Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

I made one of my loaves of bread this morning into cinnamon raisin swirl bread.  Another variation of Laura's bread recipe.  All 3 of us LOVE cinnamon raisin bread.  I have a feeling I'll be making this quite often.  It is sooooo good.  Fresh out of the oven with butter.  Mmmm.  Looking forward to another slice already :)  Some of the cinnamon/sugar oozed out a bit.  Made a little syrup on the bottom of the bread.  Made it even better!

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

makes 2 loaves

6 cups whole wheat flour, divided
1 ¾ cups warm water, divided (I use about 2 1/4 cups total)
1/3 cup honey
1 pkg. active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.) (I used bread machine/instant yeast)
1 tsp. sea salt
3 Tbsp. melted butter

butter
4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
1/2 cup raisins (or other dried fruit, like cherries or cranberries)

Mix 3 cups of whole wheat flour with 1 ½ cups of warm water in a large glass bowl (I did this in my stand mixer bowl.  I used about 1 3/4 cups water). Allow this to sit for about 30 minutes. This will break down the gluten and help the bread to rise better.

In a small bowl mix together ¼ cup water, yeast and honey. Allow this to sit for about 10 minutes, or until the yeast is activated and mixture becomes bubbly (I let it sit until the flour/water was done resting).

In the meantime, melt 3 Tbsp. butter in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and allow to cool. You don’t want the hot butter to kill the yeast.

When the 30 minutes are up, add salt, melted butter and yeast mixture to the flour and water mixture. Gradually add the remaining three cups of flour and stir well. As the dough becomes harder to stir, pour it out onto a clean counter and begin to knead the dough (I did this all in my stand mixer with the dough hook on. I kneaded it in the mixer for about 13 minutes. I had to add about 1/4 cup more water.).

Once you’ve kneaded your dough, place it into a bowl to rise (I just kept it in my mixer bowl). Cover the dough with a cloth and let it rise for at least one hour or until it has risen to twice it’s starting size (be sure it's in a warm place. I turn my oven to warm and place the bowl on top of the oven. Mine took about 1 1/2 hours to rise.).

While you’re waiting for your dough to rise, get your bread pans buttered.

When the dough has doubled in size, give it a nice punch. Using a floured hand, pull the dough out of the bowl onto the counter. Knead for three or four minutes until the air bubbles are all gone (I did do this by hand).

Divide dough in half. Roll out the dough about the width of your bread pans and as long as you like (the longer it is the more swirls you'll have in the bread).  Sprinkle raisins over dough.  Roll over them with rolling pin to nestle them into the dough. Spread butter over the dough (I used 2-3 Tbsp. for one loaf) and sprinkle on sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice) mixed with cinnamon.  Lightly roll over the dough again with rolling pin.  Roll it up (tightly), tuck ends under and place in buttered bread pans.

Cover and allow 30 minutes to one hour to rise again. They should double in size, but the rising should happen more quickly this time because the yeast knows what to do by now.

Bake the bread uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when you thump the top of it.

Allow the bread to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove it to finish cooling on a wire rack.