Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Brown Sugar-Raisin Bread : Bake-Along #53

It's our Bake-Along week, and for this bake no. 53, it's my turn to select a bake and I've chosen to bake, Brown Sugar-Raisin Bread, together with my baking buddies, Lena and Zoe and anyone who are welcome to bake-along with us.



The full recipe makes 2 loaves, I've made half a recipe for one loaf only. And the instructions are given for the use of a stand mixer, which I have adapted for the dough to be mixed by using the bread machine instead. The liquid ingredients are placed at the bottom of the bread pan, flour is spooned over covering the liquids, salt is added to one corner of the pan, sugar to another corner, make an indentation in the centre of the flour and add in the dry active yeast. Select Basic Dough Cycle. Press Start. When machine beeps about 15 minutes later, add in the raisins gradually. 

When the machine has done with the full cycle (about 1 hour 35 minutes), right up to the first rising, remove dough, roll it out to a 8 x 12 inch rectangle, scatter the mixture of cinnamon powder and brown sugar all over, leaving a 1-inch border all around. Roll up tightly, press the seams to seal, and place in a greased loaf pan, cover loosely with greased cling wrap, let rise until about 1-inch above rim of pan. Remove cling wrap and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely on wire rack.


I'm sure you can imagine the aroma of the cinnamon while the bread is in the oven! Smells really good! The bread bakes up a nice golden brown.


This bread has a soft and moist texture, not the fluffy kind of soft, but with a light dense and soft texture, very nice. The raisins and the cinnamon-sugar combination makes it a lovely sweet bread, good enough eaten on it's own, it does not need anything else to go with it, but just a cup of hot black coffee or hot tea.


Brown Sugar-Raisin Bread
(adapted from "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book")
Makes two 9-by-5inch loaves
1 tbsp active dry yeast
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/310ml) warm water (105-115F/40-46C)
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
1 tbsp salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
6 to 6-1/4 cups (30-31oz/940-970gm) bread flour, plus extra as needed
3/4 cup (4-1/2 oz/140gm) golden raisins (sultanas)
3/4 cup (4-1/2 oz/140gm) dark raisins

For the filling :
2/3 cup (5oz/155gm) firmly packed light brown sugar mixed with 4-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of the granulated sugar over 1/2 cup (4fl oz/125ml) of the water and stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the remaining water, the milk, melted butter, remaining granulated sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups (10 oz/315gm) of the flour. Beat on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the yeast mixture and 1/2 cup (2-1/2 oz/75gm) of the flour and beat for 1 minute. Add the raisins, then beat in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the bowl sides. Switch to the dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed, adding flour 1 tbsp at a time if the dough sticks, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a greased deep bowl and turn to coat it with the oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Lightly grease the bottom and sides of two 9-by-5 inch loaf pans. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough in half and roll or pat each half into an 8-by-12 inch (20 x 30-cm) rectangle. Lightly sprinkle each rectangle with half of the filling, leaving a 1-inch (2.5cm) border on all sides. Beginning at a narrow end, tightly roll up each rectangle into a compact log. Pinch the ends and the long seam to seal in the filling. Place each log, seam side down, in a prepared pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until about 1 inch (2.5cm) above the rim of each pan, 1-1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Bake until the loaves are golden brown and pull away from the pan sides, 35-40 minutes. Turn out onto racks and let cook completely.

#99/100

To join our blog hop, bake this bread and link your post to our Bake-Along linky.
Please visit my baking buddies, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and all our friends who has baked along with us in the linky below :

For our next Bake-Along, we will be baking based on a theme, "Theme : Tuiles". You may bake any Tuiles recipe of your choice,  and link your post to the our blog-hop linky which will start on 28th October right up to 6th November. Everyone is welcome! 


Photobucket


A friendly reminder when linking to our blog hop :
1. Please mention Bake-Along event in your own post linking direct to any of the hosts' post (JoyceLena or Zoe)
2. Please link only new and current post, related to the current bake or theme provided by us. Unrelated post will be deleted.
3. Feel free to display our Bake-Along badge in your post.



To join our blog hop, click on the link to get the codes :
get the InLinkz code

26 comments:

  1. Hi Joyce, your loaf baked up looking very nicely golden, I love the smell of cinnamon whilst baking this bread, so good and delicious too! Glad I bake it:)

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  2. Im imagining the freshly bake of bread and more so with the aroma smell of cinnamon in it. This must be a great bread.

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  3. yes, when i was baking these rolls, it reminds me of those cinnamon rolls that we baked. The bread was exceptionally good when it was out from the oven, so soft and love the raisins so much!

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  4. Hi Joyce,
    Love your nicely brown raisin bread.
    This is so good to eat with a cup is hit tea!
    mui

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  5. That bread looks very lovely & I am sure it tastes yummy too.

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  6. what a contrasting swirl in your loaf

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  7. Am in love with ur loaf, extremely spongy and prefect.

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  8. Joyce, this loaf looks yummy! My family like raisin bread, wish i have time to bake along with you all, cheers!

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  9. So far I have seen the same bread recipe to be shaped in 3 different sizes, love all the versions. I like how the brown sugar + raisin combination.

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  10. I visited Zoe and Lena there and this recipe really looks interesting. I hope to try it too!

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  11. My family loves raisin bread too. But mummy don't like baking breads haha... cos almost 80% of the time fail :(

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  12. Marion loves Raisin Bread. If I were a good friend, not only would I finally crawl out of my yeastaphobia hole, but I would bake some of this lovely bread for her. Perhaps some day, lol...Lovely bread Joyce, thank you so much for sharing...

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  13. Mmmm...I love the smell of freshly baked bread. This looks great! :)

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  14. Joyce, this bread has a beautiful texture and must be delicious with cinnamon and raisins!

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  15. lovely and healthy bread, may I have 2 piece for my tea time?

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  16. Wow! This bread looks amazing with lovely swirl ! Now I wanna make this bread but just checked my pantry, takda raisin!!! Aiyoo ! :p

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  17. Nice loaf of bread Joyce...I love the texture...moist and soft...yum! I wish I could have a slice of this bread now as I am sipping on my morning coffee.
    Hope you are enjoying your week Joyce :D

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  18. Hi Joyce,

    Sorry for my late visit. Ryan is sick with high temperature now... *sign*

    I realised too that this recipe is quite different from the typical soft and fluffy bread that we baked. It is light, spongy but not moist. Something like a croissant-base without the fat :p I reckon... the addition of raisin and brown sugar is totally essential :D

    Zoe

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  19. If only I'm not too lazy to knead :P Lovely loaf bread , Joyce !

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  20. Another yummy bread, Joyce! The ingredients remind me of cinnamon rolls.

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