Judy said...
September 8, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Mmmmm I love raisins, but my family doesn’t. I made the olive oil dough for the first time yesterday. I made pocketless pitas for tuna melts last night and foccacia today to go with spaghetti for dinner. I love this book!

larry silva said...
September 8, 2008 at 1:43 pm

This is one of my favorite breads too! I substitute one cup of whole milk yoghurt for the buttermilk (in the buttermilk bread recipe on pg 207). It works great. This bread is a crowd pleaser eaten great fresh on the day baked or toasted afterwards. It also seems to store well but never lasts long enough.

Erin Zackey said...
September 8, 2008 at 2:01 pm

We love this in our family! My son (2.5) also loves sprinkling on the raisins himself!

Laura said...
September 8, 2008 at 2:20 pm

I am not very fond of raisins
either, so I usually substitute
craisins. You can get them in
various flavors. On Saturday I
made a lemon, orange craisin,
chocolate speckled pound cake.
Thanks for the idea Zoe. I was just thinking today of what bread I was going to bring to work on Wed. I might try a mixture of craisin and mini chocolate chips (it won’t be toasted)instead of the raisins

zoe said...
September 8, 2008 at 3:17 pm

Hi Judy,
You could even do a bread like this with olives. I’ve done it with caramelized onions and cheddar cheese.

Hi Larry,
I have been playing with yogurt in some doughs as well. I love it!

Hi Erin,
It is great that you have your little guy int he kitchen with you. My youngest son loves to bake.

Hi Laura,
Yeah, that sounds fantastic!!! My boys will be getting your version one of these days.

Thanks, Zoë

Joannie said...
September 8, 2008 at 8:09 pm

Yum. If enough of a loaf is left, it will make fantastic tuna melts. We learned that trick from an old Seattle restaurant called (appropriately) Mom’s.

zoe said...
September 8, 2008 at 8:35 pm

Hi Joannie,

I’ve made a grilled cheese with the cinnamon-raisin bread, but a tuna melt is something I would never have thought to do. Thanks for the suggestion it is great!

Zoë

MPG said...
September 8, 2008 at 10:16 pm

What a great way to get them out I would wake up in the middle of the night to eat this…your shots are making me drool…I’ll have to make this some time…Excellent!!

zoe said...
September 9, 2008 at 5:33 am

Hi MPG,

I so wish I’d thought of that when I was up all night this weekend.

Thanks!! Zoë

diva said...
September 9, 2008 at 6:42 am

what beautiful bread! i’d definitely wake up to that and the smell of roasting coffee and butter!

Rosemary C said...
September 9, 2008 at 9:42 am

Just had to tell you that I have been adapting other recipes to your method. The William Sonoma flyer had a recipe for a raisin walnut loaf. You put the dough in a long cloche, let it rise, and then put it in a cold oven. You set the temp to 425 and bake for 45 minutes covered and then 15 minutes without the cover. I just used a “3 cups of flour” adaptation of your method and it was awesome. And,,,,,,I didn’t have that 18 hour wait. There is always a bucket(sometimes, two) in my fridge. It has become a great habit. Thanks so much.

Rosemary C in San Jose, Ca., where it feels like fall this morning.

zoe said...
September 9, 2008 at 11:13 am

Hi Rosemary,

That is very exciting. I love that you are playing with the recipes and adapting others. I’ll check out this technique, it sounds very intriguing!

Thanks, Zoë

Naama said...
September 10, 2008 at 9:46 am

I must say that this bread is one of the very few bread recipes that I just want to run and make, seriously!

Also, really great pictures!

jeff said...
September 10, 2008 at 11:46 am

Thanks Naama– it’s as easy as the pictures make it look!

Amy said...
September 10, 2008 at 12:38 pm

When I’ve made this bread, I’ve ended up with a big air pocket between the top level of cinnamon/raisin and the top part of the crust. Am I doing something wrong during the rolling?

Saundra Shaver said...
September 10, 2008 at 12:39 pm

OOOh! I did what Larry Silva did and the bread is out of this world! Made into cinnamon bread made it even better! No more buying $6 loaves of it from the store!
We can have it whenever we want now!

zoe said...
September 11, 2008 at 6:19 am

Hi Amy,

Try to make sure the dough is rolled up as tightly as possible. It may also be that your dough is rolled out slightly too this and there is not enough weight on that top layer.

