Honey Raisin Bread

 

While I love baking breads with at least some whole grain flour in them, I’m also happy to make a richer, fluffier, sweeter loaf on occasion. This one, which is also studded with dark raisins, is made with all bread flour, and is nearly as indulgently satisfying as dessert.

I always feel a bit irresponsible when writing about a kneaded yeast bread recipe on these pages. Not because of the carbohydrate loaded nature of the final product. (It has never been my goal to be nutritionally elite.) It’s because of the somewhat careless way I put together a loaf of bread. Success in baking is usually accomplished by applied accuracy. Recipes for really great fancy baked goods have measurements that consider tiny increments like grams and milliliters. My bread recipes tend to use language like, “3 cups bread flour, or more as needed,” or brief descriptions of what the dough should be like when it’s time to stop kneading or adding flour.

 

This recipe is no exception. I started with a cup of warm milk. I wanted to sweeten and enrich the bread, so added ¼ cup of each honey and soft, unsalted butter. I knew this would hold about 3 cups of bread flour, so that’s what I kneaded in. It was about right. The dough came together in my stand mixer, smooth and elastic, slightly tacky. Perhaps more or less flour would be needed if I used a different brand. Perhaps kneading by hand instead of with a stand mixer and a dough hook would change the results. Really, I’m happy to keep the recipe somewhat flexible so that bread can be made the way the bread maker likes to make it.

 

This dough could probably take in some other flavors, such as cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. You could also use a different dried fruit, such as craisins, or chopped dates, figs, or apricots, or a mixture of any of those. Nuts could be mixed in, too. I liked the sweetness of this recipe, though you may be able to back off the honey, or replace it with another sweetener, with some minor adjustments to the flour content. You could probably put some whole grain flour in as well.

The butter keeps the bread soft as well as rich, making it a lovely breakfast or afternoon snack. It also makes pretty fabulous French toast. Bread pudding would be great, too. This is a good one to have in your recipe file for tinkering. Or just eating plain, lightly toasted and gently buttered.

Honey Raisin Bread

If you do not want to use a stand mixer to mix and knead the bread, you can mix it in a large bowl and knead by hand on a floured surface.

1 cup milk

¼ cup unsalted butter

¼ cup honey

2 ¼ teaspoon (1 envelope) active dry yeast

3 cups bread flour, or more as needed, divided

1 teaspoon fine salt

¾ cup raisins

1. Combine the milk and butter and heat until the milk is about 100 F. The butter does not need to be completely melted. Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.

2. Stir in the honey and yeast. Let stand about 5 minutes, or until the yeast is foamy.

3. Add about 1 ½ cups flour and mix with the paddle attachment to make a batter. Cover the bowl with a towel and let stand for 15-30 minutes. The mixture should be risen and puffy in appearance.

4. Sprinkle the salt over the dough. Add about half of the remaining flour. Knead on medium-low speed using the dough hook. Continue adding the remaining flour and kneading it in to make a smooth and elastic dough that is still slightly tacky. This will take about 10 minutes of kneading time.

5. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead in the raisins by hand to distribute them evenly.

6. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray, or grease it as desired. Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it in the prepared bowl. Spray or grease the dough ball. Cover the dough loosely with a sheet of plastic wrap. Cover the bowl with a towel. Let stand for about 1 hour, or until roughly doubled in size.

7. Gently deflate the dough and reshape it into a ball. Let stand 5 minutes. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Shape the dough into a log and place it on the baking sheet. Cover loosely with a towel.

8. Let the shaped dough rise for about 1 hour or until roughly doubled in size. Preheat oven to 350 F.

9. Slash the dough in several places with a sharp blade. Bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool completely.

Makes about 12 servings.

Other recipes like this one: White Sandwich Bread, Rosemary Raisin Rye Bread, Hazelnut and Cranberry Bread with Sage, Cinnamon Graham Bread with Cranberries and Pecans

Rosemary Focaccia

 

I’ve seen and collected enough recipes for rosemary-flavored flatbread, thought long enough about how I would make it, and imagined vividly enough how it would taste, that I could probably have convinced someone that I make it regularly. I even kind of surprised myself when I realized that I had never made it at all. How something so lively and interesting slipped through my culinary clutches, I will never know.

