Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Today was a school day.. The kids did a few subjects this morning

Anna doing "preschool"


 then about 10 o'clock
we took a short break.
When I was ready to get back to work - I found them all playing nicely TOGETHER!

Well, this just doesn't happen very often.
 So, I decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet and
make some bread.

 My family LOVES cinnamon raisin bread and I've always made it with 100% white flour.
I've made up my mind to find a wheat bread recipe that is just as good.
I found a recipe that sounded really good. It had white and wheat flour in it, as well as rolled oats. It was also sweetened with honey.  I decided to give it a try.

The first thing I noticed about the recipe was it used vegetable oil - I changed it to olive oil. The next thing I noticed was  the quantity's of the ingredients were listed in ounces-with the cup equivalents off to the side. The cup equivalent came out to 1 and 3/8 or 7/8. - Goofy - I already made a few changes there. The recipe also said to soak the raisins and oatmeal, separately - why separately??- I'm asking myself- more dishes! I knead my raisins in after the first rise anyway- that way I can make a loaf or two without raisins. So, I soaked the oatmeal and left the raisins to add later.
I didn't like that the recipes instructions said to add the ingredients all at once. I like to add my flour gradually-so the dough doesn't get to heavy.

Sooo.. There are a few modifications to make. The dough turned out well


It was soft  - but would have been quite stiff if I had added the entire amount of flour the recipe called for.


The recipe said to "Bake at 450degrees for 5 minutes, lower the temp. of your oven to 375 degrees and continue to bake for 20minutes more - turn your loaves and cook for another 15-25 minutes."

I had to run my husband to another farm so this wasn't going to work for me. I put the bread in the oven at 375 and set the timer for 40minutes and headed out the door. The buzzer had just gone off when I returned and removed the loaves.


Look good, huh? Taste good too.. My 9 year old complained
"is there wheat flour in here" "why, yes there is" was my reply- when I asked a few minutes later how he liked it he chimed " I'm cutting myself another piece" Must not have been too bad.


One other change I made to the bread- instead of mixing the cinnamon into the dough as recipe states -I rolled the dough out- spread some butter on it and then sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar. It added a little more fat and calories but not much.

Overall- the bread was very good. Its texture was near prefect. It was a little on the salty side. I think I will cut back on the salt a bit next time. I plan to make this again and make a few changes to suit my family's tastes and my needs of a healthier bread.

~Kathy

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