Try that and let me know if it fixes the issue.

Thanks! Zoë

alexandra’s kitchen said...
September 12, 2008 at 8:35 am

oh wow. what a beatiful loaf! there are so many of these recipes to try. I am feeling overwhelmed! in a good way.

Mandy said...
September 12, 2008 at 10:12 am

Hi..
I have a recipe request…
our Wegman’s makes a wonderful Apple Cider – Golden Raisin bread in the fall. It also has chunks of apples in it, comes in a boule shape. It is great as is, toasted, used for grilled cheese or french toast. But since your book I hate to buy bread, although I did today, b/c it is so good.

Any ideas on using apple cider in your bread recipes?
And I am thinking the apple chunks would maybe not store well… maybe have to put those in and do rolled loaf like the cin-raisin bread?

Thanks!

jeff said...
September 12, 2008 at 11:56 am

Mandy: I’ve played with apple chunks and they seem to store well in dough, but keep it to 5 days. My guess about apple cider is that the acid will weaken the gluten, giving you a very large-holed bread that might spread sideways a fair amount. Could be delicious and rustic though. Let us know how it turns out. Jeff

Felice said...
September 14, 2008 at 9:56 am

How many mini loaves did you get out of the 1 1/2 lb. of dough? I have 4 mini pans and am thinking about doing 2-4 different fillings at the same time.

Biz319 said...
September 19, 2008 at 12:18 pm

This looks amazing! My step-son loves cinnamon raisin bread – its his birthday this weekend, so now I know what breakfast is for him!

Thanks!

zoe said...
September 19, 2008 at 12:25 pm

Hi Biz319,

Happy birthday to your step-son and enjoy the bread!

Zoë

Nikki K said...
September 26, 2008 at 6:30 am

Hello from rainy CT!

I made three loaves (in 15 minutes) yesterday – 2 as gifts, 1 for us, of course. I can’t wait to toast up a couple slices.

I also changed the recipe a little – I like to use more whole grains so I did 2/3 white, 1/3 whole wheat bread and then added extra buttermilk until the consistency looked right. I also added ground flax seed – I add this to any recipe I can, and as long as my son doesn’t notice it, he eats it – yogurt doesn’t work so well.

It took longer to rise (might have been the cold kitchen), but turned out great. My son gobbles it up.

I just gave this link to my friend for her 4 kids.

Thanks!
Nikki K

Nikki K said...
September 26, 2008 at 6:32 am

Oh, I forgot to mention, I didn’t get 3 equal loaves out of this (not sure why), so I had to take the 2 smaller ones out first and watch the bigger one toward the end.

jeff said...
September 26, 2008 at 7:03 am

Hi Nikki: It sounds delicious, and you’re anticipating our next book, which will have lots of whole grains, and yes, some flax.

Thanks so much for sharing the links with friends. This is the only way to get the word out about one’s cookbook (unless one has a TV show!). Jeff

Shannon said...
November 10, 2008 at 2:38 pm

I adore this book. I can’t wait for the new one to come out at Christmas time.

I am making the buttermilk bread recipe with jalapenos to try out. I love jalapeno bread but never tried it.
I am also anxious to make this cinnamon raisin bread.

jeff said...
November 10, 2008 at 7:23 pm

Thanks again Shannon, so sweet of you to say. Welcome to the site, come back anytime you have questions, or just to let us know how it’s going. Jeff

Camille said...
November 12, 2008 at 2:04 pm

I am so thrilled with this book! My sister gave it to me for my birthday, one month ago, and I’ve had so much fun with it! We’re going to give it to my mom for Christmas, and my sister’s going to get a new pizza peel!
Here’s my little tidbit: yesterday, I had it in my mind to make cinnamon-raisin bread. Except I didn’t have any raisins! So I subsitited dried cherries. But then cinnamon didn’t seem to fit, so I put in 1/2 teaspoon almond extract instead. It is the most heavenly cherry-almond bread. When I toast a piece of it for breakfast, the whole house smells heavenly!

ben said...
November 21, 2008 at 6:53 pm

Thanks for this. I made a full size loaf using your master recipe, but w/ 1/3rd whole wheat. It came out *great*! For the full loaf, I doubled the brown sugar and the cinnamon, and just added raisins to cover. I had to let it rise about 4 hours (out of the fridge) to get it risen enough.

jeff said...
November 22, 2008 at 7:45 am

Yep, up to a third heavier grains usually doesn’t make much difference in the recipe, that’s what we’ve found too.

