I finally figured out how to feed my sourdough starter, so I decided to try out another Sourdough Cinnamon-Raisin Bread recipe. This time I made two loaves (two batches), one to bring to work to make up for when my previous bread didn’t turn out, and one to take to the in-laws.
I made this in my stand mixer since previous experiences kneading sourdough were arduous. The instructions were easy to follow, although it didn’t say when to add whole wheat flour (I added it with the bread flour). I assume that vegan butter was added to make the dough more cinnamon roll-like; I just added vegetable oil instead. I didn’t like the process of kneading the oil and baking soda into the dough – I would rather than have added it when I mixed the dough originally, although it’s possible that those would impede the leavening action of the starter.
You roll out this dough, add a cinnamon-sugar mixture, and roll it up – much like you do with cinnamon rolls, except that you roll it lengthwise, to get a shorter (and thicker) loaf. This cinnamon-sugar mixture had brown and white sugars, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
The dough rose well. I liked the process. I made dough when I got home from work, let it rise so that I could roll it out and up before I went to bed, and I could bake it while I did my morning routine.
I think I was expecting something more like my last loaf of bread (sweet and fluffy), except for… done. This was a little different. This was dense, primarily from the whole wheat flour, I think. I may have slightly underbaked it (which I guess because my tried and true brownie recipe takes a little longer in this oven).
Pieces without cinnamon touching them tasted like bread, not at all sweet, since there wasn’t any cinnamon sugar there. I’m a fan of breads that taste like things, but generally not a fan of bread for bread’s sake. I also didn’t care much for the nutmeg in the recipe.
People seemed to like this fine. I sent the leftovers home with a coworker because it was vegan and she liked them. I think I liked the loaf that I traveled with a little better. My in-laws said that it reminded them more of a cinnamon-raisin bagel, rather than a sweet bread like a cinnamon roll.
I would probably sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the top of this for flavor and to make it prettier. I’d mix in oil during the process of mixing together the dough, rather than kneading it in later, although this may change the way the dough rises. It’s not a bad recipe, though, and I’d consider making it another time!
Leave a Reply