Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Procrastination Recipe: A Tale of Two Breads

I meant to post this yesterday I'm on dat three of the flu now and have spent so much time in bed that my hips feel bruised. I wanted to organize my sock drawer when I had some free time, but that didn't happen. I should have spent time writing, except all I could do was lay horizontal and watch episodes of Castle (thank you TNT for Castle marathons, you made my sick days bearable).

Last weekend I was at my dad's baking bread with my sister. So in this post I will give you the first recipe - Cinnamon Raisin Bread, which we made Friday night and then used to make french toast on Saturday morning. It was easy, delicious and will wow any brunch guests you may have over. I made a second bread which I will post another day (it's even easier than this recipe).

*Disclaimer: Any spelling errors or nonsensical writing I am blaming on the flu, so please excuse me this one time.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup warm water
1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast (I used "fast rise")
2 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup raisins
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 egg, beaten

Here we go...
Warm the milk until it bubbles then set aside. Disolve yeast in the warm water, and set aside until yeast is frothy. Once frothy, mix in eggs, sugar, butter, salt and raisins. Then stir in the milk. Add flour gradually until dough is stiff.




 

Sidenote: I had my sister do the measuring of the flour and I'm not sure she measured correctly because her "four cups" wasn't enough and so I ended up adding at least another cup until the dough came together fully.

  


On a floured surface knead for a few minutes then place in a greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Place in a warm place for an hour, until dough has doubled in size.

Punch down dough (let's be honest, this is the fun part of making bread), divide into two loaves and then roll out on floured surface. Roll into a rectangular shape, about a quarter inch thick.

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins and sprinkle on dough (you can sprinkle over the entire surface of in a few places, it doesn't really matter since it's going to be rolled up). Then roll dough and tuck ends under. Place in a greased bread tin. This makes two loaves so maybe gift one and become known as the best baker in town to your friends.

 

Let the dough rise for another hour in the tins, covered. Then brush the beaten egg across the top of both loaves before putting in the oven. This will the create that great golden-brown colour. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. I let them cool in the tins for about ten minutes before I loosened them and then let them cool overnight on wire racks.

 


Seriously, how good does this bread look? After they came out of the oven I brushed them with a little melted butter to make them shine. This is totally up to you (you know you want to do it).

 


 

So to make the french toast, I sliced the bread into half inch pieces. I soaked them minimally in a bath of about a cup of milk, an egg, and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon. Then tossed them right into the pan with a sliver of butter. I'm not a big french toast person but these pieces with a pat of butter and good maple syrup (I'm talking GOOD maple syrup)... delicious.

 


Happy Eating!
~Stephanie





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1 comment

  1. This bread and the French toast looks amazing! Yum yum yum.

    ReplyDelete

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