Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

As per usual, I am adapting a recipe from Peter Rienhart...

His cinnamon raisin walnut bread is a quick riser, using two teaspoons of yeast and fermenting for just about 3 and a half hours. I originally attempted to follow his recipe to the letter (e la lettre, for my fellow Lacan fans), but Captain Renault would not hear of it! He insisted that I begin with a sourdough starer, and who am I to second guess the dough. Alas, all I can do is hope the sour flavors of bacteria and buttermilk will compliment the sweet and walnut flavors well.



I began with a slight adaptation on Rienhart's recipe, using:

16 ounces of bread flour
1 ounce brown sugar
1 ounce shortning
5 ounces sourdough starter
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast
1 large egg
1 ounce dried milk
.8 ounces dried buttermilk (1 packet)
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cups water

You will note that I used powdered milk and buttermilk, as I rarely ever have liquid cow milks on hand. Since I am using powdered, I can alter the concentration and hopefully bring out even more tang. Rather than the 1/2 cup or so of milk and buttermilk, I used about a cup worth of each. The knead schedule is as follows:

5 minute knead, 20 minute rest, 3 minute knead. The last knead was done by hand, as I gently mixed in the raisins and walnuts (6 and 4 ounces respectively). By the end it got pretty difficult to get the remaining stuff in, as the bread was fairly well saturated with additives, and I am taking that as a good sign.

The dough itself looks just wonderful, full of a sweet yet savory smell and pocked with color from the golden raisins and walnuts. After about a 2.5 hour rise, I will divide the dough in half, proofing one loaf for 60-90 minutes and then baking at 350 for 20 minutes. The other half will rest overnight in the fridge and be baked up tomorrow morning and the results compared.


- Update -

Total bread success! Captain Renault was right, the flavors compliment each other wonderfully. Following a tip from Reinhart, after the initial rise I flattened the dough as if I were making it into pizza, covered it liberally with sugar and cinnamon and rolled it back up. The result created a wonderful, artisan look of a cinnamon swirl.

As I mentioned before, I divided the dough into two loaves, baking one after a short proof and the other got refrigerated overnight. I did not notice a substantial taste difference between the two, so in the future I will most likely skip this step.

A nice closeup of the crust:



After I restock on raisins and walnuts (this recipe just about cleaned me out of both!) I will surely be revisiting this one.