Monday, September 21, 2009

Honey Raisin Bread Because I'm Crazy



Want to know how crazy I am? That’s five day old bread you’re looking at. Completely untested and untasted until it was judged honey raisin bread.

I was hastily working on a brand new breakfast bread recipe last Wednesday. I was so busy I didn’t even take the time to make the loaf pretty or bother covering the top at the end of baking. This bread never intended to be photographed and especially wasn’t supposed to go to the fair. This was a test loaf. Something I’d never take pictures of, or give to you until I know it worked.

However, I realized the fair entries were due that day and I didn’t have a spare moment to throw something else together. So off it went to the fair of course! For all I knew it could have had holes all over inside and been completely inedible. I dropped off this lopsided overly-browned bread and forgot about it. My family ate cold cereal the next day for breakfast. I'm such a good mom.

The next busy crazy afternoon, my friend Julie calls me on my way to an out of town meeting and tells me my bread has two ribbons on it. She already knew the story and we both had a good laugh.

I still have no idea what those ribbons mean, but the bread has now been tested. It’s really quite good surprisingly!

Honey Raisin Bread
This bread utilizes the dough cycle on the bread machine to cut down the work, but the final rise and bake is done the old fashioned way.

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons water
¼ cup honey
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup raisins
1 ¼ cups soft white whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
Extra bread flour for flouring surface
Butter for brushing pan

1. Place all the ingredients in a bread machine with flour on top, and yeast on top of the flour. Select the dough cycle on the bread machine and hit start.

2. Once the cycle is finished, remove the dough from the pan onto a clean and floured surface. Knead the dough several times until lightly sticky (but not too sticky), adding a little more flour as needed.

3. Lightly butter and flour a Pyrex bread pan. Shape the dough into a loaf and place in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. (I do mine on top of the stove while the oven preheats)

4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

5. Bake the loaf for 32 to 35 minutes or until deeply golden on top. Cover the last 10 minutes with foil if you don’t want your top overly browned.

6. Carefully remove the bread from the oven onto a cooling rack. Brush the top with melted butter and finish cooling.

Recipe by Laura Flowers


10 comments:

Mary Bergfeld said...

They're blue so that's a good sign :-). Funny story!

Sherri Murphy said...

I love that your family ate cold cereal! Sounds like my home when I'm in the middle of something.

It sounds like a winner to me.

Pattie said...

Yumm yummmmmm!

Raisin bread is my favorite :)

Joyce said...

Congrats on your ribbons for a great loaf of bread.
Joyce

Pink Little Cake said...

Laura, wow!! Congratulations, I love raisin bread,and that's what Cami eats for breakfast almost every day. I have to try this recipe for sure.

Coleens Recipes said...

I continually try to enter our State Fair in the baking competition, but so far, I haven't found the courage. I love you story.

Chef Fresco said...

Aww how fun! Congrats!

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

I'd expect nothing less!
;)

Barbaloot said...

Congrats on the ribbons. I want to try this recipe soon. Are they really no eggs?

The Cooking Photographer said...

Really, no eggs. I hope you like this one!

Laura

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