Sunday, August 25, 2013

Raisin Bread



My daughter and her boyfriend came home from college this weekend.  We've had a great visit and it is so good having a few more mouths to feed.  We were perusing the grocery store yesterday and Rachel and her boyfriend were admiring the raisin bread in the bread aisle.  I told them not to get it, so I could try making some.  I've been wanting to try making homemade raisin bread for quite some time.  I love toast made with raisin bread. 

I have a special love of food and farm blogs and lately I've been loving a blog called Chickens in the Road.  Suzanne has a post on raisin bread and her picture of raisin toast just made me CRAVE it.  Suzanne's post is found HERE

I used my own sandwich bread recipe, added one egg, a half of a cup of raisins and one teaspoon of cinnamon to the liquid ingredients in my bread recipe.  I used my bread machine for the dough but you could do it by hand just as well.  It turned out perfectly!  My daughter and I made toast with it this morning.  She ate hers with honey and I ate mine with butter.  Mmmmmm...  Make some and you will know what I'm talking about.

Here's how I made Raisin Bread AT HOME MY WAY:

Raisin Bread

1 cup warm water (hot but no hurt - should feel like hot bath water)
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon yeast (1 packet)
1/4 cup oil

1 egg (beaten)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
3 cups AP flour or bread flour (unbleached is best)

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
  • In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure the very warm water (1 cup), stir in yeast, sugar. Set a timer for 10 minutes. It will start bubbling and at the end of 10 minutes, will look like a big glass of root beer with a tall soft, frothy foam on top. Add the oil, cinnamon, and beaten egg, stir.  Add 1/2 cup raisins and stir gently again. and Dump in the pan of the bread machine.

  • Next add your flour and top with the salt. (I realize your bread machine may say to do this in a different order, but do it this way and you will have a perfect loaf.)

  •  Set your bread machine to the dough setting.

  •  And the end of this cycle (when it is "ready"), dump the dough directly into a sprayed/prepared bread pan.  Press the dough lightly until it fills the bread pan. 

  • I did brush on a mixture of egg yolk + a little water to give the loaf that deep sheen.  I saw that idea on the Hickery Holler Farm Blog and it works like a charm.  That step is purely optional and the bread tastes no different because of it.  Just looks prettier!

  • Let rise 1 hour or until it rises up out of the loaf pan by an inch or so.
Mine looked like this when it was READY to go into the oven:

  • Preheat your oven completely before putting the loaf in -to 350 degrees.

  • Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. (check at 25 minutes).

Fresh from the oven:

  • Let it sit in the pan about 5 minutes. Then, carefully (because the loaf is so soft) take it out of the pan and let it cool on a cooling rack. Let it cool completely and then slice using an electric knife or large surrogated knife.

 

This morning I sliced the bread with my electric knife and we had a delicious breakfast.  For sure this is a keeper recipe!


  • One more hint is to let your bread cool completely before slicing and to let it cool completely before bagging it up. 

Enjoy!
 
Gina