:

I was worried after mixing the bread dough that this recipe wouldn't work out. First, the yeast didn't fully dissolve. And second, the squashed raisins and the raisins weren't well mixed.

But after slicing the bread (which looked impressive) and tasting it, I changed my mind.

It was a tasty egg bread which is rich and delicious. Also what I liked about this bread was it used honey and not sugar. I liked that since the cinnamon mixture uses sugar so didn't want too much sugar in the bread.

Seriously, I am impressed with this bread. I was about to throw out this book but now changed my mind!!

It was also a very easy recipe. Other than waiting for it to rise and baking time, it probably took 40 max of my time to prepare.

Will definitely make again.

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