A Spoonful of Sugar

Raisin Cinnamon Loaf, adapted from "The Bread Bible" by Rose Levy Berenbaum

Makes 1 tall, large loaf.

Sponge
262g plain flour (approx 11% protein)
310g water
35g honey
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast

Dough
238g plain flour
30g powdered skimmed milk
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
98g unsalted butter softened
11.5g salt
110g raisins
55g granulated sugar
7g ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, melted

1kg tin

Our adventure started with making a sponge. I've tried making bread from a sponge before with poor results so I was interested to see if Rose's method would yield better results. Also interesting was that Rose always calls for instant yeast - a girl after my own heart! I much prefer to use instant yeast.

The sponge was very easy to make; just whisk together all of the ingredients, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then cover briefly whilst putting together the flour mixture to cover it. The sprinkling of flour, milk and yeast was mainly to protect the sponge whilst it fermented.

The sponge was let to rise for about two hours by which time it had bubbled up through the the blanket of flour in places.

At this point, things got messy (so no pictures of the kneading stage!). I sprinkled over the salt and and the softened butter; then simply plunged my hands in and beat the mixture together, squidging occasionally to blend in the butter. Once all the flour seemed moistened, I kneaded the dough in the bowl for a few minutes before turning it out onto the counter with some of the reserved flour.

After a series of kneading and resting the dough, I squeezed in the raisins and popped the dough into a clean, oiled bowl to rise for two hours at room temperature. Once risen, I carefully scraped the dough out onto the floured worktop (actually, it slid out pretty well by itself, either the dough has too much flour or I over-oiled the bowl) and as soon as I touched the surface I was amazed. It was bubbly! Seriously bubbly - the best way to describe it is the sensation when you spill champagne on your skin. Incredibly fine bubbles that almost seemed to move under the dough. A little freakish to feel at first, but really fun!

As directed by Rose, I carefully pulled the dough into a rough rectangle. She didn't say how thin to pull it, so I left it at a fairly thick rectangle, 20x30cm in size. Then, following the diagram in the book, I folded the bottom third to the centre (short side) and then folded the top over that. Turn the dough around so that the smooth fold is to the left and then repeat. Turn the dough right-side up and put it back in the bowl.

The turning/folding was supposed to redistribute the raisins more evenly (if only it could make them stick more firmly within the dough!) and knock the dough back slightly.

The dough after a business-letter turn.

After all that exertion, the dough was tired again. So, Rose told me to put it in the fridge for an hour to firm up before rolling it out. Despite its nap, the dough rose quite spectacularly whilst in the fridge. Thankfully nowhere near as scarily as Deb's brioche dough.

And now the part we've all been waiting for; making the spiral.... I rolled the dough out to a large rectangle (9"x17"x0.5"), dimpled it all over with my fingertips, brushed it with egg wash, and then sprinkled it evenly with cinnamon sugar. The cinnamon sugar was a simple mixture of 55g granulated sugar and 7g ground cinnamon. Next time I would use a little more cinnamon.

I then carefully rolled and squeezed the dough together. Squeezing the dough after each roll minimised the possibility of gaps forming between the spirals. I think you have to be fairly cruel when squeezing the dough; I was firm but still found that the spiral was quite loose in places once baked.

The rolled dough, nestled snugly in its tin.

The dough was then allowed to rise for just over an hour whilst the oven preheated to Gas Mark 4 (180C) with a heavy baking sheet on the bottom shelf. Once both dough and oven were ready I introduced them and baked the loaf for 50 minutes until a skewer came out cleanly.

I glazed the loaf with some melted butter as soon as it came out of the oven. It was then turned out onto a wire rack to cool for at least an hour. I had a slice for a late supper (after a restorative nap) which was absolutely delicious. Here is the loaf in it's freshly baked glory!

Freshly baked loaf!