Soft tangy bubbly buttery bread with a luscious cinnamon and raisin swirl running through it. With that spicy caramelly t's sweet and rich enough to almost be a dessert! I simply adore this bread!!! I do recommend a different scoring design though, since the result of mine was a bit too ... obviously feminine to say the least :D
The recipe, which I modified, is from: https://www.homemadefoodjunkie.com/sourdough-cinnamon-raisin-bread-recipe/
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:
Ingredients:
150 g sourdough starter at it's peak rise after feeding
325 g room temperature water (70°F)
25 g honey or white sugar
20 g melted unsalted butter
500 g white bread flour (high protein)
10 g uniodized salt
140-150 g raisins
140-150 g water for soaking raisins
100 g dark brown sugar (1/2 cup)
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon sugar (6 g)
1 egg
Directions:
Day 1:
Notes: I fed my starter at 6 am and it was doubled in size and passed the float test at 10 am. The room temperature of my kitchen was 55-60°F, the refrigerator I did my cold proof in was 38-40°F. Then the oven that I did the final proof/rise in was 73-79°F.
Add the water and starter to a bowl. Lightly mix together.
Then add the honey, melted butter, and flour. Mix well to combine, until there are no lumps or dry flour remaining, which takes about 5 minutes.
Cover and rest 30 minutes.
Sprinkle the salt over the dough and with wet hands squish it into the dough and mix to combine. This is tricky because the dough is sticky and takes about 5 minutes to do.
Cover and rest 1 hour.
Note: My dough temperature during the initial mix and through the last stretch and fold was about 70-72°F.
Four sets of stretch and folds: Do one set of 4 sets of stretch and folds every 30 minutes (so 2 hours total) Cover and rest between each set.
The dough should pass the windowpane test (mostly) by the end of the stretch and folds.
If you're doubling the recipe then divide it into two balls. Cover the bowl well and refrigerate (10-24 hours). I did 17 hours cold proof with the loaves seen below!
Day 2:
1 hour before you take the dough out of the fridge add the raisins to a jar and cover with an equal weight of water.
Take the dough out of the fridge and let warm up on the counter for 1 hour. At the end of this the raisins will have soaked for 2 hours, so drain them and pat dry.
Whisk an egg and set aside. Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar and set aside. Grease your 9x5" baking pan well with butter and set aside.
Remove the dough onto a large clean surface. Roll out into a ~10 by ~30 inch rectangle, basically as thin as you can get it. The dough is sticky so use a little flour if necessary. If it resists rolling out then let it rest for 5 minutes and try again.
Once rolled out, coat in a thin layer of egg wash (this acts like a glue).
Sprinkle the raisins on top evenly and smoosh in with your hands. Repeat with the cinnamon sugar (you may not need all the cinnamon sugar), spreading it evenly but leaving 1 inch uncovered on one end (see pictures below).
Smoosh the sugar in too and then begin to slowly but tightly roll the dough up toward the exposed end, sealing the sugar and raisins inside. Seal it well, then sort of smoosh the ends of the loaf together, closing the open swirl and shaping it into a tighter loaf (see picture below).
Use your wet or floured hands or a bench scraper to deposit the dough, seam side down, into the greased baking pan.
Cover the dough and rise in a warm place until about doubled in size and rising ~1 inch above the sides of the pan (about 3-4 hours). I use my oven with the light turned on. Note: you can store the egg wash in the fridge while the bread is rising, it will be used later.
When ready to bake, place a heat resistant tray on the bottom shelf and fill it with water (we want to create steam to get a crispy crust when baking). You can also add a baking tray on the center rack to place your loaf pan on (optional). Note: I have a back-left burner that emits excess heat so I cover that while preheating to create even more steam.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Also prepare a cup of water which will be poured into the oven to make more steam (optional but recommended).
Once the oven is preheated, lightly brush the loaf with egg wash and slice it with a sharp blade to help it expand while baking.
Working quickly, open the oven and put the bread pan on a middle rack/pan on the middle rack, pour in the cup of water on the bottom of the oven (optional). Quickly close the oven and reduce the temperature to 400°F.
Bake for 15 minutes with the steam. Then open the oven and remove the dish with water and let steam out of the oven. Close the oven and reduce the temperature to 375°F. Bake another 25-35 minutes, or until the loaf reaches 200°F internally.
Remove from the oven and pan and place the loaf on it's side on a wire rack to cool for at least 3 hours before slicing into (trust me, the texture is better this way!)
Can be kept at room temperature up to 4 days, or frozen in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag with the air sucked out in the freezer up to 1 month.
Makes one giant and delicious loaf!
Here I showed how I made the loaf! Keep in mind that I made a double batch of the dough because one half ended up being a regular sandwich loaf :)
Day 1:
This is what my starter looked like right before preparing the dough (it's at it's peak rise). For the last feed I gave it 100% bread flour.
And it passed the float test, so ready to start making the dough!
Add the starter and water to a large bowl. Then you'll mix them together before adding the butter, honey, and flour.
Before mixing in the flour.
After mixing the flour together. It will be sticky and difficult to work with. Now cover and rest 1 hour. Remember this is 2x as much dough since I was making two separate loaves.
After 1 hour it looked like this. Clearly puffier! Next we add the salt.
After sprinkling the salt on.
After mixing the salt in (with the help of some water). Now cover and let rest 30 minutes.
Before the first stretch and fold.
After the first stretch and fold. Now cover and rest 30 minutes.
Before the second stretch and fold.
After the second stretch and fold. Now cover and rest 30 minutes.
Before the third stretch and fold.
After the third stretch and fold.
Before the fourth and final stretch and fold.
After the fourth stretch and fold. It should pass the window pane test at this point.
Next I had to divide the dough since I was making 2 loaves, but skip this if you're making one loaf.
The cinnamon raisin dough before the long cold proof!
I wrapped both and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.
Day 2:
Before taking the dough out add water to some raisins (they will soak for 2 hours total)
After taking the dough out of the refrigerator and letting come to room temp for one hour.
Raisins have soaked for 2 hours and plumped up! Time to drain!
Drain.
And let dry for a little bit of time.
Make sure the raisins are drying, the cinnamon sugar is made, the pan is greased, and the egg wash is prepared while before you start working with the dough!
Take the dough out onto a clean surface.
And roll it out until it's a long thin rectangle!
Very thin :)
Lightly brush it all over with the egg wash.
Add the raisins and press into the dough.
Add the cinnamon sugar (leaving the one end exposed) and press it into the dough.
Begin rolling it up tightly and gently.
Once rolled up, mine was very uneven but I kind of fixed it in the next picture :)
I pinched the open ends closed and squished the dough around to make it more uniform. It's not perfect but that's okay!
Flip it seam side down into a greased baking tray. Now we have the final rise!
The breads rising (I was preparing the sandwich loaf at the same time).
After rising! Time to prepare the oven.
I had a pyrex dish with water on the lowest rack with a metal baking tray on the middle rack. I preheated the oven with both of these inside.
I also put a cast iron over my stovetop burner that releases steam to trap more steam for the first part of the bake!
Right before baking brush the loaf (loaves) with egg wash and score them.
Then bake for 15 minutes with the steam.
After the first 15 minutes remove the steam tray (and cast iron skillet on the stovetop if using). Then continue baking!
After baking! The cinnamon raisin loaf scoring looks a bit like a lady's privates... well oh well :D
Remember to remove it from the pan and leave it on it's side to cool!
So beautiful! Even with it's labia-likeness. It tastes amazing I promise!
Beautiful on the inside too!!!