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.

Sofrito – Puerto Rican Green Gold

Sofrito is a mixture of peppers, onions, garlic and herbs that is used as a flavoring in many Puerto Rican rice, bean and meat dishes. I always keep a supply in my freezer. Sofrito recipes are like finger prints no two recipes are the same, this is how my family makes it.

Sofrito Recipe:

2 large green or red pepper – stemmed, seeded and chopped

24 Aji Dulce peppers stemmed, seeded and chopped or 2 Cubanelle peppers stemmed, seeded and chopped*

2 medium onions (large diced)

6 cloves garlic (peeled and crushed)

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves

4 leaves culantro (optional)

1/2 cup vegetable oil or light olive oil

 Place all ingredients into a food processor and process for 10 seconds.  Save sofrito by freezing in ice-cube trays or plastic cups then placing them into large zip-lock freezer bag for future use. Sofrito is a great marinade for grilled meats and for seasoning bean dishes. I measure about 1/4 cup in each plastic cup.

*Aji Dulce Peppers are small peppers that resemble a Scotch Bonnet pepper but they are a sweet not hot. Cubanelle peppers are also known as Italian frying peppers.