This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Susan of Food.Baby: raisin swirl bread. I adore all homemade bread, but cinnamon-raisin bread has a special place in my heart. It makes the best breakfast, toasted with just a little bit of butter! Last year I made raisin swirl bread from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and it’s still my favorite homemade bread, so Dorie’s recipe had some competition.
I made just a few minor changes to this week’s recipe. I used instant yeast instead of active dry yeast and reduced the quantity to about 1 3/4 teaspoons. The optional vanilla and nutmeg made it into my bread as they both sounded wonderful, but I skipped the orange zest – only because I didn’t have any on hand and didn’t feel like going out. For the swirl, I halved the cocoa powder as I didn’t want the chocolate flavor to be too prominent. I loved that Dorie’s recipe was fairly simple – I enjoy working with yeast to make homemade bread, but I don’t often have patience for recipes that you have to start days in advance or those that include 5 pages of instructions.
The verdict? The bread was good – I had no problem polishing the loaf off myself. I individually wrapped slices and pulled them out for breakfast many, many mornings. The swirl was yummy, lots of raisins and just a hint of chocolate to complement the cinnamon. My only problem with the bread was that it was a bit dry. I wish it had been lighter and not quite as dense. The recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice remains my favorite, but I still enjoyed this one a lot and felt bummed when I retrieved the final slice from the freezer.
Many thanks to Susan for hosting this week! You can find the recipe for the raisin swirl bread on her blog or on pages 59-60 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
It looks great! I can’t wait to slice into mine in the morning.
I love your swirl. looks perfect!
I did a little recipe combining tool – Martha inspired Dorie Cinnamon Raisin Bread
I really enjoyed making this bread. I am intrigued by the you one you mention from the bread maker’s apprentice. Will have to give that one a go!
I just took mine out of the oven and it seems fine without the raisins although I wish I would have put them in. I have to get some sleep so I will wait until tomorrow for the taste test.
As usual, yours is a beauty. You know how to make each food look delicious.
As usual, your bread is beautiful! I didn’t add the optionals and left out the raisins and it was still good. I agree that this one wasn’t quite as good as the BBA loaf, but I would never turn down a slice of yours!
Your bread looks so delicious! I also loved this recipe, I will make it again and again 🙂
We liked this a lot but if you other recipe is even better maybe I need it too.
Sorry it was dry, it sure looks tasty! I want to make french toast with the rest of mne!
It was all I could do to not polish off this loaf all by myself.
Your swirl came out beautifully!
All those raisins. Bet it was good. Great photo.
Wish now I had added the extras, but….
Looks beautiful, and for once our end products look fairly close…minus the orange. I left out the cocoa also, forgot to mention that, but figure you would have guessed that already. Great job…oh maybe someday I will be wrapping individual slices and things like this bread will last longer than 20 minutes around here. But then I will be sad, won’t I?
the bread looks amazing and your photos are gorgeous! I love raisin bread. I skipped TWD this week, but I have made raisin bread once before and absolutely loved it!
Great photos! Great bread.
Your bread looks wonderful!
Great bread and great pictures! 🙂
I added all the extras and believe that gave the bread some hidden undertones that enhanced its flavor. Your loaf looks delicious, even with the raisins!
looks wonderful!
Love your swirl, Tracey! And that second photo is beautiful! 🙂
your bread would put mine to shaaame! it looks fantastic!
WOW! That is one stunning loaf of bread!
this won’t replace my favorite either but it was fun to try a new recipe. love the 2nd photo!
I thought the dough was great to work with and made mine in to cinnamon rolls for the guys. I think your bread looks great and really want to make the bread sometime.
Your bread looks perfect! I thought it was a tad dry too, but loved it anyway. I will have to try The BBA version to see how it is. 🙂
what a great bread! I love those cinnamon swirls…and cutting it into slices and freezing it was a wonderful idea!
I’m in total agreement with you about this bread; it’s hard to beat the BBA version. Mine was a bit dry also, but boy, does this recipe make attractive bread!
Another perfect swirl… I need practice. This looks wonderful – I’m glad you used the cocoa – I thought is only enhanced the cinnamon. Can’t wait to try your BBA recipe – now that I’m a swirl bread freak!
That looks great, Tracey! Sorry to hear it didn’t turn out quite the way you would have liked. We’ll have to make a date to bake the BBA raisin bread again sometime soon. =)
Gorgeous loaf of bread! I had to skip the zest for the same reason, I think it would really good in this bread. I liked this one, but my heart belongs to the BBA cinnamon raisin bread.
That is exactly what I did and I’m worrying about the last slice … Your looks great !
you’re so smart to individually wrap slices- maybe that would stop me from eating 3 slices for breakfast!
Wow. Your bread looks gorgeious. I love raisin bread too, so this will have to be added to my must-make list.
YUM!! All these recipes for Raisin/cinnamon swirl bread makes me want to make it. Yours looks great!!
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Beautiful bread:)
Your bread looks picture perfect Tracey (but I never expect anything less of you).
Your bread is beautiful! I agree that this is the best thing to eat for breakfast.
Gorgeous bread!! I bet it tastes SOOOOOOO good!
Wow, this swirl looks fabulous! Awesome job!! Your pictures are really great too! Thanks for posting this. I just made Apple-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Swirl Loaf and it was delicious, but the swirl wasn’t as great as yours.