The good news is that I finally made some. I kept this pretty simple, mostly adapting my pizza dough recipe. I swapped in bread flour for the all-purpose flour to make it soft and puffy and significantly increased the olive oil to make it richer. I also infused the oil with fresh rosemary, added rosemary leaves to the dough, and sprinkled even more rosemary leaves on top of the bread.

While I tried to get rosemary into and onto this bread in as many ways as I could, I also tried not to really overpower it with rosemary. The end result in this recipe attempt was a warm, subtle rosemary essence through each bite of bread. 

 

This bread is fairly thick and puffy. It works well as a soup accompaniment (especially for this soup!). I think it’s even thick enough to split in half horizontally and stuff with sandwich fixings. You could adapt that thickness to meet your own preferences by stretching the dough more or less before baking.

You could also add other things to this bread, either mixed into the dough (other herbs, olives) or on top, like a pizza (a sprinkling of cheese, caramelized onions). Like any basic flour and water and yeast mixture, there are lots of opportunities improvise your way to customized deliciousness. Let your imagination run wild! You might even become an expert on a few things you’ve never actually done!

 

Rosemary Focaccia

You could use more rosemary in this recipe if you really want the flavor to burst through.

2 tablespoons rosemary leaves, divided

¼ cup olive oil, preferably extra-virgin

1 cup warm (about 100 F) water

2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope)

1 tablespoon sugar

3 ½ cups bread flour (or more if needed)

1 ½ teaspoon fine salt

1. Finely chop about 2 teaspoons rosemary leaves. Set aside. Set aside about 1 teaspoon of the remaining whole rosemary leaves.

2. Warm the olive oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Add the remaining rosemary leaves and cook about 3-5 minutes, or until they have sizzled for a while and the leaves turn a dull green, almost brown color (do not burn them). Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. This can be done a few hours ahead of time.

3. Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer (or in a large bowl if mixing the dough by hand.) Let stand about 5 minutes or until the yeast is foamy.

4. Strain the rosemary leaves out of the oil. Discard the spent leaves. Add 3 tablespoons of the infused oil to the yeast mixture. Set the remaining oil aside.

5. Add the chopped rosemary leaves. Using the paddle attachment, stir in 2 cups of the bread flour on low speed until the mixture resembles a coarse batter (or stir together with a spoon). Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let stand 15-30 minutes. The batter should have expanded to a puffy mass.

6. Sprinkle the salt over the dough. Add about ½ cup bread flour and knead in with the dough hook (or stir in with a spoon). Continue kneading at medium-low speed, adding enough of the remaining flour to make a soft, slightly sticky dough, about 10 minutes. (Or turn out the dough and knead in the remaining flour by hand.)

7. Form the sticky dough into a ball and place it in a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Spray the top of the dough ball and place a sheet of plastic wrap on top. Cover the bowl with a towel and let stand at least 1 hour. The dough should have doubled in size. (You can also refrigerate the dough overnight. Bring to room temperature before continuing.)

8. Gently deflate the risen dough and shape into a new ball. Cover and let rest about 5 minutes. Stretch and shape the dough into a flat disk, square or oval as desired. I made mine about 10-inches square and 1-1 ½ inches thick. You can stretch it as thinly as you like. Place on a baking sheet that has either been greased or sprayed with cooking spray or lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat (my favorite).

9. Preheat oven to 350 F. Let the dough rise about 30 minutes. Gently poke the dough all over to create dimples. Brush the remaining infused oil over the top of the dough. Sprinkle with the last of the rosemary leaves. Bake 30-40 minutes or until lightly golden on the outside. If your dough is thinner, you may want to bake a shorter time.

10. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack. Enjoy slightly warm.

Makes about 6 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Pizza Crust Dough, Whole Wheat Pizza Crust, Naan with Whole Wheat Flour, Rosemary Raisin Rye Bread

Whole Wheat Bread with Hazelnuts and Cranberries

There are too many things to do. I don’t care who you are. There are just too many things to do. I’ve begun to understand that getting things done is really a matter of making good decisions. Decisions about what things to buckle down and do.

