Rum-Raisin Bread

This Rum Raisin Bread is perfect for Sunday brunch. It's filled with rum soaked raisins, and topped with a rum flavored glaze.

 This rum raisin bread is so easy to make, and is such a stunning presentation with the drizzled glaze.

Cinnamon Raisin Struan Bread

This cinnamon raisin struan bread is loaded with handfuls of various grains, giving it a complex flavor. 

This cinnamon raisin struan contains uncooked polenta, rolled oats, bran, cooked brown rice, and buttermilk, along with raisins and a cinnamon swirl. It is a variation of the many harvest breads that Peter Reinhart, author of several books on bread and pizza, has created.

Power Bread

Power Bread got its name from its creator, Peter Reinhart. The bread is high in protein and fiber to "power" you through your day. Ingredients include whole grains, bran, raisins, flax seeds, and sesame seeds.

Flax seeds, in particular, have come into their own as a superfood, as "they are high in alpha-linolenic acid, and essential omega-3 fatty acid" (Reinhart). If you eat them whole, you will miss out on their benefits. In this recipe, they are soaked for several hours to start the germination process and activate their enzymes.

Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread

This cinnamon raisin oatmeal bread is super easy to make, and is the perfect bread for breakfast toast. It is also wonderful for French toast and peanut butter sandwiches.

There's something about toasted raisin bread spread with melty salted butter for breakfast.... and it's full of whole grains... a little healthy with your butter.

Fruit Focaccia | Tuesday's with Dorie

This fruit focaccia is so good for breakfast! It's great eaten unadorned on the day it is baked, and is excellent sliced in half, toasted, and buttered the next day.

The fruit is macerated in hot water for about three hours, and then the resulting liquid is used for the water in the bread. How cool is that?

Granola Energy Bars

Granola Energy Bars filled with toasted oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, coconut, and a mixture of dried fruit. 

Granola energy bars. From my kitchen. With brown rice syrup. Something is completely askew in the universe.

Stollen

Stollen is the German Christmas bread. According to Peter Reinhart, in the book, Bread Baker's Apprentice, the shape of the stollen symbolizes the blanket of the baby Jesus, and the colored fruits represent the gifts of the Magi. Dresden is considered the home of stollen and even hosts an annual stollen festival where they unveil a giant (huge!) loaf.

Golden Raisin and Fennel Sourdough Pocket Bread

These Golden Raisin and Fennel Sourdough Pocket Breads may look like muffins, but they are are actual sourdough breads baked in a muffin tin.

Tuscan Coffeecake

This Tuscan coffeecake was developed by PJ Hamel (of King Arthur Flour fame) after visiting an Italian bakery in Vermont. As she describes it, it was "Italian-Italian, not American-Italian."

While this is called a coffeecake, it is actually a yeasted bread filled with fruit, nuts, and lightly enriched with a bit of sugar and butter.. but not too much. It is brushed with a vanilla sugar mixture prior to baking to give it a nice crunchy glaze. It's reminiscent of panettone, without all of the fuss.

Only issue? How to evenly distribute the fruit throughout the loaf when shaping. I'll have to work on that.

Knowing that certain members of my family who shall remain nameless would probably not like the walnuts included in the original recipe, I substituted chopped dried apricots. I also substituted dried cherries for the dates called for in the original recipe. In addition, I added 1/8 tsp of Fiori de Sicilia, an Italian flavoring that combines the flavors and scents of vanilla and citrus.

Keep in mind that you will need to make the starter the night before making the bread. It can sit out on your counter for several hours to get bubbly and develop flavor. It's super easy so don't let the word "starter" stop you from trying this delicious bread.

This bread was chosen for the Avid Bakers Challenge for February. Each month, we are baking a recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. To see how other bakers fared, check out the Avid Bakers Challenge page. You'll find lots of delicious looking variations.

Tuscan Coffee Cake

Ingredients

Starter

1 cup / 4.25 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or European-Style Flour (I used the European style)
1/2 cup cool water
1/16 teaspoon instant yeast

Final Dough

All of the starter
2/3 cup water
2 3/4 cups / 11.7 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or European-Style Flour
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 tsp Fiori de Sicilia, optional

Add Ins

1 cup dried apricots, chopped
3/4 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup dried cherries, soaked in hot water and then drained

Glaze

2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon water

Instructions

1. Mix the starter ingredients in a one quart bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to sit overnight, until bubbly.
2. Mix all of the dough ingredients in a stand mixer or bread machine until smooth, about 7 minutes. 
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for about an hour (if your kitchen is really cold, you should let it rise longer). If it doesn't completely double, that's okay. 
4. Knead the fruit into the dough, and shape it into a ball. Place the ball into an oiled 9 inch cake pan and flatten it a bit, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for about 30 minutes. It should just crest over the top of the pan (the loaf will rise even more in the oven). 
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Mix the glaze ingredients and brush the top of the loaf with the mixture. 
7. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden and the interior of the loaf reaches 190 degrees F. 
8. Allow it to cool in the pan for five minutes. Remove it from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. 

