Sunday, April 5, 2015

Easter Raisin Bread


(First of all, apologies for the terrible pun.)

Home for Easter for the first time in years (and years and years), I felt the need to make Dad his traditional raisin bread.  I morphed this delicious bread recipe with the filling and method from here and it turned out pretty well!  Not too sweet, excellent texture, and it's not falling apart at the swirls, so the second loaf should be very nice toast.

NOTES:
  • I added three cups of raisins to the dough before the flour was all added.  At first, it looked like that may have been too many, but it seems about right in the finished product.
  • The dough could be a little sweeter.  Check into someone else's recipe for raisin bread next year to compare.
  • Using King Arthur's roll up method with the egg wash and flour added to the filling seems to make the slices more stable.  I haven't gotten to the middle of the loaf yet, so I'll edit if this does not seem to be the case all the way through.  I'll paste in the method below, just in case the recipe disappears from their site. UPDATE: About two slices further in to my perfect looking loaf, there was a huge (HUGE) bubble making every slice more of a D shape. I'll be curious to see if both loaves did that, but I have no idea what would have caused it. :-(
  • NB - the filling is for one loaf, so double for this application.
  • Happy Easter everyone!  Christ is risen!
filling
1/4 cup granulated sugar1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon2 teaspoons King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, to brush on dough5) Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and pat it into a 6" x 20" rectangle.6) Brush the dough with the egg/water mixture, and sprinkle it evenly with the filling.Don't skip the step of brushing the dough with the egg/water wash before sprinkling on the filling. The egg is what keeps the bread from "gapping" around the filling.