4 hour rise! Must have been a big one? Jeff

nads said...
December 26, 2008 at 6:45 pm

if rolled from the longside and made free form would it be possible to turn it into a fat version of an epi?

jeff said...
December 27, 2008 at 8:43 am

It would, sure. Curious how that’s going to look!

nads said...
December 29, 2008 at 1:18 am

i ended up rolling it from the long side but joined the ends and baked it in a bundt pan turned out lovely. i wanted to ask is it possible to adapt old favorites/classics to ur method? i just wanted to say that i vowed never to buy another cookbook coz ive got gazzillions but i have to break my promise just this once since ur book is like no other cookbook ive ever seen and i can’t stop talking about it and telling everyone i know. thanks

jeff said...
December 29, 2008 at 6:49 am

Nads: Sure, you can certainly adapt most old recipes to our method. Takes a bit of trial and error.

Thanks for the kind words!

Frisha said...
February 18, 2009 at 7:21 am

I was wondering could you use fresh blueberries in this instead of the raisins and maybe leave out the cinnamon?

jeff said...
February 18, 2009 at 8:28 am

The blueberries will give off some liquid, so you may have to slightly decrease the liquid in the recipe.

Or not! Give it a shot and let us know how it goes. Cinnamon’s to taste anyway, so you can drop that for sure.

Barb said...
March 18, 2009 at 6:48 am

Hi
I’ve been making the buttermilk dough and loving it! The raisin bread is next on my list, but the last two loaves have really stuck to the bottom and sides of the pan. I’m using canola oil to grease the non-stick loaf pan. Any ideas? Thanks.

jeff said...
March 18, 2009 at 2:09 pm

Barb: usually, greasing a non-stick pan works fine. How about some parchment on the bottom? Then all you need to do is run a knife around and it can’t miss.

Allison said...
April 25, 2009 at 10:24 pm

Just got your book, and it looks amazing! I am so excited to try some recipes, this one in particular. My question is… Mornings are already crazy with kids getting to school, anyway to do this bread the night before and just bake in the morning? It looks to be about a 2 hour process to get the bread rested and baked. Help!5am is just not doable for me.
Any suggestions?? Thanks a million!

jeff said...
April 26, 2009 at 9:23 am

Allison: You can use the refrigerator rise method: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=141 and scroll down a bit.

Allison said...
May 2, 2009 at 8:23 am

Good Morning… I made this recipe and used the refrigerator rise method, this morning when I went to put the bread in the oven there was quite a bit of brown sugary looking liquid in the bottom of the pan. Wierd! Any idea why it did this?? What did I do wrong??It’s in the oven cooking now…not sure how it will turn out, but certainly don’t want that to happen again next time… Thanks for your suggestions!

jeff said...
May 3, 2009 at 8:07 am

Stored dough occasionally does that, especially when it’s older. Just pour that stuff off next time. Should work out fine.

Allison said...
May 6, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Thanks so much for your suggestion Jeff, It was older dough and although it looked strange, it turned out pretty good. Maybe just a little dense. Any suggested recipes for bread dough that is getting old?? Thanks again for your awesome book, I am having so much fun making breads for the 1st time.

zoe said...
May 6, 2009 at 8:40 pm

Hi Allison,

I usually use the older dough for some of our flatbread recipes like naan or pizzas or even the pletzel.

The other thing you can do is add the ingredients for a fresh batch on top of the older dough and mix it all together. This will jump start the flavor in the new batch.

Thanks, Zoë

Allison said...
May 7, 2009 at 7:02 pm

Thanks Zoe! Loved your suggestions and will definitely try mixing in older dough with the new next time. Someone asked me if I had made Monkey Bread yet?? Any recipes for that one?

Thanks again for the awesome book, You two ROCK!

jeff said...
May 8, 2009 at 9:12 am

Thanks Allison: we haven’t tried a monkey bread yet, but it seems that’s just a matter of how you shaped some enriched dough. Just try it with our Challah or brioche dough– will you let us know how it comes out.

