I like pretty much anything with cinnamon or raisins, but put the two together and I love them! I think there was a point in my first year of grad school where I was eating three cinnamon raisin bagels a day. I wish I were exaggerating… Cinnamon raisin bread has been a longstanding favorite of mine, so when I got into a bit of a bread making kick this spring I knew I had to make a loaf or two. I made these for a lab meeting and they disappeared pretty quickly. I made a classic loaf (the sliced one in the pictures) and a more intricately shaped one using the same technique as you might for a babka (see the king Arthur blog post on how to shape babkas here if you’re interested.)
I adapted a recipe from TheKitchn for these loaves.
Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Raisins You can use half this, but I love raisins
- 2 tbsp brandy
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¼ cup melted unsalted butter
- 2 tsp salt
- 5½ cup All purpose Flour
Filling
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tbsp Ceylon Cinnamon I like this better than China Cinnamon but either would work
- 1 tbsp Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Alternatively you could just use more cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 egg (beaten)
Instructions
- Add 3tbsp of sugar and the brandy to two cups hot water. Dissolve the sugar and then add in the raisins to soak for 15 minutes. (This will make them extra plump and tasty)
- Put a cup of warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit for 5 minutes
- Stir the milk, melted butter, and salt into the mixer. Add the salt last. Then add in the flour and mix with a dough hook until a shaggy dough forms. You can add a bit more flour if it looks very wet. After 10 minutes the dough should form a springy ball.
- Drain the liquid from the raisins and toss them with a tablespoon of flour, then add them to the dough while it mixes a little at a time so they are well distributed.
- Move the dough to an oiled bowl and let rise covered for an hour until it doubles in size
- Meanwhile mix together the sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and cardamom in one bowl.
- After it finishes rising, divide the dough in two halves. Starting with one half roll it out as thin as possible (this will give you the most swirls. Paint the rolled out dough with the beaten egg and then sprinkle with the sugar mix.
- Roll the dough into a log to form the swirl. You can then put that directly into your loaf pan or make fancier shapes linked here if you prefer.
- Repeat with the other half of the dough
- Cover for 30 minutes for a second rise and preheat your oven to 375
- Bake for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees. I recommend measuring the temperature to check for doneness if you have a thermometer
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!