I love cinnamon raisin breads. I make them often and find them to be the perfect breakfast treat, with just enough sweetness to not require jam, just enough fruit to constitute more than just carbs for breakfast.
I've baked many different raisin bread recipes. Some I find to be too sweet, others too heavy on the whole wheat (though white flour alone I don't find that satisfying either). This recipe, from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread, is one of the best raisin breads I have found: I particularly enjoy how the oats on top of the loaf toast up nicely.
(Despite my initial misgivings about his attitude toward amateur bakers, I do have to say that all of the recipes from Hamelman's book that I have baked have been exceptionally good. I find myself thumbing through it almost as often as The Bread Baker's Apprentice these days.)
One interesting thing Hamelman mentions in a side note is that chemical compounds in bark-based spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg inhibit yeast activity, so more yeast than typical is required. This is a good thing to keep in mind when adapting a normal bread into a cinnamon raisin bread, something I do often.
And a warning: this recipe makes three substantial loaves. It pushed the capacity of the standmixer. You may want to consider halving the quantities.
Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread
Makes 3 loaves
24 oz (5 1/2 cups) bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
8 oz (1 7/8 cups) whole wheat flour
5.3 oz (1 5/8 cups) rolled oats
20 oz (2 1/2 cups) water
3.5 oz (3/8 cups) milk
2.4 oz (3 tablespoons) honey
2.4 oz (5 1/2 tablespoons) vegetable oil
.7 oz (1 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon) salt
.37 oz (1 1/4 tablespoon) instant yeast
.5 oz (2 tablespoons) ground cinnamon
10.6 oz (2 cups) soaked and drained raisins
At least half an hour before you begin, soak the raisins in warm water.
Doing so plumps them, which makes them softer and moister in the loaf and also prevents the ones on the surface of the loaf from burning. Just prior to adding the raisins to the loaf, you'll pour the water out.
Next, soak the oats in the 2 1/2 cups water for 20 to 30 minutes.
If you are using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, which I did, withhold 1/2 cup of the water to proof the yeast in.
Mix the flours, yeast, milk, honey, oil, salt, and cinnamon into the oats. Mix well, until all of the flour is hydrated. Knead by hand for 5 minutes or in a standmixer for 3, then mix in the drained raisins. Knead or mix until the raisins are distributed throughout the dough.
Cover the bowl of dough and allow it to rise for 1 hour. Then remove the dough from the bowl and fold it, degassing it gently as you do. The images below illustrate this technique.
Place the dough on a floured work surface, top side down.
Fold the dough in thirds, like a letter, gently degassing as you do.
Fold in thirds again the other way.
Flip the dough over, dust off as much of the raw flour as you can, and place it back into the bowl.
Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise in bulk again for another hour. Then divide the dough in thirds and shape the loaves.
Place each shaped loaf into a greased bread pan.
Spray or gently brush each loaf with water and sprinkle with some more oats.
Cover the pans and set aside to rise until the loaves crest above the edge of the pans, roughly 90 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450. Place the loaves in the center rack of the oven. After 5 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 375. Rotate the loaves 180 degrees after 20 minutes, and bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, until the tops of the loaves are nicely browned, the bottoms of the loaves make a hollow sound when tapped, and the internal temperature of the loaf registers above 185 degrees when measured with an instant read thermometer.
Yeah, ok, you are supposed to let the loaves cool before slicing. I couldn't though, and I have no regrets!
Related Recipes: Sweet Corn Raisin Bread, Maple Oatmeal Bread, Struan Bread.
Comments
My only mistake was making just half the recipe, as this is REALLY TASTY! I approximated and didn't drain the raisins as thoroughly as I should have and was surprised at how well the loaves came out. This recipe appears to be foolproof. Next week I'm going to substitute pecan bits for the oat topping because my son requested it. Thanks!
I have made this twice...luckily i bought a dough hook that has a wide flat piece at the top and it kept the "blob" from overtaking the KA mixer (fondly referred to as the cement mixer...almost met it's match here though!). I will probably do two loaves the next time as I am spoiling the people at work. I had no problems with the recipe or the rise...great!!!
Thumbing through Jeffrey Hamelman's book this morning I was looking for a bread I could make for my sister in law . She loves to browse the local rummage and garage sales , coming up with some great deals from time to time. Her latest find was an unused 14x16 oven stone. Thinking of me she forked over the entire $3.00 they were asking for it, knowing that I'd been looking to create a little more baking real estate in my oven. I've priced these locally and on the net and the best price I've been able to find is in the $55-60 range, so for 3 bucks the least I could do was tell her I'd make a few loafs of bread for her over the coming few weeks in appreciation of her thoughtfulness. When I asked what she'd like me to make she said "surprise me, but please, nothing sour" . I decided on Hamelman's Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin bread thinking it would be something she'd enjoy with her coffee in the morning. As usual with Jeffrey's formulas, this one came together nicely, my only regret is not getting it in the oven sooner. Although it got a decent spring , I know that had I put it in even 10 minutes earlier I would have had a higher, tighter loaf. Regardless, it baked off fairly well, has a good crust and a soft crumb typical of a semi rich dough. I wondered a bit about the percentage of cinnamon as I was scaling it, thinking it seemed a bit much but it's a perfect balance for the other components and the overall flavour of the bread. I'm just glad I made a large enough mix to make a loaf for my sister in law and myself. This is easily the the best raisin bread I've ever tasted .
