BBA Challenge #9 - Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This week's bread was Cinnamon Raisin Bread.

Oh. My. Stars.

I wonder if I will tire of how good all of these breads are... or if I will encounter one that I don't love.

I encountered some difficulty simply because I was a bone-head and forgot to add the buttermilk at the right time. I kept thinking, "Man, this dough is stiff," and added water. And then I saw that lonely measuring cup of buttermilk sitting on the counter top.

OOPS!

But it was nothing that a bit of mixing and adding flour back in to account for the water that I had added couldn't fix.

I'd say, from the looks of it, we recovered nicely.





I love having an office to go to. It makes for a great place to have people taste test your creations and it's an awfully easy place to get rid of extras. The recipe made two loaves. There is no reason why I would need that much cinnamon raisin bread sitting around the house when one of my children doesn't even like raisins and won't eat it.

(In case you're doing the math, that leaves 3 of us to potentially eat 2 loaves, and one of those is a four year old who can be finicky to say the least, bringing us to likely two people for two loaves. I don't need to eat my very own loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, people. I just don't.)

The truth is that this Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge, and all my baking in general, has been a great way to bribe people at work to like me. Or dislike me because they all seem to be starting a diet every day that I bring something to share.

Examine the evidence.

I arrive at work at about 9 am and place the full loaf of Cinnamon Raisin Bread on the table in the kitchen (which is across from my office and if you follow my days on twitter at all, you know that I hear some interesting conversations in there).


On Mondays we have staff meeting for a good bit of the morning. I checked on our little stash at noon after staff meeting. It had already dwindled quite a bit.


Then comes the afternoon munchies and at 4 o'clock, there was only a little bit left.


At about 5 o'clock, a guy from the other side of the office pokes his head in to my area and informs me that he is eating his third piece and that, obviously, he loved it. It was gone.



Overall Impressions:

An easy bread with a good texture. I might add a bit more cinnamon to the dough next time. And I know that the butter and cinnamon on top was an option that Mr. Reinhart offered but... Oh MY... it should not be optional.

Would I make this bread again? Absolutely. Maybe tomorrow.