Martha's Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I'm just gonna put it out there, I was the cool kid in school.  Don't believe me? Listen to this...

While in college, I roomed with my best friend Anja for a semester.  We were pretty awesome.  We would sit in our room on the weekends and knit while watching Gilmore Girls and eating easy mac and Cheetos all day long.  Jealous?

Then one weekend, we heard that Martha Stewart was going to be in Minneapolis signing books.  And because we were so amazing, we got up at 3:00 on a Saturday morning, drove to Barnes and Noble, (I had Anja parallel park my car.  Nope, can't do it at 3am when nobody is around either) and sat outside for 4 hours in the freezing cold, waiting to get an autograph. 

When we got into the store and out of the cold, we bought our Martha Stewart cook books, which happened to be all about baking, which I was thrilled about.  We waited around the store for a few more hours and finally Martha arrived.  She is more beautiful than I thought.  Very lean and tall.  We got our autographs and I mumbled something to her about how I want to open a business and she said she was proud of that and that was the end of my meeting with Martha Stewart.  We drove home and went back to bed. 

Oh you know that scarf was hand knit!

Later on, I looked through my new signed cookbook and let me tell you, for a college student in a dorm, these recipes were intimidating.  The book got put in my "special things" box and put away for 7 years.

While unpacking all of my totes after moving to Cincinnati, I stumbled across this bright orange book.  I studied it for a while looking through and trying to find the easiest thing to make.  I've been getting in to making my own bread, so I wanted to try a bread recipe.  Nick loves cinnamon raisin bread so I decided I'd give it a shot.  I honestly studied the recipe for about a day before I tackled it.  Bread is just one of those things that are truly depressing when you ruin, because you put hours of labor into it.  This particular recipe takes me about 4 hours to make.  But it is totally worth it!  This cinnamon raisin bread is soooo delicious!  We just got two big tubs of coconut oil from Amazon this week and I'm just dying to try it on this bread.  I think we'll skip dinner tonight and just have toast! haha Just kidding... maybe. Enjoy!

I had to take the bread outside and capture it's beauty in good lighting.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Makes 2 Loaves

Ingredients:

For Dough:

1 envelope of active dry yeast (I just use about a tablespoon, if you buy in bulk)

2 cups warm (110 degrees F) organic milk (I use whole)

About 6 1/2 cups of organic all-purpose flour

1 stick (1/2 cup) organic butter

1/2 cup organic sugar

2 large organic eggs, plus one more egg, lightly beaten

2 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

1 cup organic raisins

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

olive oil for bowl and plastic wrap

For Filling:

1 cup organic sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

Make the dough:  In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk, whisk to combine.  Add the flour, butter, sugar, 2 eggs, and salt.  Attach bowl to mixer fitted with the dough hook.  Mix on low speed until all of the ingredients are well combined, about 3 minutes.  Raise the speed to medium-low, and continue to mix until the dough is uniformly smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 3 more minutes.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface.  Pat out dough into a 9-inch round, about 1 1/4 inches thick.  Sprinkle with raisins and cinnamon, and knead until they are just incorporated.  Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic wrap.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.  (If you don't have a nice sunbeam to put it in, just preheat your oven to the lowest setting, then turn it off and put the dough in the oven.  It'll raise.)

Pat dough into a 9 inch round and top with raisins and cinnamon

            After you knead the dough                                    

Return the dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a round.  Fold the bottom third of the dough up, the top third down, and the right and left sides over, tapping dough after each fold to release excess flour, and pressing down to seal.  Return the dough to the bowl, seam side down, and let rise again until doubled in bulk, about 40 minutes.

Make the filling:  Combine sugar and cinnamon with about 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl.  return the dough to a lightly floured work surface, and divide in half.  Roll out one half to a 12-by-10 inch rectangle; brush with beaten egg, and sprinkle with half of the filling.  Repeat with remaining dough and filling. 

Rolling your rectangle into a loaf.

Generously butter two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans; set aside.  With the short end of the rectangle facing you, fold in both long sides of the dough, about 1 inch.  Then roll the dough toward you, gently pressing as you go to form a tight log.  Gently roll the log back and fourth to seal the seam.  (it is important to seal the seam) Place the loaf in a prepared pan, seam side down.  Repeat with remaining rectangle.  Cover pans loosely with oiled plastic wrap, and let rest in a warm place until dough rises just about the rim about the pan, about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 (unless using it to raise the bread!).  

Rising the bread in the loaf pans.

Brush the tops of the loaves with the beaten egg, and transfer pans to a baking sheet.  Bake, rotating pans halfway through , until loaves are golden brown, about 45 minutes. (If tops begin to brown too quickly, tent with foil)  Turn out the bread onto a wire rack and cool completely before slicing.  The bread can be kept, wrapped in plastic, at room temperature for up to 4 days. (We put ours in the fridge and it lasted for 2 weeks.)

All finished!

This is why you want to make sure your pan is sprayed and your dough is sealed.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.  Go out and buy yourself this lovely book.