Cinnamon Raisin Almond bread ~

 Oh, heavens.  At the time of this writing (Sunday) there is a close scent of cinnamon raisin bread.  Not from baking either, but from kneading the dough an hour ago, the scent lingers in my fingers.  This brings a warm inner smile inside.   I touched FLD’s face. Smiling he asked, “Is that cinnamon raisin bread I smell?”  There are almonds in the dough as well.

Sunday snapshots.  What an evening, serene from the inside out.   The children watching two back-to-back shows of “Nature”, chicken stock simmering on the stove, bread rising on the adjacent burner for warmth.  Little One More (Sofia) left me a love note on my settee while I got up to check stock and dough, smiling in wait for me to discover it when I returned.  Earlier all three children stood in the middle of our tiny livingroom having a distance contest with paper airplanes.  Sofia made us all our own custom drawn and colored airplanes.  Earlier in the day was a verbal tussle (or two) with the teenager fueled personality FLD and hormonal tired of hearing it Me.  That’s never too pretty.  :)  Forgive easily, learn and do better next time.  Sofia added to her Christmas list.  Annie, as tall as I am, sat on my lap and hugged me.  All in all…as usual…no matter what happens, every day is a good day.

Today is a good day with a lot of bread.  This is the recipe for one breads I baked.


Linked to wonderful Yeastspotting and this week's guest host Hefe und mehr

Cinnamon Raisin Almond bread ~
Heavy and dense.

Sponge or old dough - 8 oz.
4 ½ tsp. yeast *(see notes)
¼ c. warm water - 105-115 degrees
1 ¼ c. bleached white flour**(see notes)
2 ½ - 3 c. whole wheat pastry flour
¼ c. sugar
1 T. kosher salt
2 T. cinnamon
1 1/3 c. warm water
2 c. raisins
1 ¼ c. chopped almonds

• In a small bowl, add hot water to the raisins, barely covering. 
• Proof 2 ¼ tsp. of the yeast in the ¼ c. warm water, let sit 3-5 minutes.
• Mix the flour, sugar, white flour and 2 ½ c. of the whole wheat pastry flour, salt and cinnamon
• Add the warm water and the old dough (or sponge) to a mixing bowl and squish the dough up into bits.  This is fun!
• Add proofed yeast and the remaining 2 ¼ tsp. dry yeast.
• Slowly add the flours.  Mix until shaggy and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Resume mixing to kneading.  Add any more of the ½ c. of flour if needed, but do not make it tough to knead by adding too much.  
• Drain the water from the raisins, add them to the dough along with the almonds.  Knead until evenly distributed.
• Cover and let rise until double.
• When double divide the dough and roll each into a round.  Cover and let rise until almost double.
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees approximately ½ hour before bake time.
• When almost double, glaze and slash if desired.  And egg wash is great.
• Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 and bake until done - approximately 20-30 more minutes.  Check temperature of bread if you are unsure. - 200-220 degrees.

Notes ~
    * It was late in the evening- I had leftover old dough to use or toss - I more than doubled the yeast because I didn’t feel like staying up extra late or refrigerating and baking the dough the next day.  Use less yeast if you have more time.
    ** Yes, I know…unbleached flour in a bread recipe?  Yep, it’s all I had of white.  I have all kinds of flour, but no unbleached white in the house.  Sometimes…as a baker of sweets, unbleached does give better results depending on what it is used for.   Wanting to offset some of the wheat flour, I added what I had.