Dawn said...
May 28, 2009 at 11:23 am

Thanks Jeff & Zoe for your great book.
I am new to bread baking thanks to you! In the past when I read the word knead I froze. Now I just ignoe the word.
Can’t wait to get the 2nd book. I hope it has a section of bread baking for dummies. You might even want to title it attention Dawn.
While making the cinnamon raisin bread this morning I had to scour your book for the egg wash recipe. What you seasoned bakers take for granted is a loss to me.

zoe said...
May 28, 2009 at 8:12 pm

Hi Dawn,

Thank you for the feedback! We hear you and are giving the recipe for egg wash where ever we list it in the new book.

BTW it is just an egg + 1 tablespoon water whisked together.

Thank you! Zoë

LaJuana said...
May 30, 2009 at 2:27 pm

I just tried this recipe and had to take a picture of it because I’m sure it’s not going to last long! Just heavenly! Like Alison, I had the dark liquid at the bottom of my loaf pan after it had risen; I wasn’t using the refrigerator method, just 1 hour 40 minutes on the counter. I had guessed it was from extra egg wash mixed with the brown sugar. I was a probably heavy handed brushing the wash on the dough. After baking there was a light crust on the bottom/lower sides of the loaf that were a delightful side effect of this. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t a problem and I’m glad I didn’t pour it off! My loaf pan is a Pampered Chef clay pan…it’s never gotten so much use in the 10-15 years I’ve had it, as it has in the few months since buying your book! Again…many thanks to both of you!

Judy L said...
September 15, 2009 at 7:16 pm

Zoe, forgot to ask. I love this idea of using mini loaf pans. I just bought 7 of them!

How much dough would I need for a cinn raisin loaf in a mini loaf pan? I think I might use challah dough, too.

I just bought a 22qt Tupperware container at Sam’s. I made a double batch, and it could hold a triple batch. Getting my arm into that dough, to mix it, was sublime!

Judy

jeff said...
September 17, 2009 at 6:41 am

Judy: I use about a half pound, mayby three-quarters. Depends on how high you want it to dome over the top of the pan.

Kimberly said...
October 13, 2009 at 2:33 pm

Hi Jeff and Zoe! Just got your book and we LOVE the bread! I’d like to try the raisin bread using the buttermilk dough recipe. Just wondering if it’s ok to use a buttermilk substitute…1 tbsp vinegar with 1 cup 1% milk?

Thanks!
Kim
Ottawa, ON, CANADA

zoe said...
October 14, 2009 at 12:01 am

Hi Kimberly

Yes, you can use a substitute for the buttermilk by adding lemon juice or vinegar, as you suggest. Your version is much higher in acid than the one I use, which is about half as much acid to milk. I usually do 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice in 1 cup of milk. If you have worked with your version before in other recipes I don’t think you will have any problem using it in our buttermilk recipe.

Please let me know how it turns out! Thanks, Zoë

Kimberly said...
October 23, 2009 at 12:11 pm

Hello again!

The buttermilk bread (with 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour subbed in) is our new favorite everyday bread! I did the buttermilk sub and it worked just fine.

Now I’m wondering if I could sub liquid honey for the sugar…for the white sugar in the dough and the brown sugar in the raisin bread?

Eating locally grown foods and making food from scratch has been something we’ve really been working on this year. Discovering your book has really helped us with this process! Thank you!

zoe said...
October 23, 2009 at 10:27 pm

Hi Kimberly,

Yes, you can substitute honey for the sugar in these recipes. There is so little sugar in the buttermilk bread that you can substitute with no issue. Replacing the brown sugar in the raisin bread is trickier. Be aware that honey is generally a more intense sweetener so you may want to cut down the amount a bit for the raisin loaf. The texture of the loaf may be a bit different, but it will be very tasty! let me know how it goes!

Thanks, Zoë

Kristen said...
November 24, 2009 at 8:45 am

Hello Jeff & Zoe ~

I had the opportunity to attend your class at Cook’s last night and LOVED it!!! Thank you for your time, expertise and energy.

