Per Mike's suggestion I made a Cinnamon Raisin Swirl loaf today. I followed the recipe from The Bread Bible. This was my first time using a sponge preferment so I was pretty excited. A preferment allows the flavors to develop a little further before the dough is actually mixed.
The mixed sponge
Covered in the rest of the dry ingredients
2 hours later you can see the sponge bubble and poke through the flour cover. You can let this go for up to 4 hours in room temperature, but I had no intention on staying up until 2am today.
After I mixed and kneaded this took a good 3 1/2 hours to rise, spending some time in the fridge as well to firm up for rolling. Once the dough is split in two and stretched out I used an egg wash and sprinkled a cinnamon-sugar mixture over it and rolled them up. My hands were pretty messy so again, no pictures. Another two hours of rising in the pan and they were ready to be popped in the oven. Unfortunately I didn't get all of the air bubbles out so there will be a few pockets in this batch. Better luck next time.
One last rise
Results
Holy crap was this good! Very sweet and chewy and the crust was extra crispy! Like I mentioned before I did not get all of the air bubbles out before I rolled it so there are some pretty big pockets. But as I found out today, those air pockets make great butter holders! The flavor of the bread itself was masked by the raisins and cinnamon like I thought, but its still a great flavor. Everything went better than expected even though they took 7 hours!
FIRST!
ReplyDelete