Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Made with fresh yeast, this cinnamon raisin bread has a delightfully soft crumb and is perfect for breakfast or snack time, plain or toasted and buttered! 

If you’ve been reading along here for a while, you know that since my husband retired, we have been dividing our time between the United States and the Channel Islands. To keep up with what is happening in both places, I belong to a lot of Facebook groups. 

For all its faults, Facebook is a great place to follow small businesses, find out about local events as well as get restaurant and shopping recommendations, etc. Recently on one of my Channel Island groups, someone asked where a person could buy fresh yeast. 

I love baking with fresh yeast so I immediately saved the post so I could check back for updates. Various people chimed in with suggestions which absolutely thrilled me. One of the commenters said the Polish shop in town sold it and they were right! 

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Some of my seedless raisins were quite large so I chopped them in half to get a better distribution. If you struggle to find fresh yeast, you can substitute 2 1/4 teaspoons or 7g of active dry yeast.

Ingredients

For the bread dough:

4 cups or 500g all-purpose flour, plus extra flour for kneading and dusting

.7 oz or 20g fresh yeast (see note above for substitute)

2 tablespoons sugar


1 teaspoon fine sea salt


1 1/3 cups or 320ml warm water

1 egg yolk (save the white for the egg wash)

Canola or other light oil

For the filling:

3/4 cup or 165g/4 x3 seedless raisins

1/3 cup or 67g sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the egg wash: 

1 egg white, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon water

Optional for decoration: 

2 tablespoons pearl sugar

Method

Put your flour in a large mixing bowl.  Make a well in the center and pop in your yeast, sugar and salt.  

Pour in half the water and mix with a fork by incorporating flour from the edges of the well little by little.  

Now add in the rest of the water and the egg yolk and mix the whole lot.  

When you have one thick dough ball, knead it on a lightly floured surface (or in a stand mixer) until it is stretchy and supple.

  

Put the tiniest amount of canola oil in the bottom of the bowl, spread it around a little, and put the dough ball in. Cover with a teacloth or shower cap and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, prepare your loaf pan by lining it with baking parchment. 

After half an hour, punch the dough down and knead it a little bit more, for just a minute or two.  

Use a rolling pin to roll it out into a big rectangle. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture over the dough. Do the same with the raisins. 

Roll the rectangle up and tuck the ends under. 

Place it in your prepared bread pan, seam side down.

With a very sharp knife, cut three shallow slits in the top of the dough and sprinkle again with flour. 

Cover the pan with your teacloth or shower cap and put it back in the warm place for 30 minutes to one hour for the final rising. (I set my timer for 30 minutes and then started preheating my oven to 400°F or 200°C, putting the bread in when the oven was hot, after 45 minutes rising time.)

Whisk the egg white and water together and brush the top of the loaf. 

Sprinkle on the pearl sugar to decorate, if using. I also added a light dusting of ground cinnamon because, why not? 

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the loaf is golden on the outside and sounds hollow when tapped with a knife. If you are an instant thermometer using person, the internal temperature should be about 200°F or 93°C.

Leave to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing to serve. 

Enjoy! 

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today our group is sharing yeast bread recipes. Many thanks to our host, Amy from Amy's Cooking Adventures. Check out the links below. 

• Basil Garlic Bread by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Buckwheat Dinner Rolls (Gluten-Free) by Cook with Renu
• Cardamom Chrysanthemum Bread by Culinary Cam
• Cinnamon Raisin Bread by Food Lust People Love
• Keto Eggless Almond Four Yeasted Bread by Sneha's Recipe
• No Knead Ciabatta Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Shirin Chorek by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sweet Turmeric Milk Bread (Shirin Chorek) by Amy's Cooking Adventures

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin this Cinnamon Raisin Bread! 

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Classic Brioche à Tête #BreadBakers

This classic brioche à tête recipe is simple to make, with very little hands on time, no stand mixer required, for a loaf that is rich and buttery. Start one day ahead. 

I own two proper brioche pans, one from my years living in Paris and yet another, believe it or not, that was purchased in Cairo, Egypt, It was made by the French manufacturer Tefal though so I guess that makes it authentic. 

If you search the internet for brioche recipes, you will find literally millions and millions. Google says an estimated 25.000,000 in fact. All the top hits seem to be baked in regular rectangular loaf pans though.

I was determined to create a classic loaf using one of my pans. Took me a bit but I finally figured out where I was going wrong! I needed to search for brioche à tête or brioche à Parisienne. Who knew? In Paris the bakeries just said brioche or possibly grosse brioche and petite brioche (sometimes with flavor options) on the boards.

Here's a little fun fact for you: While brioche in proper French translates to sweet bun, colloquially, it also means beer gut. In case you have a friend who needs ribbing in French. 

Back to my quest: I was delighted to find a video by baker extraordinaire Anna Olson making little brioche buns where she showed the proper way to make the tête or head that is supposed to poke out on top. Is my tête too small? Absolutely. Live and learn. Next time I will make it bigger! 

Classic Brioche à Tête

You can warm the whole amount of milk (3 oz or 90ml) needed, use a portion to activate the yeast then pour the rest in when making the dough. Please note that you do need to start a day ahead of when you want to bake the brioche. This gives the dough the time it needs to chill, making it easier to handle. 

Ingredients

To activate the yeast:

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 cup or 60ml milk, warmed to body temperature

For the brioche dough:

2 1/2 cups or 312g flour

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

3 eggs

1 fl oz or 30ml milk, warmed to body temperature

3 oz or 85g butter, softened at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the pan

For the egg wash:

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

Method

Step one is to activate the yeast. Put the yeast in a small bowl with the flour and warm milk. Stir to combine, set aside while you get the dry ingredients together.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. 