Quick question for you…I’ve been trying to find a kind of bread that I tasted several years ago and have been unsuccessful. It was an extremely dark loaf with raisins. It wasn’t a traditional cinnamon raisin but rather a sourdough (or some other style) that was extremely dark. Would you have any suggestions or ideas?

Looking forward to trying the recipes in your newest book and can’t wait for the flatbread/pizza book.

Look forward to your input.
Best ~
Kristen

jeff said...
November 24, 2009 at 4:49 pm

Kristen: Thanks for coming, what a fun class. I’m guessing that this was a sourdough rye with raisins. We have something like that in the 1st book, but with walnuts too, and it’s pumpernickel, which would account for the dark color. See page 70 of the first book– you could swap raisins for the dates we put in that recipe. Jeff

Sally said...
December 19, 2009 at 9:21 am

I’ve just ordered both books and I can’t wait! I’m hoping that I can use soy flour and soy milk in the recipes???

jeff said...
December 19, 2009 at 10:12 am

Sally: You should be able to use soy milk in place of cow’s milk where we call for it. As for soy flour, we do have some– check out our recipe on page 125 of the new book. Jeff

Denise said...
January 23, 2010 at 7:42 pm

Hi Jeff and Zoe,
Am thinking about making the raisin bread and am wondering if it’s possible to just mix the cinnamon and the raisins in with the original dough recipe (with extra sugar?) to save myself the extra step of rolling out the dough.
Thanks!

jeff said...
January 23, 2010 at 8:12 pm

Denise: Absolutely, so long as you want the whole batch that way… Jeff

Rachel said...
January 30, 2010 at 8:34 am

How about baking time for a 2 lb loaf?

jeff said...
January 30, 2010 at 11:05 pm

Rachel: Baking time might go up to 40 minutes or so, lots of variation depending on the shape. Jeff

Denise said...
February 1, 2010 at 4:51 pm

I made this recipe as called for (it was fantastic!), and then again the lazy way – with the cinnamon and extra sugar mixed right into the dough. It was great – not too sweet, but nice. It did seem a bit dense though. Do you think the extra sugar might effect the resting time?

Also, I love to make king cakes for Mardi Gras. Any suggestions for a dough that would appropriate for that? Maybe this one?

Thanks so much!

jeff said...
February 1, 2010 at 10:56 pm

Denise: I’m not thinking the sugar should have changed the resting time. If anything, since the raisins are already in, you should have had a less disruptive shaping step. So I’m stumped.

I thought king cakes were from richer doughs, like the challah or brioche? Jeff

Denise said...
February 2, 2010 at 6:46 am

Jeff – you might be right about the brioche being a better fit for a king cake (I’ve never made a brioche, though it’s on my list!). I may take out my king cake recipe and compare it to some in the first book to see if I can find a comparable dough. Starting to dream about my grandmother’s Italian Easter bread, too. I spent months last spring trying to reconstruct that recipe. I wonder if I can artisan-bread that one, too. I managed to convert my mother’s whole wheat bread recipe using some of your recipes as a guide. I’m having SO much fun with this. Just rec’d the second book yesterday and am excited to start on that one.

zoe said...
February 2, 2010 at 6:54 am

Hi Denise,

All of the breads you are working on sound great. I think the King Cake and the Italian Easter Bread will do well starting with the brioche. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks, Zoë

Andrea said...
February 15, 2010 at 12:48 pm

This is my favorite bread so far. I’d like to try out the freeze/then defrost in the fridge overnight trick with this dough:

After it’s been rolled out with raisins & cinn/sugar and wrapped in plastic, should I freeze it as is or in the loaf pan?

If the answer is no to freeze in the loaf pan… Once frozen, should I place it in the loaf pan when it goes into the fridge to defrost and rise?

Also, what about muffins? Can you recommend a resting and cooking time for this dough with muffins?

I’ve been reading many of the comments and think it’s amazing that both of you are here to answer our questions. I’ve written so many notes in my two books so far from all of your responses, and they are turning me into a confidant baker! So thank you!!

jeff said...
February 15, 2010 at 6:12 pm

Andrea: I’d freeze in the loaf pan, sounds easier.

