You may have noticed the new logo. I had the day off today and decided to put my rusty graphic design skills to good use. I also decided to take the time to make a loaf of Raisin Bread. Now I am not much of a sweet tooth, however I do have a soft spot in my heart for a toasted slice of cinnamon raisin bread with lots of butter. So we will take a turn on the sweeter side of the bread arts and since it has been so sunny and warm (finally), I will make a dessert bread. I guess it is pretty culturally appropriate for me, since cakes, pastries and all things sweet and buttery are a well-known (and much celebrated) part of Austrian cuisine. Apple Strudel is possibly the most perfect dessert ever imagined and I guess points to the very simple and less complicated nature of most Austrian sweet things. I feel raisin bread is a perfect ode to that no frills sense of baked aesthetic.
Soul Thrashing Black Bakery: Skeletonwitch, Beyond the Permafrost (2007)
Day 1
So I had a really good recipe for this bread from the superlative "Crust and Crumb" by Peter Reinhart, but I've decided to go rogue on this one and just make up my own recipe. It may be a bush-league move on my part, but I am going with it.
-1 cup Unbleached Bread Flour
-1 cup Cold Water
-2 tsp. Yeast
-1 tbsp. Honey
Combine the yeast and honey with water and mix thoroughly. Let the yeasty water stand for 10 minutes to start up the fermentation. Add the flour and make a wet dough. Cover with cling film and let sit in a warm place for a few hours, then refrigerate overnight.
-2 cups Raisin (any kind will do, I used golden raisins)
-1/2 cup Steel Cut Oats
-Water
This step can be done the night before or a few hours before you plan to make the dough. Soak the raisins and the oats (in separate containers) with enough water to cover by a few centimeters. Cover and let sit in the fridge if you are preparing these the night before. The soaking will help the oats soften for the bread making and the raisins will benefit from the extra water by not burning on the surface of the dough during baking.
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A picture of my beard
(cause i forgot to take one of the dough)
Bread rhymes with beard..... |
Day 2
Baking day has come. Some of the more intrepid amongst you may have taken note that the previous few entries involved breads that required numerous days to prepare and ferment. This extra preparation time may seem a bit much for the casual baker, however I will say that it has yielded far more flavorful bread. This doesn't mean that recipes I provide with shorter fermentation times produce terrible bread, more that the ones with longer production schedules will produce breads with that little bit of extra love. That being said this raisin bread is a quick 2-day affair (even possibly 1 day if you use some baking powder) and since it is packed full of raisin/cinnamon/sugar flavor you don't need a long fermentation time, because those strong flavors would overpower the subtle ones gained through fermentation (run-on sentence?....take that English education).
The Dough
-The Starter from the previous day (removed from the fridge at least 1 hour before)
-3 1/2 cup Unbleached Bread Flour (possibly more depending on wetness of dough)
-2 cups Soaked Raisins
-1/2 cup Soaked Steel Cut Oats
-1/4 cup Sugar
-1/2 tsp. Salt
-1/4 cup Unsalted Butter (softened)
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. This kneading process will be pretty sticky and messy at first, but be advised to just stick with it (bad puns anyone....!?!) and the dough will start to smoothen and form into a nice (but still wet) dough. Now place the dough in a bowl, cover and allow it to sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes, then transfer the bowl to the refrigerator for 1 hour to firm up. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and flatten it out into a flat rectangular shape. Dont' be too forceful as to not remove all the nice gases that have built up inside.
Next you will mix together 1 tsp. of cinnamon with 4 tsp. sugar to make....cinnamon sugar! Sprinkle generously over the top surface of the flattened dough.
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| I found the macro function on my camera! |
Now that the dough has been loved by sugar and cinnamon, you need to reform the dough into your bread shape. If you have a bread pan you can easily just roll up the dough from one end and plonk it (if I keep up with that kinda speak I will be wearing custom made trucker hats and calling everyone "bruva" in no time.....) inside your (greased) pan. I do not own one of these pans so I will do it another way. I rolled up the dough half way from both ends and then pinched it all together to form what I would venture to call a ball. It looked like this.
Take that dough ball and plonk (!) it into your lightly floured breadform or board (if you do not have one) and cover with a plastic bag and let it proof for a few hours or until it has risen to twice its volume (roughly).
Preheat the oven to 475 F and place an empty roasting pan on the shelf beneath your baking stone. After the bread has risen and everything looks as it should, turn the dough out onto a floured baker's peel. Cut slashes into the surface of the dough to help the dough bloom or expand while in the oven (also called oven spring). Slid the dough into the oven and throw 1 cup of hot water into the roasting pan. Let the bread bake for 5 minutes at 475 F, then turn down the temperature to 400 F and bake a further 30-40 minutes depending on the size of the loaf.
The bread is ready when it has turned a dark brown and is hollow sounding when thumped. This loaf was very eager to expand. The bloom was out of control and the bread nearly double in size inside the oven!
A picture of the bread this morning after cutting into it. Delicious.
