Rustic Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Brooke the Cook in WI's Note:

I looked and looked for a cinnamon raisin bread with wheat flour that wasn't for the ABM and couldn't find one.... so I made my own! Makes a very large loaf or two small loaves. **NOTE** This recipe calls for instant yeast! If you use regular active yeast, you will need to adjust the amount of yeast, your dough will take longer to raise, the water temperature will need to be reduced and method of mixing should include proofing the yeast before adding it to the mixture. Both poor reviews came when reviewer used active yeast - I suggest only using instant yeast unless you are an experienced bread maker (I am not, thus why I use the instant yeast, its much more forgiving).

• Total Time: 2 hrs 55 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs 35 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 16

• 2 1/2 cups bread flour, plus
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups water, hot 120-130 degrees
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup sugar-free maple syrup
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 cup oatmeal

Directions:

1. In your mixer, combine 1 1/2 cup bread flour, yeast, cinnamon, and salt.
2. Heat water, honey and maple syrup in a saucepan over low heat until it reaches 120-130 degrees.
3. Using low speed, slowly add water mixture to flour mixture. Mix on medium speed until there are no lumps, about 2-3 minutes.
4. With your mixer on low speed, add wheat flour and oatmeal half a cup at a time. Then add remaining bread flour half a cup at a time until dough clears the side of the bowl. Dough will be sticky.
5. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until dough is smooth (apx 5 minutes) adding the raisins as you go along. Add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time as necessary.
6. Turn into oiled bowl and flip dough so that top of dough is oiled. Cover and let rise until double, approximately 60-90 minutes.
7. Using lightly oiled hands, turn out dough and shape into 2 small round loaves and place on greased baking sheet OR 1 large loaf and place in 9x5 bread ban, cover and let rise 60-90 minutes.
8. If you like a softer crust, brush tops of loaves with oil.
9. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 40-45 minutes. Check bread after 30 minutes and cover with foil if its getting too dark on top. If making two smaller loaves, they may be done sooner.
10. Remove bread from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Reviews

[MollyJ]

I had actually made another cinnamon raisin bread on the web site and thought it was good but I liked the wheat flour in this one. I didn't read your comments, Brooke, until after I had my loaf raising but I used active dry yeast and mixed it with the flour. I did not get a high rising loaf but that is all right with me. I very much like taste, texture and weight of this bread. I think the next time I make it, I will proof my yeast and see if it changes anything but I liked it the way it was pretty well. Also, I do not have a heavy duty mixer so I mixed it by hand. Possibly mixing it with the mixer might break down the oatmeal a bit more but I really liked it the way it was. I've never thought of a cinnamon raisin loaf as good with sandwiches but this does really well.

[Ty's Kitchen]

Yummy. I used steel cut oats and golden raisins. Next time I will dig in the pantry and find the dark raisins or use a combination. I doubled the recipe and got 3 nice sized loaves. I thought about adding the swirl as other reviewers did but I am lazy and didn't. This bread is really delicious.

[Katzen]

Fabulous loaf of wheat & cinnamon bread! I absolutely love it, Brooke! I threw this in the breadmaker, including the raisins (oops!) and then added a swirl per Bayhill's review. This recipe yields a gorgeous loaf that was busting out of my 9x5" pan! This will be my go-to loaf from now on for a healthy cinnamon raisin bread... only I'll remember to put the raisins in late, and will increase the ingredients in the swirl, so it will be more pronounced! I did use dark maple syrup (Canadian Dark) for more pronounced maple flavour, and it was real maple syrup, not sugar free, too. Thanks, Brooke, for a fantastic loaf! Made for PRMR Tag.