For muffins you can get by with 30% less resting time, maybe 15 5-20% less baking time.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Andrea, much appreciated…. Jeff

alan said...
February 25, 2010 at 5:02 pm

I mixed up the dough for this cinnamon-raisin bread and am excited to try baking some this weekend… but. I just realized that after mixing the dough sat out on the counter all night (8 hours) before refrigerating.
With the buttermilk in the dough will it be OK? (I used powdered buttermilk if that makes a difference)
If the raisin bread is a hit I think I’ll be working on “artisan hot cross buns”
Thanks for an inspiring book (and great website too)!

jeff said...
February 25, 2010 at 10:20 pm

Alan: In general, yeast overgrowth crowds out spoilage bacteria for oxygen and nourishment. If the smell is OK, you should be able to use it. If it smells spoiled, toss it. Jeff

Ruthie said...
March 23, 2010 at 2:51 pm

I made the 100% whole wheat bread with stoneground flour free form on the baking stone-absolutely delicious! The flour blended so easily. While the loaves didn’t cloak as easliy as the boule I just went with the general shape not fussing a bit. The loaf baked so well. this bread is truly “a 5 minute” wonder.

As I write this I have turned the rest of this dough into the cinnamon raisin. Wish me luck!

zoe said...
March 23, 2010 at 8:34 pm

Hi Ruthie,

Thanks for the note, we are thrilled that it worked so well for you.

Happy baking and enjoy all the bread! Zoë

Ruthie said...
March 24, 2010 at 1:02 pm

Hi Zoe, So my cinnamon raisin bread didn’t rise as nice as I would have liked but after all my dough was all OG ww flour. Next time I will measure out 2# ( or maybe more?) of dough in hopes of a larger loaf.
Also, I was perusing your blog reading about using whole grain flours, etc. It was mentioned that one shouldn’t work the dough too much, sticking to the 30 second cloak. I found this a bit more difficult than the master recipe. The ww flour doesn’t cloak up as nice. So I was wondering if all the working of this recipe/ dough, rolling it out, etc adds to the lack of rise of the this bread?

zoe said...
March 24, 2010 at 9:00 pm

Hi Ruthie,

Were you using the 100% whole wheat dough from ABin5 or HBin5? The addition of vital wheat gluten in the dough from HBin5 will greatly improve the rise of the dough. Having said that, the 100% whole grain loaves will never have the same rising power as the loaves made with AP flour.

Starting with more dough will help you get a nice size loaf. Be sure to increase the resting and baking times to accomodate the additional dough. About 1 hour and 45 minutes should be about right for rising and 50+ minutes for baking.

Thanks! Zoë

Ruthie said...
March 25, 2010 at 5:09 am

I was using 100 % OG ww flour recipe from ABin5. . I hope I can find an organic source for vital wheat gluten as organic is always our preference.

Thanks so much for your help. I will check out the newest book next time I’m at the bookstore.

Ruthie said...
March 25, 2010 at 5:11 am

Another question, Zoe, how much do I substitute with the vw gluten?

Thanks again.

jeff said...
March 25, 2010 at 6:52 am

Ruthie: Use the recipe from the new book, that gives all the quantities you are looking for. We have not yet put the 100% WW recipe on the web and have no plans to do so at the moment. You’ll find helpful hints on how to develop your own VWG-based recipes at http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=142

No organic VWG product is available, as far as I know. Jeff

Lindsay said...
March 26, 2010 at 9:01 pm

Ah! Another mom tip! THANK YOU! The pizza lollipops were a lifesaver last week! I found your book at the library and I have REALLY enjoyed it. I am used to making whole wheat sourdough (fresh ground flour makes this work!) but I have LOVED your book and my family has enjoyed the white flour as a treat! I am definitely going to buy your book, as well as the healthy bread version, I can’t be content with just borrowing these–there are too many great recipes to try. My sourdough is no knead as well, but I have not come across a no knead as truly simple as yours with yeast. I LOVE YOUR BOOK! I cannot be content with my library copy so I will have to buy both books. The recipes are so wonderful and there are so many! You two have done such an amazing job–I am trying to spread the word to everyone I know. THANK YOU!

Oh, I am lingering over the cheese and carmelized onion idea…!

jeff said...
March 27, 2010 at 3:30 pm

Lindsay— thanks so much, you’re our kind of gal. The idea was to provide some free content here on the site, and if people are generous enough to want more, all to the better. Come back anytime you have questions. Jeff