A bread that's common in Newfoundland / the Maritimes of Canada, and it kinda blew me away! It's light, fluffy, a bit sweet, and has a great flavor coming from the harmony of the molasses and raisins. Growing up, I didn't love the taste of molasses on its own usually, but the Fancy molasses common in Canada is sweet enough to drizzle on this bread and just thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy!
If you want a denser, heartier bread, check out this Anadama molasses cornmeal bread from New England
The original recipe is from: https://www.rockrecipes.com/newfoundland-molasses-raisin-bread/
Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water (120 g)
1 Tbsp. white sugar
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (7.3 g)
3/4 cup milk, slightly warm (188 g)
1/2 cup fancy molasses (120 g)
1 large egg (50-55 g)
1 tsp. salt (6 g)
4 to 4 3/4 cups bread flour (560-660 g)
6 Tbsp. room temperature salted butter (85 g)
1 1/2 cups raisins (232 g)
Butter for greasing
Directions:
Soak raisins in water for about one hour before starting the recipe, strain well and set aside for later.
Mix the yeast, some of the sugar, and the warm water, and let rest 5-10 minutes to become foamy.
Add milk, molasses, the egg, and the salt and mix very well.
Now for the flour adding stage.
Add about 1 1/2 cups of the flour and mix well.
Then add more flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between each addition. You may not need all the flour.
Once the dough is more firm, take it out onto the counter and begin kneading, adding flour a bit at a time if it's very sticky. I needed about 4 3/4 cup/660 g.
Knead for about 5 minutes.
Then add the butter and mix it in. Once the butter is mixed in (it will get messy!), knead for about 10 minutes, or until you have an elastic soft dough.
Spread the dough out a bit and add the raisins. Fold the dough around the raisins, and begin kneading. Knead until the raisins are blended in, about 5 minutes.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until about doubled, about 2 hours.
Take the dough out onto a clean surface. Divide it in half, and for a traditional shape, shape it into 6 large buns for 2 9x5" greased pans (place the buns side by side). You can also make about 18 buns, or 14 large buns with the dough.
Once shaped, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, the bread loaf should rise about 1-2 inches above the pan. This takes 2-3 hours, mine needed 2 hours and 15 min.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake until 200°F internally, about 25 minutes for 9 buns, and 35-45 minutes for bread loaves.
Brush with butter and let cool in the pan about 5-10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely, 2-3 hours.
I absolutely love this bread on it's own, or to take it up a notch, having it with butter, honey, and molasses together is out of this world in my opinion! It's not too sweet, and would go well with savory food as well!
Notes:
1. You can definitely make this bread with regular molasses/unsulphured/Grandma's brand (U.S. brand) original molasses, it may come out more savory and with a stronger molasses flavor.
2. You can omit the raisins, the buns / bread will not be as big, but will still taste great!
The ingredients I used. If you use a stronger molasses you'll get a more savory intense flavor.
After mixing the yeast, sugar salt together.
After letting it rest and activate. It's foamy and ready to go!
Add the milk, egg, molasses, and salt.
And mix in.
Now we'll start gradually adding and mixing in the flour.
Until the dough is a little more stiff and less sticky.
Then we'll take it out and add the butter.
After mixing in the butter, still very wet, So I ended up adding more flour:
Adding more flour to the sticky dough.
After adding enough flour so it's less sticky and kneading it.
Flatten it and add raisins.
And knead the raisins in.
Place in a greased bowl and let rise.
After the first rise.
Dump it out.
Next you'll divide in half. I made 3 dough balls from one half for a loaf, and 9 dough balls from the other half for the buns:
Loaf before second rise.
Loaf after second rise.
After baking and brushing with butter. WOW
Buns before second rise.
Buns after second rise. Ready to bake!
After baking and brushing with butter. AMAZING
Cool on a wire rack.
Bun up close.
Bread crumb structure up close. Pretty good!
Soft and fluffy!!!