Brown Sugar Raisin Loaf

I suddenly realize there are many recipes I have tried in the past, I didn't make any note on each of them to remind myself of their result. Or some of them (look) were really sucks, and decided not to blog them.

This raisin loaf is my second time making it. But the first time didn't look too good and I gave it a miss. I know it can look better, but I thought I have tried my best. :-)


I have always think that raisin bread has slightly heavy and more compact texture. But this recipe has told me a different story! The loaf actually stays soft , and it's REALLY soft even I baked it a night before, for next morning breakfast. I slit the bread top and filled in small knobs of butter and sprinkled some sugar to give that 'sweet' looking effect. Very pleased to see the bread rises up so well and not to say the final result!

I love eating this bread with butter. It is best when I have to rush in the mornings which I have to send my boy to school! Brew my cup of tea and sandwich the bread with butter and that's my quick breakfast.

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There is a little note/tips on kneading this dough which makes our lives a lot easier. But I am not too sure if this kneading method works for other recipes though.

Instead of the usual pull and bashing kneading method. This recipe teaches the easier kneading method. The best is you have a standing mixer which can let you have the initial mixing work done by the it. In this way, the raisin will not 'Fly' all over the shop and save us a lot of time.

Bring the dough on a slightly floured work top, use a rolling pin and roll out the dough into rectangular, then fold the dough to a 1/3 folding like making croissant. Just bring the sides to the middle and give the dough a 90 degree turn and roll it out flat and repeat the same steps for 4-5 times. slowly the dough will become smooth and develop more resistance. It's almost the same result as the usual kneading method. After this just let the dough rise as usual. Hope this will help.
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Ingredients:

Bread Flour 250g
Salt 5g
Sugar 20g
Instant Yeast 2g
Milk 25g
Warm Water 145g
Unsalted Butter 13g

Raisin 95g
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Method:

1. Except butter and raisin, mix all ingredients to make a rough dough. Then add in butter to continue kneading till a smooth and springy dough.

2. Add in raisin and give it another few minutes kneading till all raisin well incorporated to the dough. Cover the dough and let it prove in a warm place for 60 minutes till the dough rise up to 2.5 size bigger.

3. When the dough is well risen, punch out the air and roughly shape it into a ball shape and let it rest for 20 minutes.

4. After resting, roll out the dough to a rectangular shape and roll it up like a Swiss roll ans seal up the edge of the dough and put it into bread tin for the final rise. It should take a bout 60 minutes, or the dough rise up to at least 80% high of the tin. Have some egg wash or slit the top like I did before baking the loaf.

5. Bake dough in a preheated oven for 30 minute at 200'c. During the baking process, you should see the dough rise a little higher the the tin, that's to know whether you will get a soft and fluffy loaf.

6. Cool the bread out of the tin on a wire rack.