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Whole Wheat Hazelnut and Raisin Bread

This whole wheat hazelnut and raisin bread is nutty, flavorful, with a hint of sweet. The hydration in the dough is from the water used to soak the raisins, and is the perfect match for the whole wheat flour.

This bread can be either be made into boules, batards, or formed into sandwich loaves as I did.

"What can I do with this hazelnut raisin bread?" you ask.

Toast it, spread it with fig jam, or make make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, or even tuna or chicken salad sandwiches (which I did). Whatever main course salad that you might make with hazelnuts and raisins would translate perfectly into a sandwich with this bread. Crazy good.

This bread calls for toasted hazelnuts. Finding the hazelnuts was the first hurdle. I had forgotten that they are also called filberts. As I expressed my frustration that I could not find hazelnuts in the mass quantities of bins of nuts at my local Sprouts Market, one of the employees very politely pointed out the filbert bin (with "hazelnuts" in very fine print) right in front of me. Sheepish grin. If you can't find hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans would work well too.

The other issue with hazelnuts is peeling them. They typically come with a thin dark skin that most recipes will require that you remove.

One way is to roast the hazelnuts with the skins on and then rub the skins off with kitchen towels, and demonstrated in this video.

Another way is to boil the hazelnuts in water that has added baking soda as demonstrated by Alice Medrich for Julia Child in this video.

Having tried the roasting method in the past, I opted to try the boiling method. While neither one is easy, the boiling method sure gets off ALL of the skin. Be sure to use a large pot, because the water/baking soda mixture will bubble up quite a bit.

Whole Wheat Hazelnut and Raisin Bread

Makes two 2-pound loaves

Ingredients

136 grams raisins (I used golden raisins)

618 grams water

454 grams whole wheat flour

454 grams bread flour

4 grams instant yeast

136 grams hazelnuts, peeled, roasted (at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes or so), and roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with water. Let soak for about 30 minutes.
2. Drain the water into another container (do not discard) and add enough water to bring the total weight to 618 grams
3. Add all of the ingredients except the raisins and hazelnuts to the bowl of a stand mixer and knead on the first speed for three minutes and on the second speed for 3 more minutes. 
4. Add the raisins and nuts and knead on low for about a minute to incorporate. Finish kneading by hand to evenly distribute the raisins and nuts. 
5. Allow the dough to rise in an oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap until doubled, about two hours, folding the dough over itself after one hour. 
6. Shape the dough into two loaves. If you are using bread pans, they should be 10 inches by 5 inches. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 70 minutes. 
7. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and prepare for steam. 
8. Bake the loaves for about 35 minutes, until they reach an internal temperature of about 200 degrees F. If the loaves are browning too quickly, lower the temperature to 425 degrees F and tent the loaves loosely with foil. 
9. De-pan and cool completely on a rack. 

This is the Bread of the Month (BOM) for December for the Artisan Bread Bakers Facebook group. The recipe was contributed by David of Hearth Baked Tunes.

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Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This sourdough cinnamon raisin bread is pretty phenomenal. It's loaded, I mean really loaded, with with plump raisins. I love the contrast between the sweet raisins and the mild sourdough. It makes the absolute best toast for breakfast (with butter of course).

The dough is fairly high in hydration, so it's a little sticky. When working with it, lightly flour your work surface and your hands, and be sure to have both a dough scraper and bench knife to work with the dough. Keep dipping your hands in flour. It's messy, but it's worth it.

You can control the amount of cinnamon sugar you add and cut back on the raisins if you like. I chose to go really light on the cinnamon sugar swirl but go full on with the raisins. When I am running late in the morning, two slices of this toast makes a quick and totally filling breakfast.

This bread takes about five hours to make (most of this time is inactive), but don't let that intimidate you. It is actually really easy. Just be sure to use freshly fed and bubbly sourdough starter.

The original recipe for this bread calls for a biga, which is a mix of flour, water, and a little bit of yeast that is allowed to ferment in the refrigerator overnight. I adjusted the flour and water for my 100% hydration sourdough starter. The recipe has been adapted from Amy's Bread, Revised and Updated: Artisan-style breads, sandwiches, pizzas, and more from New York City's favorite bakery.

For a sourdough raisin bread with no additional yeast, be sure to try Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread. 

Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

2 ounces warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)

1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

397 g ripe sourdough starter

13 ounces room temperature water

600 g unbleached all purpose flour

12 g Kosher salt

425 g dark raisins

1/4 C plus one T sugar mixed with 1 T cinnamon (I used only about a tablespoon of this mixture and reserved the rest for cinnamon toast)

Extra flour and water to make adjustments to the dough

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the warm water and yeast and let stand for about 3 minutes. 
2. Add the starter and room temperature water and stir until everything is dissolved. 
3. Add the flour and salt and continue to stir with a dough whisk or wooden spoon until you have a shaggy ball of dough. 
4. Knead with the dough hook for about four minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for for 20 minutes. 
5. Knead with the dough hook for about 5 minutes, adding flour or water by the tablespoon until the dough is tacky and elastic. The dough should be fairly sticky but just clear the sides of the bowl. 
6. Place the dough into an oiled dough rising bucket or bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise for 60 minute. 
7. At the 60 minute mark, reach into the bowl and gently push down on the dough. Pull the dough up from all four "sides" and stretch it and fold it over itself. Flip the dough over and place it seam side down. Re-cover the dough and allow it to rise for another 45 minutes, until doubled (mine was tripled). 
8. While the dough is rising, place the raisins in a bowl and add just enough warm water to reach just below the level of the raisins. 
9. Oil or butter two 9 inch by 5 inch bread pans and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and drain the raisins. 
10. Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Lightly flour your hands and press the dough into a 14 by 12 inch rectangle. With a bench scraper, cut the dough into two pieces. 
11. Sprinkle the pieces with the cinnamon sugar and then press the raisins into the dough. There are a lot of raisins. Just go with it. 
12. Roll up the dough pieces into logs and place them into the two bread pans, seam side down. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until doubled. 
13. Bake the loaves for 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 375 degrees F. 
14. Bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until the internal temperature of the bread reaches about 190 degrees F. If the loaves are getting too dark, tent with foil. 
15. Cool the loaves in the pans for 5 minutes, and then remove them from the pans and cool completely on cooling racks. 

Enjoy!

Submitted to Yeastspotting

Sourdough Bread with Walnuts & Raisins

This is great bread. I'm just saying. And, yay, I had all of the ingredients!

I was a little worried about the medium rye for a while. I have a written inventory of all of the different flours I've got in the house. Pretty organized, right? Except I couldn't find the book in which I wrote the inventory....

I found the dark rye, the white rye, the pumpernickel. Where is the medium rye? (first world problems!). I was getting ready to combine some dark and white rye (although I'm pretty sure that's not exactly a substitute, I'm not a rye expert) but then, eureka, I found it at the bottom of the garage refrigerator, a refrigerator that was purchased specifically to support my ingredient habit. If I had more room in my garage, I'm not ashamed to say that I would add a freezer.  Fortunately, reason prevails. So far. We still use the garage for the purpose for which it was intended. Cars. Imagine that.

There was also some additional drama. As I dumped the loaves out of the bannetons onto the baking stone, my oven began to go a little bit crazy. It suddenly insisted on baking on "convection roast" at the wrong temperature. I got it to bake (actually convection roast) at the correct temperature, but every time I opened the oven door, it would revert to 375 degrees F. I was going to spray the oven interior to add additional steam, but I was so freaked by the turn of events, that I skipped that. I did, however, fill a steam pan with boiling water.

A baker with a wacko oven? This is just not going to work. I definitely regret having just one oven (first world problems again).

Fortunately, the loaves came out beautifully. They baked a lot faster that the recipe described. Thank goodness for the instant read thermometer. The bread was getting really brown so I decided to take its temperature. This bread was ready way before it was supposed to be. The bread actually took about 15 minutes less time to finish baking.

Interesting. While I'm not happy with the turn of events, I might actually experiment with the convection bake and roast modes once we get this beast repaired.  Now, how will we get a technician out to the house to get this thing fixed in time for some baking projects I have urgently planned (more first world problems)?

This bread is "mixed method," which means it involves both natural yeast and commercial yeast. It takes two days to make. On the first day, I made the levain, which is made from a sourdough starter. On the second day, I mixed the levain into the rest of the ingredients. If your sourdough starter has not been fed for quite a while, feed it the day before you make the levain.

Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Raisins

Ingredients

Levain

82 grams unbleached all purpose flour

41 grams water

66 grams sourdough starter

Dough

308 grams unbleached bread flour

119 grams whole wheat flour

47 grams medium rye flour

3/4 tsp instant yeast

13 grams salt

All of the levain

341 grams water

95 grams coarsely chopped walnuts

95 grams raisins

Instructions

To make the levain:

Add the ingredients to a one or two quart bowl and mix until incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight. 

To make the bread:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk all of the dry ingredients except the raisins and walnuts. Add the levain and the water. Mix in the levain and the water with a large spoon or dough whisk. Mix with the dough hook on low or "stir" for one minute. Increase the speed to the next level and mix for 15 minutes. Lower the mixer speed to the lowest level and add in the walnuts and raisins. Mix for one minute, remove the dough, and knead by hand until fully incorporated. 

Place the dough into an oiled container and allow to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until almost doubled. 

Gently deflate the dough and divide into two even pieces. Shape into boules.

Allow to ferment for about 60 to 90 minutes, until doubled. 

Bake the loaves in a 450 degree oven on a baking stone with a steam pan for 40 to 50 minutes. 

Or maybe convection roast for 30 minutes?  

This recipe is the January bread of the month (the BOM) for the Facebook Artisan Bread Baker's group is Sourdough Bread with Walnut and Raisins. Darlene posted a photo of her bread and I asked her if she was willing to share the recipe with the group for the BOM. Thank you Darlene for a wonderful contribution.