Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

I love making bread. 

I find it calming. But it can also make me anxious, all the waiting, that is. 

Such as waiting for it to rise. And then, if it doesn't rise as much as you would have hoped (or as much as Pioneer Woman's rose), you tend to get nervous about it. 

Then when you have it try to rise again in the pan and it doesn't. Then when you put on the egg wash but pour too much in and when it's finished cooking and you take it out of the pan there is a nice side of egg to go with your loaf of bread. 

But its all good. Or at least that's what I tell myself. 

But seriously, this bread makes me happy.

I'm branching out with my photo-stitches for the holidays

Except for the fact that it didn't rise very well and turned out dense.

But my family says that it tastes like Cinnabon so it's still all good.

Also, the dough was super easy to work with after it rose for the first two hours! I didn't even need to use a roller; I just spread it out with my hands! But then I forgot to spread it with melted butter before the cinnamon sugar. Oh well, you live and you learn. But on a kind of unfortunate side note, I've been forgetting things lately. Suspicious...

 

Pre Bake

Post Bake

Recipe (from Pioneer Woman):

1 cup milk

6 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar, separated

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2-1 cup raisins

Melt milk into butter and heat until almost boiling. Cool until it's warm then sprinkle yeast on top and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Beat together 1/3 cup sugar and eggs. Pour in milk mixture and beat to combine. Add in flour and salt in two stages and beat until combined. (Note: you may have to forgo the mixer and use a rubber scraper.)

Kneed dough for 10 minutes (either by hand or by fancy mixer). (Note: Watch how much flour you use to flour your board. I think the reason my bread was tough is because I used too much flour. That's just speculation, though.)

Put dough in a warm oiled bowl, turn dough in oil to coat, and cover and let rise for two hours in a warm place. Hopefully it will rise.

Turn out dough onto a counter/mat. Roll out into a rectangle the width of your pan and the length that it needs to be. Spread melted butter (2 tablespoons recommended) then sprinkle the other 1/3 cup of sugar and cinnamon mixture and raisins on top. Roll up dough tightly and press seam to the dough to make sure it won't come apart. 

Place in buttered loaf pan and cover and let rise for two more hours.

Spread an egg wash (1 egg and a splash of milk) on top and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. (Note: Mine wasn't as brown as I would have liked it to be after the 40 minutes so I baked for an additional 5 minutes then watched it carefully under the broiler to get a nice color on top.) Wait about 10 minutes then turn out bread on a rack to cool.

It made me sad that it didn't rise, but I was thinking it may also be because I used yeast from the little packets and I may not have had enough. So that could be a reason.

Also, I used 1 cup of raisins and it was an obscene amount. So you may want to use less. But hey, I like raisins.