Cinnamon Bread

Hey! Remember me? Yeah, I'm that person who used to post on here occasionally, before school became insane and took over my life.


These past few weeks have been so busy that I really haven't had much energy to cook. Instead, I've come home most evenings and either begged G. to cook something, resorted to eating restaurant food, or thrown together scraps of food that were lingering in the dark alcoves of my cabinets and/or refrigerator.


But enough whining already, right? Yeah, I know... Even though my life has been busy, I still live on a student's schedule. And that means that for the most part I make my own schedule.


Some days I have no reason to go to campus and I can work from home for the entire day. Such days are great days for cooking experiments that involve long waiting periods, since I'm home and the oven can be left on for long periods of time.


I had one such day recently. I was working, and I thought, "why not bake some bread?" The bread baking process was nice because it was a great excuse to step away from my computer to take breaks, and once the dough was in the oven I enjoyed the drool-enducing aromas of baking bread.


I baked Peter Reinhart's cinnamon raisin walnut bread, except we didn't have any raisins or walnuts in the house, and so the recipe devolved into cinnamon bread.

Overall I was really pleased with how this bread came out! After I'd started the process I read about the cinnamon swirl method, in which cinnamon is sprinkled on top of the dough before it's rolled up into a loaf. I really want to try that method next time, because the cinnamon flavor was relatively mild in the loaves that I baked.


Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread,
From Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice*, page 147

*note: THis is an awesome book, by the way! If you're interested in bread baking, I highly recommend it

Makes 2 1.5 pound loaves

3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg slightly beaten
2 tablespoons shortening, melted or at room temp.
1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk at room temp.
3/4 cup water, at room temp
1 1/2 cup raisins, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl Add egg, shortening, buttermilk, and water. Stir together until ingredients  form a ball. If dough is too sticky add some more flour, if too dry add more water.

2. Sprinkle flour on the counter. Transfer dough to the counter and begin kneading (or mixing on medium speed, switching to the dough hook). Dough should be soft and pliable, tacky but not sticky. Add flour as you knead (or mix), if necessary, to achieve this texture. Knead by hand for approximately 10 minutes. Sprinkle in the raisins and walnuts during final 2 minutes of kneading (or mixing) to distribute them evenly and to avoid crushing them too much.

Dough should pass water Peter Reinhert describes as the "window pane test," which is performed by cutting off a small piece of dough and gently stretching, pulling and turning it to see if it will hold a pater-thin translucent membrane. If dough falls apart before it makes the windowpane, continue kneading/mixing for another minute or so.
The dough should also register at 77 to 81 degrees, F.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Let rise for about 2 hours at room temperature until dough doubles in size.

4. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces, form them into loaves. Place each loaf in a lightly oiled 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch pan, mist the tops with spray oil, and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

5. Proof at room temperature 60 to 90 minutes, until dough crests above lips of pans and is nearly doubled in size.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Place the loaf pans on a sheet pan, making sure they are not touching each other.

7. Bake loaves for 20 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees so that it bakes evenly and continue baking for another 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the oven. The finished breads should be 190 degrees F in the center and golden brown on top and lightly golden on the sides and bottom. They should make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.

8. Immediately remove breads from their pans and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour.