Sunday, March 6, 2011

BBA #9: Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Pecan Bread

Cinnamon Raisin Pecan BreadI have to admit to having few problems with this bread. The dough was lovely (maybe a tad dry, contrary to others' experiences) with the exact amounts of flour and liquid, and I worked a couple more tablespoons of liquid in only because I'd over-measured a bit and had this milky water sitting right there. I did fail to drain my raisins well enough and so things got a little sticky as I hand-kneaded them in, but I can't blame that on Reinhart. A little blotting with a paper towel and I think I could have kneaded without added flour.

[Forgive the lousy photo quality on most shots--one dial on this camera is fatally easy to shift without noticing, and I don't pay enough attention to the results until I've downloaded to the computer. Things were very over-exposed this week until the last couple of pics of both bread and cake.]

I added cinnamon in all the suggested places--the base amount in the dough, the full amount of cinnamon-sugar for the swirl, and the coating glued on the hot loaf with a little butter. I'd skip the top coating next time--it added some extra flavor, sure, but made the loaf messy to handle and slice. There's plenty of cinnamon in the dough + swirl.

The dough rose beautifully, as did the loaves. I might let the loafs go a little longer on a repeat....or not, as the crumb was good and I'd hate to have a loaf collapse on me.

Cinnamon Raisin Pecan Bread

Cinnamon Raisin Pecan Bread

Cinnamon Raisin Pecan Bread

Cinnamon Raisin Pecan Bread



On slicing, the "open swirl" problem emerged--I don't mind a little separation of the layers, but a big opening is not what I'm looking for. I thought I was rolling tightly, but perhaps not. And perhaps the amount of cinnamon-sugar affects this, too, and I had a pretty heavy layer.

I took the second loaf to my hairdresser, as I'd described it as she was doing my perm and gotten an enthusiastic response. That was a good decision, as I suspect the nephew will be the only one next door to try it: older niece is on a school trip (robotics competition), younger niece hates raisins, and my brother and sister-in-law are avoiding carbs they unless the temptation is very strong. Come to think of it, my brother may never have learned to enjoy raisins. I could have made younger niece happy by subbing dried cherries, but with the weekly whole-wheat dried-cherry challah I just wanted something different. And *I* love cinnamon raisin bread!

6 comments:

  1. Nancy the loaves look good! I agree about that butter cinn/sugar topping,it's messy!I had a simmilar gap in my loaf also,thought I rolled it tightly.But It did proof a lottle longer than it should have,that may have caused the open gap,I'm not sure,as I also went heavy on the cinnamon sugar filling.In places it was wet with syrupy cinnamon sugar filling,and it hadn't separated much there.So it seems it may be a shaping/proofing issue. Jim

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  2. gorgeous loaves! I love cinnamon bread toasted with butter and yours look great, gap or no gap...(the gap just allows the butter to melt through onto your plate where you can later mop it up :) yummmm...

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  3. Nancy, everything looks yummy. I like how you did your photos-especially the before and after rising in the container. Very cool!

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  4. Nancy, great looking bread (the 1st photos looks awesome). Cinnamon raisin is one of my favorite bread flavor. Wish I could have a piece!

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  5. They turned out great! I am running late on this one, but looking at the pics is making me really hungry for these!

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