Tags: bread tips
Sweet, juicy, warm, and gooey. Raisin bread! Don’t you just want to toast a big, fat slice of it right now, slather it with butter, and sit down with a steaming cup of coffee to go with? Best of all, it’s a Grandmother Bread recipe.
But first….. I get a lot of questions about breadmaking. In the next few weeks, I’m going to be sneaking some simple secrets to great bread into my regular bread posts. A lot of these secrets aren’t secrets at all–but they’re things that aren’t always on the minds of new breadmakers. After all, when you’re just figuring out how to knead dough and other basics, some seemingly obvious side notes aren’t always so obvious. One of the most common questions I hear is, “How do you get such high loaves?”
Answer: Size matters.
(Get your mind out of the gutter!)
I’m talking about bread pans. I have a lot of bread pans.
Metal pans, glass pans, stoneware, big ones, little ones, miniature ones, I’ve got it all in a bread pan. Which is my favorite? Glass bread pans. I like the way bread bakes in a glass pan–the crust is just a bit crustier. I also like being able to look at the bread all over when I’m deciding if it’s done.
But not all glass bread pans are created equal.
Notice the pan in the middle is wider than the pans on either side. This inequity impacts the final product. See the bread rising higher in the narrower loaf pan here.
And of course, when it bakes up, the loaf in the narrower pan is higher.
As I said, this is a seemingly obvious secret, but if you only have one or two bread pans, nothing to compare them to, you might not have thought about it.
On a related note, even with a narrower pan, your bread might not turn out high and lovely if the recipe is too small. Some bread recipes aren’t crafted to create high loaves–they simply don’t turn out enough dough. If you’re already using narrow pans and have a bread recipe that isn’t making high loaves for you, consider increasing the recipe (and subsequent baking time) by a quarter or a third to build a bigger loaf.
My Grandmother Bread recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of water to start the dough (per loaf), which guarantees high loaves.
One more note, use homemade dough enhancer for higher, lighter loaves (particularly when using whole grains). If you’ve never made bread before, see how to make bread.
Oh–are you ready for the raisin bread? This is the one-loaf standard Grandmother Bread recipe with the addition of raisins and extra sugar for more sweetening.
How to make Raisin Bread:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
4-5 cups flour
In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, raisins, sugar, and salt. Let sit five minutes. Stir in flour with a heavy spoon until dough becomes too stiff to continue stirring easily. Add a little more flour and begin kneading. The amount of flour is approximate–your mileage may vary! Continue adding flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled. (Usually, 30-60 minutes.) Uncover bowl; sprinkle in a little more flour and knead again before shaping dough into a loaf. Place in a greased loaf pan and cover with greased wax paper or a wet paper towel. Let rise until loaf is tall and beautiful! (About an hour, depending on the temperature in your kitchen.)
Bake for 25 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven.
Note: I replaced one cup of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat in the bread pictured here. You can use straight all-purpose flour, part whole wheat as I did, or make it all whole wheat. (Use homemade dough enhancer if you’re making it with all whole wheat!)
Mmmmmm. Want some?
Variations: Make Any-Fruit Bread! Use one cup of chopped or diced fruit in place of raisins, such as peaches, berries, etc, or any one-cup combination of fruit.
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:J
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- Suzanne, the Farmer’s Wife
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One thing I noticed on raising bread dough is how warm it is when your proofing it. During the summer when I do make bread and I let it sit in the sun, it will rise higher then the winter months. You do have to make sure the bowl is warm before adding the yeast and water (when you activate the yeast) or the cold bowl will take away the heat from the water. During the winter months I will heat the oven to about 170 degrees and then shut off the oven with the door slightly cracked at the beginning of activating the yeast. This is so I have a warm (not hot) draft free place to place the bread dough to rise. Another trick is to leave a space between the two racks so you can pour boiling water in a baking pan to make the oven warm and moist during proofing. This method I do when I make breads that require two risings.
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http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2007/01/new-york-times-no-knead-bread.html
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I’m going to have to give your recipe a try.
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We aren’t a baked raisin in anything family here — however, I am trying Grandmother’s Bread for the first time today. I have two loaves rising now.
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Also, to avoid having the bread fall, don’t overproof the second rise, the strands get to thin and the top will fall when you move it or bake it.
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Blessings from Ohio…
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I got fairly good at making three loaves at a time, so I got cocky and decided to triple the recipe. I killed the yeast with too hot water, but didn’t realize what I’d done so I went ahead and added the flour and kneaded the dough, and put it in my bowl and waited. And waited… Moral? Very hot water means different things to different people. I use the rule of thumb that it should be hotter than baby formula, but not too hot to drink.
In the winter in a cold, un-insulated farmhouse I used to take the bread bowl and put it on the dashboard in the car. The solar heat warmed the car enough to make the bread rise. Necessity is the mother of invention? I think so.
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Thanks for the bread enhancer recipe – I’m going to make some of that for the wheat bread we love.
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http://forum.kitchenaid.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=33
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Looks yummy! I may have to try that!
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Good breadmaking tips Suzanne..I need all those tips!!! :mrgreen:
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I love raisin bread!
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Thanks for the recipe! It looks yummy!
I need more bread pans now!
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The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon yeast. Most your other Gma bread recipes say a packet or 1 tablespoon. Just checking before I make it
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http://suzannemcminn.com/blog/2008/10/03/cinnamon-swirl-bread/