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.

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Overnight Sourdough Cinnamon Waffles #BreadBakers

While the sourdough starter in these overnight sourdough cinnamon waffles adds flavor, the addition of buttermilk and baking soda makes them fluffy and light. 

Since we got back to Jersey a couple of months ago, I’ve nursed my sourdough starter back to robust good health and have enjoyed using it in a number of baked treats like sourdough baguettes, rolls and muffins. 

Since it survived the several months of abandonment, I decided it finally deserved a name so it was duly christened Jane Dough. The quart jar sports a label now with her name.

Jane is the most forgiving of souls. She lives in the refrigerator most of the time, but when I know I’m going to need her good services, she has place of pride on the countertop where she gets a decent meal (100 percent hydration which means 50g water and 50g flour, stir well) and sits out for a night. If it’s chilly, I warm her up by sitting her jar in a bowl of warm water first. 

Overnight Sourdough Cinnamon Waffles

This recipe is adapted from one on the King Arthur Baking website. They used sourdough discard but I decided to feed Jane Dough up the day before instead because she was getting low and the half cup would have been a lot to use, leaving her dangerously small. If you have enough discard, certainly use it. 

Ingredients - makes 8 square Belgian waffles

For the overnight sponge: 

1/2 cup or 113g sourdough starter (fed or unfed)

1 cup or 125g flour

1 cup or 240ml buttermilk

1 tablespoon sugar

For the batter:

all of the overnight sponge

1 large egg

2 tablespoons canola or other light oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

To make the overnight sponge, stir down your starter, and remove 1/2 cup or 113g. In a large bowl, whisk together the starter, flour, buttermilk and sugar, 

Cover with cling film and leave rest at cool room temperature (about 65°F to 70°F) for about 12 hours, or overnight.

The next morning, beat the egg and oil together in a small bowl. As you can see off to the left, Jane Dough has done some good work overnight. Bubbling along nicely. 

Add it to the overnight sponge, stirring just to combine.

Add in the cinnamon, salt and baking soda and fold well to combine. 

To make the waffles: Pour the batter onto your preheated, greased waffle iron, and bake according to the manufacturer's instructions. 

Repeat with the remaining batter.

If you like crunchy waffles, I suggest serving them immediately. You can hold them in a warm oven till they are all baked but they do lose some of their crispness then. 

Serve with a generous smear of softened butter and lashings of syrup. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it Bread Baker day! We are sharing recipes for breads with spices. Many thanks to our host, Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen. Check out all the links here: 

• Ajwain Paratha by Cook with Renu
• Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Ginger and Earl Grey Sourdough with Dates by A Messy Kitchen
• Fire Roasted Corn Fritters by Palatable Pastime
• Kardemummabullar (Swedish Cardamom Buns) by Culinary Cam
• Sourdough Chocolate Cardamom Bread by Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Overnight Sourdough Cinnamon Waffles by Food Lust people Love
• Stuffed Cheesy Braided Turkish Kebab Bread Rolls by 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.

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