Raisin Swirl Bread

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Susan of Food.Baby. She selected Raisin Swirl Bread. You can get the complete recipe on Susan’s blog. This is a yeast bread and many of the Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers hadn’t baked with yeast in a while. That was true for me too, but I’ve generally had pretty good luck with yeast.

This recipe really takes me back. I first made cinnamon swirl bread in home economics class in 8th grade. This is similar, but with raisins. The recipe I made in junior high was a little simpler than this one, but the concept was the same. Thinking back, it was fairly ambitious to make yeast bread in home economics class; the timing just had to be perfect or you didn’t get done. Mine turned out fairly well as I recall, but that was a really long time ago. I really enjoyed home economics class, and it was nice to reflect about that time.

I had to start the yeast twice, since my milk wasn’t warm enough the first time. No problem, since I had a couple packets of yeast. It rose beautifully during the first rising, and it rolled out to the right size without too much effort. I thought that the cinnamon sugar mixture needed more sugar, but I hoped it would be ok. I had a small tear in the top when I rolled the dough, but I figured that wasn’t fatal. Mine rose too much during the second rising, and it deflated a little when I put it in the oven to bake. In the end my loaf was a little misshaped and looked somewhat deflated. It tasted ok, but I would have liked a little sweeter filling and I think I would add more sugar next time. I enjoyed baking with yeast again, since it’s been such a long time. My house smelled wonderful when I was making this!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 59 and 60.