Franko
It's funny, I made this bread just this last week too; is it the coming fall weather and everyone wants a cozy bread for making toast and drinking tea or coffee?
Here's what I wrote on my bread blog:
Though I haven't been blogging much I've still been baking all along for my family's daily needs. The last recipe I tried was from Hamelman's Bread book called Oatmeal Bread with Cinnamon and Raisins, on page 236. It's great - the overall cinnamon taste is what makes it wonderful, especially for toast.
I followed the recipe fairly well with my usual two-thirds amount. The only substitution was for the water ingredient, I used part drained water from the soaked raisins. Hate to waste all that flavorful water. Also, I added cinnamon sugar when shaping the loaf to form a small swirl, just a little bit to get a little more sweetness in there.
My dough made two loaves, about 24 ounces each. The recipe said to put that amount in a 9x5 pan, and I did this for one of the loaves but the other I put in an 8x4 loaf pan. The amount of dough seemed too small for a 9x5 pan. All in all, they both rose and baked well, dark crusts as Hamelman said they would and both seemed to fit the pans.
Next time I think I'll just use the 8x4 pans and . . . not forget to put the oatmeal on top.
Made this yesterday and it came out marvellously.
I found that I did need more liquid, so I used some of the raisin water. Also I worked in the raisins by kneading them in.
I also used one tablespoon of Chinese Cinnamon and one of Ceylonese Cinnamon which gave it a nice flavor. I think I might add some more cinnamon to it the next time to try to compensate for the lack of any other sweetener in the bread.
I had a go at this recipe yesterday. I thought the recipe sounded good, especially all the feed back. The raisin bread my wife buys has a cinnamon swirl in it so I thought I'd try that as well. I had a recipe from the Kitchen Aid mixer book and thats the method I used to put the cinnamon sugar into the loaf. It says to spread soft butter then spread the sugar cinnamon mixture on the dough, then roll up the loaf. Before I even baked the loaf I was having some reservations about the butter, thinking it would make the dough come apart which you can see in the photo it did just that. Does anyone know how to do it without having the separation like in my photo? I was thinking next time just put the sugar mixture on without the butter. One of you people will know I'm sure. Any feed back is appreciated.
By the way... I used "KipperCat" calculations for two loaves and it worked out great... thanks for converting the recipe over to gram measurements.
Ready for the oven.
After baking.
Inside the finished loaf.
BBA there is a cinnamon raisin loaf that is similar to this that I have made many times. His method suggests flattening or rolling out the dough, then sprinkling the sugar cinnamon mixture without spreading butter on the dough first. I have never had a separation problem using this technique. I have seen the butter first method suggested by other bakers but have never tried it. Some of them might have had better luck than you did.
You might want to omit the butter next time. If you have the same problem you might want to try a tighter shaping technique.
Good Luck.
Michael
Funny you should mention "tighter shaping". I actually rolled out the dough to approx. 14" x 9" rectangle before I applied the butter. I was concerned that rolling it out might cause a problem as well, but to my pleasant surprise the dough rose in the pans beautifully. When I put the bread in the oven for baking I mentioned to my wife about the possibility of the separation, thinking that the dough doesn't stick in the bowl when its lightly oiled.
The next time I will for sure omit the butter from the plan. Other than the obvious the bread sure tasted good!!!
Wow , this was a good recipe.
I only made a 1/3 batch (single loaf) and it was great.
I made it verbatim except I used maple syrup in place of honey (love that maple)
This one is a keeper.
pp
I am a beginning baker so tried to follow the directions to the letter. Got no rise out of a 1 loaf batch. Found Mini Oven's 1/4 cup milk rescue plan in time to save the bread.
Looking at the original recipe, the amount of yeast is less than the amount of salt and cinnamon.
Is that right?
Thanks!
Patrick
Yup. Slow rise, low yeast is where it is at.
At what stage would you retard? Overnight rise in the loaf pans (in the fridge), then bake out of the oven.
Ive done this with other breads with great success but not sure about this one.
This is a bread that I made with yeast, leftover oatmeal, milk, raisins, pecans, and the cinnamon smear from KA.
It's delicious, rich and soft, and it's hard to stay away from for long.
Patricia
I could scream! The flavor is amazing. The dough rose very well initially but after shaping rose just a little in the pans and then stalled and then there was no oven spring. The breads look NOTHING like the high loaves in the pictures above. Dense and small.
This thread is so old I wonder if anyone is looking. To those who succeeded what could have gone wrong?
What flour did you use? I used KA bread flour and KA white whole wheat flour.. Would the choice of flour be it?
Why does the later proofing not work well? Lack of gluten formation? Yeast dying? Should I use more yeast and/or add VWG?
