commentcinnamon raisin swirl bread
i used to be very intimidated by foods with swirls in them. not intimidated by the food itself, but by making them. i just couldn’t fathom how someone could shove a swirl of cinnamon and sugar and raisins into a loaf of bread. then i saw a recipe for it and felt like an idiot.
the dough itself is rolled out with a pin into a rectangle, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and then jelly-rolled from the short end. the loaves come out soft and fluffy. i put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven during the baking so the bread doesn’t dry out.
i’ve been eating a few pieces toasted with a pad of butter with pretty much every meal this week. if you don’t think you can eat two loaves, give one to someone you want to be your best friend because this bread is awesome.
cinnamon raisin swirl bread
makes two loaves, but it’s easy enough to halve this one.
1 package dry instant yeast
2 1/4 cups warm water
3 Tbsp and 1/4 cup sugar, separated
1 Tbsp salt
4 Tbsp butter
6-7 cups flour
1 cup raisins
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1. dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of water and 1 Tbsp of sugar. let stand for five minutes.
2. stir in the remaining 1 3/4 cups warm water, 2 Tbsp sugar, salt, 2 Tbsp melted butter, 3 1/2 cups of the flour and all of the raisins. beat until smooth (either by hand or stand mixer), adding the remaining 3 or so cups of flour until the dough is easy to handle (not too sticky but still moist).
3. turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. place the dough in a greased bowl, roll it around so all the dough is coated, cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place until doubled (about an hour).
4. mix together 1/4 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp cinnamon in a small bowl.
5. punch down the dough, divide in half, and roll them out on a floured surface so they are both about 18 x 9 inches. you may need to roll, let the dough rest, and roll again so you get the right size.
6. sprinkle each rolled out loaf with 1 Tbsp of water and half of the sugar and cinnamon mixture.
7. roll the dough from the short end and pinch the seams shut. you should have a 9 inch long rolled up piece of dough. place into a greased loaf pans. brush the tops of the loaves with 2 Tbsp melted butter and let them rise for 1 hour.
8. bake at 425 F for 30 minutes. the loaves should have a dark golden brown top. remove and place on a wire rack to cool. you can freeze the loaves, although i don’t know how long they’ll keep, since i usually finish both off within a week.
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I wouldn’t mind having this for every meal either!
ah! i kept thinking to myself — but how do you get the swirl? now i see — looks awesome! i love cinnamon bread.
I make this as well. Its a great thing to make. I sometimes subsitute half of the white flour for whole wheat.
Ok, those pictures are really tempting. I really want to give your recipe a try. I love making bread – it’s such a rewarding experience to see a mass of dough turn into something golden brown and yummy. What’s the thickness of the rolled out dough? I’m going to add this to my weekend to do list. Thanks!
You did such a nice job with the swirl, it’s so round and so even.
Quite a beautiful loaf!
How funny. I have been looking all over the place for a good cinnamon-raising swirl bread to make (that wasn’t over complicated.) This looks like a great one. We’re headed out of town for a few days, but I’d love to try this one when we return! Love your pictures too
Wow, that is beautiful! I love how the cinnamon is beautifully spread inside the bread. The loaf looks so tender and delicious….
Oh, lovely! Yes, it isn’t that difficult to make and it tastes gorgeous! Yours looks wonderful!
Cheers,
Rosa
@ShopLittleGifts – i’m not sure how thick it was when i rolled it out, but if you stick to making it a 9×18″ rectangle, you should be good. i suppose you could roll it out thinner so you end up with more and tighter swirls. remember too that the dough will rise and puff up in the loaf pan for about an hour before you bake it.
thank you for posting this! i’m going to make this bread today. i’m working my way up from making pretzels. this is the first time in my life i’ve made things with yeast. i used to think it was intimidating but now i LOVE it! beautiful pictures and a recipe i can follow easily! kudos!
You did a great job of shoving that swirl into your loaf
Looks beautiful.
Great looking bread. That swirl is absolutely perfect
I’ve got to say, this was far far far easier than I anticipated it would be. I made this yesterday and it was my first attempt at making any bread and it came out wonderfully. I kept one loaf and shared the other, now I’m wishing I hadn’t. It was fantastic and the recipe was definitely a keeper! It was great toasted with a little peanut butter and I can’t wait to use it for french toast later in the week! Thanks again!
[...] Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread: So yet again, I was going thru blogs that I like and I came across this. I often buy this type of bread in the grocery store (which has an ingredient list that’s a mile long and is full of names I can’t pronounce) for toast and the like in the morning. Plus if I was going to do it, I was really going to make a bread that I wanted to eat. Again, I decided on one that got awesome reviews from the blogger. I also wanted to try one from a blogger I trust (meaning that their food always looks amazing and I’ve tried something that they’ve posted before and liked it). [...]
my brother is makin this right now
My 3 year old and I made this bread yesterday. I only had unsalted butter and was about 1/8 tsp short on salt. I also used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour (just to make me feel better!) and it turned out great. I would add more cinnamon sugar next time to make it sweeter, but perhaps getting regular butter would help it a bit too. I love to bake but tend to make quick breads and cookies. This was a challenge, but turned out great. I did need more flour than the recipe to get it to a workable consistency.
Oh this looks delightful! I may have to add it to my weekend baking list!
I tried this recipe tonight, it turned out good. Everyone loved the flavor and the lightness of the crumb. Thank you for a good recipe.
However, my bread had HUGE air pockets in it, could it be I didn’t punch it down well enough? Any tips would be appreciated.
I would say 2 things…If the air pockets were in the actual swirl lines, you may not have rolled it up “tight” enough. If the pockets were in the texture of the bread itself, you are right, you may not have kneaded out enough of the air when you were shaping the loaves.
By the way, I made the recipe yesterday, and it was delicious. My family is not crazy about raisins, so I did everything the same, but cut up apples into small pieces instead. Turned out great!
Thanks for the tip Barb, I had actually tried making the bread again and it turned out better. I think I didn’t roll it tight enough the first time.
Great! I think I may have a marathon bread baking day and give this for Christmas gifts. I think it is very pretty, and can be wrapped attractively in saran and tied with a big bow. Glad you figured out the problem…it’s such a good recipe!
I made a batch of this yesterday and was amazed at how close it looks to your photos. Really easy and really good. It’s going to be my Christmas presents this year.
OMG! this bread is so good. i made it like 5 or 6 times. thanks for the recipe
Pete, meet the other idiot. This recipe is pretty easy, now that I know that you don’t have to ‘stuff’ a roll of items into a loaf of bread. (I use sourdough starter instead of commercial yeast, btw.)
As far as eating two loaves of this bread within a couple days, I usually devour one loaf before it’s completely cooled.
This is some really good grub!
Thanks,
Rick
Oh, forgot to mention, I can’t eat raisins for some odd reason (allergy, I guess) so increased the sugar/cinnamon content somewhat.
Barb, never thought of that. Great idea using tiny apple bits.
I’ll do that next time.
Thanks,
Rick
I just made this yesterday and loved it! The only thing I would like to do differently is add a sweet glaze on top. Any ideas?
Thanks so much for the recipe!
[...] So I scoured the web looking for bread recipes and came across this one. [...]