Cinnamon Raisin Bread

No doubt about it, I'm on a bread kick. I've been itching to bake bread. The unusual 90 degree weather, which I thoroughly enjoyed as did my tomatoes and squash, precluded me from turning on the oven. It was hot enough without the oven on, and I was not going to contribute more heat on a Spare the Air day. On the first cool day, I was ready to dive in again.

While I wait for Kneadlessy Simple to become available at the library, I have to make due with recipes from my existing cookbooks. Sigh. What to make?! So many choices not enough running to justify carb over load. I need to be judicious. I eat a lot of crusty cranberry nut bread. It's versatile, being good as both as a sweet and savory. I love it with both butter or peanut butter and sardines, not together, of course! Yummy.

I settled on Cinnamon Raisin which is not exactly the crusty cranberry nut bread but a great bread too. I found this recipe on Life's a batch and then you bake which she found on Allrecipes.com and modified. Here's my recipe so that you don't have to find two sources, like I did!

This baby rose like it was nobody's business. When I rolled it up, the dough filled out so I wasn't sure what it would be like waiting for it to "double" in 45 minutes. Perhaps I didn't needed to punch it out more?

This bread was moist and while not super sweet, I will omit the honey next time around. Friends loved it! Great with butter and a cup of tea in the morning!

Makes 1 large loaf

Ingredients
- 3/4 c warm water
- 2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
- 3/4 c warm milk
- 4 T honey
- 2 T vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 c all purpose flour
- 2 c white whole wheat flour (the original called for whole wheat)
- 1 c raisins (the original recipe calls for 1/3 c raisins which I followed and found that there was 1 raisin every other slice)

Filling
- 2-3 T butter, melted
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 c brown sugar

Preparation
1. Place the warm water and honey in large bowl. Sprinkle in yeast, stir until dissolved and let stand until creamy.

2. Add the warm milk, salt, and 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; blend well. Stir in white whole wheat flour and mix well.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Note: if you use white whole wheat or whole wheat, the surface may still be rough; this is normal!

4. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and turn the dough to grease the top. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

5. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Punch the dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface.

6. Roll out dough until about 1/2-1" thickness and spread melted butter, then top with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up the dough and tuck in the ends. Roll tightly so that you get more of a cinnamon swirl when you slice into your bread. Form into a loaf and place into the prepared pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

7. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until top is golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Remove loaf from the pan and cool on a wire rack.