Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread

I had a craving for French toast made with old-fashioned cinnamon swirl raisin bread. After a few minutes in my local market looking for the bread all I found was this tiny loaf with skinny little slices. I checked out the bakery and they didn’t make what I was looking for either. I wanted a big hearty loaf of buttery sweet bread with spirals of cinnamon and big fat plump raisins. I wanted to be able to cut thick slices when I was making French toast, so I decided to bake my own. Here is the recipe I developed. I hope you will try it some chilly fall day, it is so good.

Dough:

4 cups bread flour

1 tsp salt

¾ cup warm water (about 110 degrees)

1 package active dry yeast

½ cup whole milk

¼ cup salted butter

¼ cup sugar

¾ cup raisins

1 large egg

Filling

¼ cup salted butter

½ cup sugar

3 teaspoons cinnamon

Combine flour and salt in a bowl and set aside. Place water, yeast and 1 tsp sugar in a small bowl stir and set aside.

Using a small sauce pan scald milk (do not boil).

You should just start seeing tiny bubbles on the side of the pan. Remove pan from heat then add butter, sugar and raisins to the pan.

Stir until butter melts. Allow milk to cool until you can comfortably stick your finger in the pot. Then whisk egg into milk mixture. At this point retrieve the yeast mixture; it should have a layer of foam on top if your yeast is good. Strain milk mixture into yeast mixture. Reserve the raisins on the side.

Whisk yeast and milk for 1 minute to combine. Pour liquid into bowl of a stand up mixer (use paddle attachment) set on low and gradually add the flour until fully combined. Remove dough from bowl to a floured counter and knead for 5 minutes adding more flour if dough is too sticky.

Spread out dough on counter to a 10 x 10 square.

Top the dough with the reserved raisins.

Fold dough in half onto itself and then fold in half again.

Knead dough a few more times to incorporate the raisins. Roll dough into a ball and place in a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size. Roll out the dough to 9” x18”.

Melt butter and brush ¾ of the melted butter on the top of the dough. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle ¾ of the cinnamon mix on top of the buttered surface of the dough.

Starting from the 9” end, roll the dough like a jelly roll. Place roll in a buttered 9” bread pan (seam side down).

Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. After 1 hour remove plastic wrap, and brush top with remaining butter then sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture. Bake the bread for 35 minutes then remove from the oven. Remove bread from the pan and allow the bread to cool on a rack for 1 hour before slicing.

To make French toast I slice the bread the day before. The next day I dip slices of the bread into an egg, milk, cinnamon and vanilla mixture and pan fry in butter until golden brown. Nothing says “Good morning” like French toast made from scratch. The Raisin bread also tastes great toasted with butter.

Irish Soda Bread Revisited

This is an heirloom recipe that my mom makes every year for St. Patrick’s Day. Now this recipe has been handed down to me by my mother and it is my job to make sure this tradition stays alive in my family. This recipe was given to my mother by a neighbor and friend Rosie Redmond over 30 years ago. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I am reposting this recipe in memory of my mom who passed away 9/11/2013, she would always have a few loaves of bread on the kitchen counter to give away to family members come St. Patrick’s Day. That is an “Heirloom Memory”.

4 cups un-sifted All Purpose Flour 

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. Baking Soda

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

1+1/2 cups Buttermilk

2 eggs

1 stick Butter-softened

1 cup Raisins 

1+1/2 Teaspoons Caraway seeds  (optional but I think it adds a great flavor to the bread)

2  – (8) inch round cast iron fry pans or cake pans, greased and floured

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, toss flour mixture with hands (this give bread a light and airy consistency).

Cut in softened butter to flour mixture, using hands or a pastry cutter.  Until evenly distributed.

Add raisins and caraway seeds. Toss with hands to mix thoroughly. Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Add buttermilk and blend well.

Pour egg/buttermilk mixture into flour mixture. Blend well with a spoon. The dough should be heavy but not too wet. (If it seems too dry, add a little more buttermilk) If too tacky to handle, add a little bit of flour, so that you can mold it to shape.

Divide batter between 2 prepared pans.

Dust hands generously with flour and mold dough into a round loaves. Dust top generously with flour. Using the wrong end of a fork cut a deep cross “X” into the dough. This is the cross of St. Patrick. This will prevent the bread from cracking, and will give it a traditional look.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until well browned (knife comes clean). Cool on a rack.

Note** By chance, I found out, that when I baked this bread in a cast iron fry pan, the bread rose higher than the one baked in the cake pans.