I finally decided to get this bread made when I realized I might not have much more time to use the fresh sage that’s still growing in a pot on my porch. I loved the idea of combining nuts, dried fruit, and fresh herbs in bread (raisins and rosemary go really well in this bread). I was a bit concerned, however, about the 100% whole-wheat-ness of the original recipe. I’ve always held on to at least a bit of white flour when baking bread, just because of my preference for its texture.

 

There was an entire 5-pound bag of white whole wheat flour (whole wheat flour from a lighter-colored variety of wheat) in my pantry, though, and I can’t remember what I was planning on using it for, so I took the leap and tried the white whole wheat in the bread, and left out the refined white flour. I was still a little worried, because I had tried white whole wheat flour before and found it disappointed. I think whole-grain proponents have been pushing that variety as if it could fool you into thinking it’s white flour, but really, it acts like whole wheat flour when baking. For this reason, I added a hefty dose of vital gluten to my bread. I need my bread to be like bread, not like crumbly bricks.

The 100% whole wheat-ness of the final result was pleasant and did not detract from the delicious flavors of good hazelnuts and hazelnut oil and cranberries, as well as the haunting lilt of the fresh sage. I made the dough into two small round loaves, enjoying it on its own or alongside a soup or stew, rather than as a sandwich bread, although I think it would be delicious as the platform for tartines or crostini. It’s great all by itself, though, and I love the combination of the nutty whole wheat, hazelnuts, sage, and sweet-tart cranberries.

I’m glad I decided to make this bread, and I’m glad I decided to try white whole wheat flour again. Never mind that I didn’t have any regular whole wheat flour to play with anyway. I was happy to have one less decision to make, so I could get something delicious done.

Hazelnut Cranberry Bread with Sage

Based on a recipe in Vegetarian Times magazine

I managed to find toasted and skinned hazelnuts in the store, but you can use the method in this post to toast and skin raw nuts if you wish.

1 ¼ cup warm water (about 100 F)

2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons hazelnut oil

3 ½ cups white whole wheat flour, divided

2 tablespoons vital gluten flour

1 ½ teaspoon fine salt

¾ cup chopped hazelnuts, preferably toasted and skinned

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage

¾ cup dried cranberries

1. In the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer (or another large bowl), combine the water, yeast and brown sugar. Let stand about 5 minutes, or until the yeast appears foamy.

2. Add the hazelnut oil, 2 cups white whole wheat flour, and gluten. Mix at low speed using the paddle attachment for the mixer (or stir together if working by hand) to form a batter. Cover the bowl with a towel and let stand about 30 minutes.

3. After 30 minutes the batter should have puffed up from the activity of the yeast. Add the salt and about ½ cup flour. Begin kneading using the dough hook for the mixer. Continue kneading, adding as much of the remaining flour as you can while still keeping the dough smooth and stretchy. (If working by hand, stir in as much of the flour as you can, then turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead in enough flour to make a smooth, elastic dough). The kneading process (whether by machine or by hand) should take about 10 minutes and result in a stretchy but smooth dough.

4. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and work in the hazelnuts, sage and cranberries.

5. Shape the dough into a ball. Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray (or grease it with oil or butter). Place the dough in the greased bowl. Spray or grease the top of the dough ball. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on top of the dough. Cover all with a towel and let stand about 1 hour, or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

6. Gently deflate the risen dough and shape it into a ball again. Cover and let stand about 5 minutes. Prepare a baking sheet by greasing it, or covering it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Divide the dough in half and shape it into two balls. Cover and let stand about 1 hour, or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

7. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Slash the dough balls across the top with a sharp knife.

8. Bake at 375 F for about 35 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and crusty on the outside, and tests done on the inside (it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, or a thermometer probe inserted in the bread reads about 200 F.) Cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 2 round loaves of about 8-10 slices each.

Other recipes like this one: Rosemary Raisin Rye Bread, Sage and Onion Bread with Cornmeal

One year ago: Pasta with Sausage, Peppers and Olives