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Occasionally I’m asked what inspires me to cook or to bake.
Usually, it’s just because I’m hungry.
Occasionally, it’s because I’m feeling creative or experimental.
And other times, it’s because I want to eat my son’s baby food.
…
Wait, what?
A weekend or two ago I was feeding Baby Boy his breakfast. Cinnamon Raisin Granola. Man, I thought, as I scooped another spoonful from the jar and fed it to my eager Boy, this stuff smells good!
He finished up his breakfast, and when I got to my cereal – or waffle or whatever it was – it just didn’t satisfy. I wanted something with cinnamon and raisin. I wanted cinnamon raisin bread. And so once again I put on my bread baking hat and got to it; and behold the results!
Cinnamon raisin bread is actually pretty easy to make. It’s a somewhat time consuming process simply because of the two risings you have to allow, so don’t expect to be making and eating this for breakfast same day – which I did.
But don’t let the time scare you. The actual hands-on work is really pretty simple and straightforward. Honestly, the hardest part of this recipe is not drooling while the delicious cinnamon sugar bread aroma wafts through your kitchen and into the rest of your house.
This cinnamon raisin bread is great hot out of the oven, or a day or two later toasted with some butter. If you’re into french toast (we aren’t really) I bet this would be great to use.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 (1/8 ounce) packages active dry yeast
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/3 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 tablespoon milk
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside until yeast is frothy, about 10 minutes or so.
- Warm the milk in a small sauce pan on the stove until it just starts to bubble, stirring occasionally.Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm, about 120-125 degrees.
- In a stand mixer or medium size mixing bowl, mix yeast/water, eggs, sugar, butter, salt, and raisins. Add milk slowly. Then add flour gradually until you have a stiff dough (you may need to add a little extra flour to reach the right consistency)
- Once mixed and stiff enough to work with your hands without being too tacky, transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and kneed for a few minutes until smooth. Form dough into a ball and place in a large bowl that has been sprayed or buttered.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a dish towel. Place it in your oven with the light on (the small amount of heat from the light helps provide just a little heat to aid in rising). Allow to rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle 1/2 inch thick.
- Moisten the dough with 2 tablespoons milk and rub all over the dough with your hands.
- Mix together 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 3 tablespoons white sugar, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon and sprinkle mixture evenly on top of the moistened dough. Roll up tightly (the long way). The roll should be about 3 inches in diameter. Tuck under ends and pinch bottom together.
- Place loaf into well greased (either with butter or cooking spray) 9 x 5 inch pan and lightly grease top of loaf (we sprayed). Let rise in warm place, uncovered, again for about an hour.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until loaf is lightly browned and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from oven and let cool on rack. After about 20 minutes, lay loaf on it's sides and remove from pans. Allow to cool before slicing.
Recipe adapted from Food.com
*We recommend doubling raisins. We didn’t at first because someone doesn’t completely like raisins, but afterwards someone said it would have been better to double. Love you someone 
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Welcome to The Keenan Cookbook! We're your hosts Chris & Rachel. 
yours has a beautiful cinnamon swirl! i can never get mine to do that!
Thank you! I actually was kind of disappointed, I wanted to do it better. I kind of rolled mine too long and had to squish it in a little, somewhat Z like, so it wasn’t as pretty as I wanted. I guess all those years of rolling home made stromboli
I bet this would make the best french toast too! Yum, yum!
first off.. how on earth are you not a fan of French toast?! I’m dying over here. Secondly… amazing bread. I’ve had cinnamon bread on the mind for a while now. This might be the push I need to actually try it out. Definitely need to plan first.
Lol! I guess I’m more a waffle or pancake kind of guy – or, bacon egg and cheese on a bagel! I think you need to make some cinnamon raisin bread asap – sooo good. I have a tiny piece left, so I’ll be baking another loaf before weeks end.
looks just awesome, chris! i’ll have to add it to my to-make list now that i’m obsessed with making anything bread-related!
Thanks Amy! I’m with you on the bread obsession. I’m looking forward to hearing your baguette techniques!
That is quite the funky swirl you have there
Sounds like it was by accident, but worked great! Maybe I can replicate it if I roll from both sides of the long direction, meeting in the middle? hmmm. The crumb in your bread looks great, too. btw, have you ever used instant yeast? King Arthur sells it and I even buy it in 1 lb packs in my local grocery store. You can skip the dissolve step and buy in bulk by doing so. fwiw.
Yea the funky swirl was an accident
. I started rolling by width instead of by length, habit from stromboli making. So I had to kind of squish it into the pan like a Z.
You know I’ve been considering instant but I haven’t read enough about it – plus I’ve still got 3 jars of red start active dry in the fridge! =D You’ve had good results with instant?
Yep, use instant all the time (SAF Red; the gold is for high sugar doughs or ones that need more of a boost for some reason). I go through about a pound every three months
I would love a slice of this for breakfast!
Thanks Maria! It smells awesome! Love toasting up a slice, dabbing a little butter, and enjoying with a cup of tea for breakfast. =D
I need to get over my fear of baking bread. This looks amazing!
Definitely do! I’ve only recently been able to figure out how to do it with a 9 month old (still challenging!). So tasty. So rewarding =D
Help! I’m making this right now. When do I add the yeast/water?????? I’m not a bread maker so I have no idea!!!!
Hi Kindra,
At step 3 you’ll want to add the yeast/water – updating the recipe now to include that. thanks and!
Thanks! I added it after step 3 but don’t think that should matter much, I hope
Yea I think you’ll be just fine. So long as the yeast got in there you should be good =D Let us know how it came out! Yummm
It was amazing! The kids went crazy for it! Thanks for sharing the recipe!