Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I love baking bread. The best are cold days when I don't have much planned outside of the house. Lucy was dealing with a cold and teething so we were a bit stuck at home. Perfect time to bake!

I've had a few requests for the recipe for Cinnamon Raisin Bread that I made last week so here it is! This is a slightly modified recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook (my go-to book for many of my baking recipes).


Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Makes two 9 by 5 inch loaves

1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2 cups warm milk (about 110 degrees F)
6 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting (I weigh and then sift my flour)
1 stick butter, room temperature, cut into pieces, plus more for pans
½ cup sugar
2 eggs, plus 1 egg, lightly beaten
2 ½ tsp coarse salt
1 cup raisins
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

filling:
1 ½ cups sugar
2 Tbsp ground cinnamon


1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk and whisk to combine. In a seperate bowl, mix together the, butter, sugar, 2 eggs, and salt. Attach bowl to mixer fitted with the dough hook and mix wet ingredients into yeast, then slowly add the flour. Mix on low speed until all the ingredients are well combined, about 3 minutes. Raise speed to medium-low, and continue to mix until the dough is completely smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 3 minutes more.

Turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Pat out the dough into a big round. Sprinkle with raisins and cinnamon and knead and fold until they are just incorporated. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. (In the cooler months I find that the oven on off with the oven light on makes a nice warm environment for my dough to rise)

3. Return the dough to a lightly floured work surface, and pat into a round. Fold the bottom third of the dough up, the top third down and the right and left sizes over, pressing down the seal. Return the dough into the bowl and let rise again until doubled in bulk, about 40 minutes.

4. Make the filling. Combine sugar and cinnamon with 2 Tbsp water in a small bowl.

5. Generously butter two 9 by 5 inch loaf pans set aside. 6. Return the dough to a lightly floured work surface, and divide in half. Roll each half out to a large rectangle, a bit bigger than your loaf pans - about 10 inch. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle each with half of the filling.

7. With the short end of the rectangle facing you, fold in both of the long sides of the dough in. the roll the dough towards you, gently pressing forming a tight log. Roll back and forth to seal the seam. Place loafs in the prepared pans. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap, and let rest in a warm place, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425°F.

8. Brush the tops of the loafs with beaten egg, and transfer pans to the oven. Place pans onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper (this is very important unless you like scraping bakes sugar off of the bottom of your oven!) Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until loaves are golden brown, about 45 minutes. If the tops begin to brown too quickly, tent with aluminium foil. (I tent soon after it is in the oven to prevent browning too quick). Turn out the bread onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing. The bread can be kept, wrapped in plastic up to 4 days. I freeze the second loaf for later!!