Mmmmm... cinnamon raisin swirl bread, hot out of the oven and drizzled with a vanilla glaze - what could be better with a cup of tea in the morning?
My downstairs neighbor has a bunch of packets of yeast that he's had for ages and hasn't used! Such blasphemy. This week we finally got around to making some bread, and not just any bread, cinnamon raisin swirl bread. It took us about 3 hours but when we opened the oven and the room was filled with the tantalizing scent of sweet cinnamon, and we pulled apart the warm and gooey bread to taste our first bites, oh it was totally worth it. So. good.
This recipe is great because it makes two loaves. Come on, if we're going to go through the trouble of making bread, we might as well make a large batch, right?
With half the dough we made a basic, swirled loaf. The rest of the dough we braided and very generously covered it with a cinnamon sugar blanket. The braid was so delicious fresh out of the oven, all warm, soft and studded with plump raisins. Drizzled with a simple vanilla glaze = heaven. We couldn't help but eat half of it in one sitting!
This bread really ressembles cinnamon rolls in taste and texture (especially the braid, which is like a pull-apart bread - yum) except for one large difference: it's got a fraction of the fat (woohoo)! Instead of adding in buckets of butter, we just sprinkled the cinnamon sugar with water. It worked so well!
This recipe is a keeper, I will definitely be making it again.
And you should make it too.