Also does this bread, this big amount of dough, really need only five mins of kneading? The dough came together nicely in a few mins and was soft and smooth but to me it felt like it needed more kneading. I kneaded maybe 15 mins when it got springier. I have very little experience with whole wheat or oatmeal in bread. Could I have over-kneaded ?
I don't want to give up on this recipe....people call it fool-proof UGH:(
Any help would be way so appreciated.
Thanks.
Katyajini
came out great, I use KA bread and wheat. I left the dough a little on the sticky side as I live in the high desert and have trouble to form loves.
Swimmer (Tom)
I suspect the cinnamon could be fault for rising discrepancies.
Two reasons: 1) Cinnamon contains an fungicide, yeast is a fungus, too much cinnamon can hamper yeast or even kill it.
2) Cinnamon products vary. I was quite surprised to find what I thought to be just ground cinnamon cut with a little more than 50% sugar the last time I bought it. Half the container was sugar! Only about 2% sugar occurs naturally. I quickly started comparing brands getting very irritated.
Cinnamon comes from the soft underlying bark of a cinnamon tree and is wood, ground cinnamon is sawdust. It will not melt unless sugar has been added. If you happen to have tried this recipe and failed, it could be that the cinnamon was pure and not cut with sugar.
Try heating your cinnamon and see if it melts. If it doesn't melt, use less spice in the dough recipe. Moisten or combine with some sugar to make a "swirl" in the loaf when shaping. (Pat out the dough flat and smear or sprinkle on the spice and roll tightly together.) See if that improves the rise.
I made this today. While I was finishing weighing out all the dry ingredients, my 3yo came to "help". He knocked into the container of cinnamon causing it to fall on the floor and pop the top open which started a chain reaction that lead to a HUGE mess. He also knocked into a jar which fell onto the edge of the bowl that contained the soaking oatmeal then propelling it into the air and inevitably shattering on the kitchen floor. Ironically, this happened to be the last oatmeal I had in the house!
Two hours later, after a trip to the store to replace the tragically lost oatmeal and retrieving the other 3 kids from school, I was able to continue making the dough. For the forst time in quite awhile, I had 2 fabulous proofings and OVEN SPRING!! My 10 yo exclaimed "Oh my gosh, what happend to it?"
Thank you so much for this recipe!
Wow, sounds like a lot of excitement in your kitchen! I made this one this weekend too, but it went much more routinely than it did for you. Good stuff, I agree, and incredible oven spring if you time it right.
Enjoy!
-Floyd
Wow! I love those kind of "all's well that ends well" stories. Of course, I don't envy you having to clean up the cinnamony mess but I do envy the oven spring. It's always so satisfying when that happens.
-Elizabeth
Hello ...
Thank you for the nice recipe. This is my first participation and I am really happy with the results . I followed the 2 loaves ingredients according to KipperCat and they turned wonderful. However, they took a bit longer in the oven.
I have been baking successfully from Hammelman’s Book, and this was on my list to try out. But I was a little reluctant due to the cinnamon reaction. So went through every post here and gathered some courage to go ahead and bake it. Will share the results.
Hi. Looks like a great recipe. I've just converted it to grams, and intend to have a go. But about those raisins. I wonder why so often we soak raisins in water and throw the water away. Instead, I heat the raisins in a little water or brandy until the raisins are plump and the water/brandy is just about gone. Then I take them off the heat, toss them in a bowl, put a lid on the bowl and voilà: I get to keep all the raisin goodies. In this case, if you don't like my system, you could at least use the soaking water as part of the water in the recipe.
This bread is so good!! I made it several times and I love eating it for breakfast with a thin layer of honey. I also make a "non-breakfast" version of it just omitting raisins and cinnamon so I can have it for lunch or dinner. Thank you for sharing!
I've made several versions of cinnamon raisin bread, including the recipe in BBA and a sourdough hearth loaf with walnuts I'd thought that BBA was the best one, and it is, for a swirl type. Today I used the recipe in ounces, but also prefer to measure in grams. This recipe is delicious, quick, and easy.
Looks like a lovely loaf (though I will cut the cinnamon by at least half -- not surprised it's interfering with the yeast at 1.3% of the flour weight), but why do you, like so many others, throw out the water you've soaked the raisins in? If we don't care about the gobs of flavor we're chucking out, we should consider at least all those anti-oxidants on the grape skins that are about to go down the drain. Stay your hands, folks, and use the raisin water to soak the oats in. Dreadful waste, otherwise. Thanks for sharing the recipe, though!
raisin water because I've seen the way raisins dry. I wash the dust off. I also wash the dust off before I soak them in anything stronger.
I also rinse my loose tea in cold water first before adding boiled water. Tastes better too. Why? I've seen how it dries.
Making loaves tomorrow, two weeks before Ground Hog's Day. Yay!
Tip: For a nice shine on the loaf, brush lightly with cream or half and half milk while loaf is still hot.
This is a great recipe, tried it just a little while back. Gave loaves to each of my daughters and they enjoyed it toasted.
So I am in the process of making this recipe for the first time right now. Doing my first rise but the dough smells AMAZING! I'll let you know how it turns out.
Cheers
Jay