Cinnamon and raisin bread

Hello everyone,

Hope your well? Well its here....December that is and im so excited to start the festivities! Yesterday i opened the first window to my advent calendar (i maybe 23 but its not Christmas to me without an advent calendar hehe), we put up some decorations and the tree and wrapped some presents and to top the day off my family and I even had a turkey dinner! But the most festive and homely part of my day was making this incredible bread! 

To create the festive bread you will need:

500grams strong white bread flour

40grams unsalted butter

1tbsp olive oil

12grams dry active yeast 

1.5tsp salt

300ml warm water

2tsp ground cinnamon

A good handful of raisins ( you could use currents or sultanas too or a mixture)

First add in your flour, butter, salt, cinnamon and yeast to a mixing bowl and stir until combined (when adding the salt and yeast, place the salt at one end of the bowl and yeast at the other, direct contact of the salt and yeast will kill the yeast) 

Next gradullay add your water until a smooth dough is formed, you may not need all of the water, fold in your raisins

Take some of the oil and lightly grease your work surface, take out your dough and knead for aprox 10 mins until the dough is smooth and elastic, your raisins may fall out just keep popping them back in

Use the remaining oil to lightly grease a mixing bowl, place your dough into the mixing bowl and cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place to prove for about an hour or until doubled in size

Once doubled, punch out the air and shape the dough however you like here is an example of a few shapes

If you would like detailed tutorials on ways to shape bread please let me know,

For this recipe i find it best to place the dough into a greased loaf tin, if you dont have a loaf tin mould a ball shape and place the dough onto a greased baking tray

Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size 

Pre heat your oven to gas mark 7

Once doubled in size if you like you can slice small slits in the dough to create a diamond or cross pattern then place the dough in the oven for aprox 30 mins or until golden or when turned upside down and knocked it sounds hollow 

Hope your guys enjoyed this blog post, let me know if you have tried this or have any requests!

Happy baking

Xxx