Add the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients, along with the rest of the milk and the eggs. 

Stir with a stiff spoon or Danish whisk until well combined. 

Add in butter and mix again until it is completely incorporated.

The dough will be super sticky so tidy it up as best you can into a ball using a spatula. 

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rest at room temperature for one hour.

Put the bowl in the refrigerator for 12 - 24 hours to chill the dough. 

When you are ready to bake, generously butter your brioche pan with softened butter and a pastry brush. 

Turn the chilled dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press it out. 

Fold it over a couple of times then shape it into a firm ball. 

Use the side of your hand to make an indentation near one end of the ball, like you are trying to form a neck and head of dough on a dough body. Make your small ball bigger than mine for a more authentic look to the finished brioche!

Use your fingers to create a hole through the dough.

Tuck the "head" under and up through the hole. This will give the brioche its classic shape with the knob on top. 

Place the formed dough into your prepared brioche pan. 

Cover with cling film (buttered or greased so that it doesn't stick to the dough as it rises) and leave to rise for about 2 hours. As it nears the end of rising time, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C in a fan oven or 425°F or 218°C in a conventional oven.

Whisk the egg and water together to create the egg wash. 

Working from the outside inward, brush the brioche very lightly with the egg wash.

Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F or 180°C in a convection oven or 375°F or 190°C in a conventional oven.

Continue baking until the brioche is deep golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 205°F on an instant-read thermometer, 25 to 30 minutes more.

Remove from the oven and let the brioche cool in the pan for just 5 minutes. Any longer and condensation starts to form and your crust won't be lovely and crisp. 

Unmold onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Let the brioche cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my fellow Bread Bakers to share their recipes. Our theme today, you might have guessed, is brioche-style bread. Many thanks to our host Kelly of A Messy Kitchen. Check out the links below. 

• Almond Cream Brioche Buns from A Messy Kitchen
• Brioche Pull-Apart Loaf from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Classic Brioche à Tête from Food Lust People Love
• Individual Orange Cranberry Brioche from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Single Rise Brioche Dinner Rolls from Sneha's Recipe

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Classic Brioche à Tête!

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Rosemary Onion Socca - Chickpea Flatbread #BreadBakers

This rosemary onion socca aka chickpea flatbread is super easy to make and even easier to devour. The crispy edges and golden bottom are superb. This had us standing around, picking up just one more piece. And maybe just one more. All right, this really is the last one! And it's gone.

Despite living in France for three years, I had never come across socca until a couple of years ago when I was researching gluten free recipes for another edition of Bread Bakers. It sounded delightful but I didn’t have any chickpea flour (and was too lazy to go shopping) so I chose to make something else. 

It popped back into my mind when our host for this month’s Bread Baker event chose flatbreads as our theme. As you can see from the photos, bread really doesn’t get any flatter than socca! There are no leavening agents so it doesn’t rise at all. 

I checked out several recipes for this French regional bread and while all of them had varying amounts of chickpea flour, water and oil, none had baking powder so I had to conclude that this is correct. 

Rosemary Onion Socca - Chickpea Flatbread

It’s best to start ahead by several hours or even the day before you want to make this as the batter needs time to be its best. This recipe is adapted from one on New York Times Cooking. If your local grocery store doesn't carry chickpea flour, try an Asian or Indian shop where it might be labeled besan or gram flour.

Ingredients

1 cup or 118g chickpea flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup or 240ml lukewarm water

4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil

½ medium onion

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, small tender leaves or chopped bigger leaves

Method

Put the chickpea flour in a bowl; add the salt and pepper. Slowly add the lukewarm water, whisking to eliminate lumps. Whisk in 2 tablespoons olive oil. 

Cover or pour into a jar and let sit for 12 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. The batter should be about the consistency of heavy cream. I like using a clean pint jar which fits better in the refrigerator. It also makes mixing easier, as you’ll see later. 

When you are about ready to bake the socca, finely slice your onions. 

Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in a large iron skillet and pan fry the onions until crispy, about 8-9 minutes. 

Add in most of the rosemary, reserving just a little for sprinkling on the socca before baking, and give it a quick stir. Fry for one minute. 

Remove the onions and rosemary from the pan and leave them to cool. 

Meanwhile, heat your oven to 450°f or 232°C. Once hot, add two more tablespoons of olive oil to the iron skillet and put it in the oven for about 5 minutes. 

Mix the onions and rosemary into your socca batter. (If you’ve also put your batter in a jar, this is super easy. Add them in, screw the lid on tight and give the jar a good shake.) 

Immediately pour the batter into the hot pan. Sprinkle on the reserved rosemary leaves. 

Bake for 10 -12 minutes, or until the socca is firm and the edges set.

Heat the broiler/grill and brush the top of the socca with 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil. 

Set the pan a few inches away from the heat source, and cook just long enough to brown it in spots. 

Cut the socca into wedges, and serve hot or warm.

Enjoy! 

Since it’s the second Tuesday of the month, it’s BreadBakers day! Many thanks to our host Kelly of Passion Kneaded who chose flatbreads as our theme. Check out all the links below. 

• Eggless Keto Naan from Sneha's Recipes
• Focaccia Bread Art from Passion Kneaded
• Magical Oreo Paratha from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Nan-e-Barbari from Ambrosia
• Rosemary Onion Socca - Chickpea Flatbread from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Pizza Bianca from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Rosemary Onion Socca

– Chickpea Flatbread!

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