Freshly Milled Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Our Freshly Milled Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread is loaded with raisins and a sugary spice blend that is the best breakfast toast you will ever make. These loaves go fast in our house so be sure to make more than one loaf at a time!
Freshly Milled Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Our freshly milled sourdough cinnamon raisin bread is loaded with raisins and a sugary spice blend that is the best breakfast toast you will ever make. These loaves go fast in our house so be sure to make more than one loaf at a time!
Ingredients
Sourdough Bread
- 500 grams Freshly Milled Hard Wheat (mill 1 1/3 Cup Hard Wheat Berries)
- 9 grams Salt
- 1/4 Cup Butter, softened
- 100 grams Sourdough Starter, recently fed and bubbly
- 270 grams Warm Water
- 25 grams Honey
Vanilla Soaked Raisins
- 1 Cup Raisins
- 1 Cup Water
- 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Cinnamon Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Sugar (brown sugar, white sugar, coconut sugar or maple sugar)
- 1 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/8 tsp Ground Clove
- 1 Tbsp. Freshly Milled Flour
Instructions
- Begin by soaking raisins. In a small bowl add raisins, water, and vanilla extract. Set aside to soak for 30 minutes while you make dough.
- Mill 1 1/3 Cups Hard Wheat Berries to make 500 grams of freshly milled flour.
- Pour flour into stand mixer and attach beater attachment.
- Add in salt and softened butter to flour and mix on low speed to cut butter into flour.
- In another bowl, combine warm water, honey, and sourdough starter and mix well.
- Drain vanilla water off of raisins.
- Pour sourdough starter mixture and soaked raisins into flour and mix until dough is shaggy and just begins to come together.
- Remove beater attachment and replace with dough hook. Let dough rest 15 minutes.
- After dough has rested, knead dough until smooth and passes window pane test (you should be able to pull dough up without it tearing, it should only thin. Think of it as a bread stained glass window.)
- Cover dough and let rise overnight or at least 8-12 hours. Bread can be made in the morning and baked in the evening or it can be made in the evening and baked the following morning.
- After dough has doubled in size, prep a bread pan by lining it with parchment paper.
- Prepare sugar-spice mixture by mixing together sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and clove and flour. Set aside.
- On a floured surface, stretch dough into a roughly 8"x10" rectangle.
- Evenly spread sugar-spice mixture over the top.
- Roll bread into a loaf and seal the ends. Pull bread towards you to ensure loaf is nice and tight. Examples can be found the blog post of this recipe.
- Place loaf into bread pan and slice a slit in the top of the loaf.
- Cover loaf and let it rest 1 hour. This ensures bread has had a chance to relax and stay fluffy!
- After dough has rested, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake loaf for 45 minutes or until top is golden.
- Remove bread from loaf pan and peel off parchment. Let loaf cool completely on a wire rack.
- Once loaf has cooled, slice and store in airtight container.*
- Enjoy! Freshly Milled Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread is excellent toasted and slathered in butter.
Notes
*Freshly milled bread does not store well in the refrigerator as it tends to dry out. Bread is best stored in an airtight container and stored on the counter to be consumed within a few days or you can preslice your bread and store it in a freezer safe container in the freezer until use.
What’s not to love about a freshly milled sourdough cinnamon raisin loaf?!
A good cinnamon raisin loaf is definitely a treat around here. When I was little, I remember getting the premade cinnamon raisin loaf at the store, toasting it, and savoring every last bite. The way butter oozes inside air holes in the bread mixed with cozy spices of cinnamon and then pleasant surprises of a sugary raisin. MMM! It just can’t be beat. I always try to find the slice with the most raisins!
Now that I’m an adult, I can bake my own bread and put as many raisins in that bread as I want! Ha!
What makes this bread special?
This delicious loaf features freshly milled flour made into a sourdough loaf. It’s actually my original sourdough sandwich loaf which you can find here. Next up in the spotlight are the plump raisins, I made sure to add extra. And the secret to plump and not dried out raisins? Soak them in water and vanilla extract before incorporating into the bread! And finally the iconic cinnamon sugar spice mixture layered into the bread. I love the cozy flavors!
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What are the ingredients in freshly milled sourdough cinnamon raisin bread?
- Freshly milled hard wheat: There are so many different varieties of hard wheat out there. Use whatever hard wheat you prefer. My favorite combinations are Turkey Red Wheat and Khorasan. The flavor and texture combination is delicious and this combination is also packed with nutrients!
- Sourdough Starter: Make sure your starter is recently fed and nice and bubbly.
- Butter: Butter keeps this sourdough bread soft and fluffy.
- Salt & Honey: Essential ingredients for a solid sandwich loaf.
- Water: Make sure it is warm, this ensures your starter stays happy and gets to work immediately in your dough
- Vanilla Soaked Raisins: Vanilla soaked raisins are a delicious way to simply elevate this loaf. Soaking raisins keeps them plump and vanilla enhances the flavor of the raisins.
- Maple Sugar & Coconut Sugar: Any sugar will work well. I chose to use maple sugar because of it’s cozy maple flavor that pairs so well with the spices and raisins. I stretch the expensive maple sugar a bit by adding half coconut sugar.
- Cinnamon, Clove, & Ginger: A perfect spice combination!
Why should you choose freshly milled flour?
God created wheat in its whole form to be consumed together and not picked apart. Each part – bran, germ, and endosperm – have a vital role to play to not only nourish the body, but to also help the body to absorb all nutrients.
Loaded with 40 of the 44 nutrients needed to sustain human life, grain in its whole form, and freshly milled, is a great source of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein. One of my favorite facts about freshly milled flour is that fiber in it can survive a ride through the stomach and small intestine. This is great news because our long intestine is where many beneficial microbes live. Surviving the journey, this fiber is valuable food for our microbiome to feast on thus nourishing us and those good bugs at the same time! God you are good!
You can find more information about freshly milled flour in this sourdough bread post!
What does freshly milled sourdough cinnamon raisin bread feel and taste like?
Texture:
Freshly milled grains are heartier because they include bran and germ (the outer shell of the grain) that are often sifted out. Do not be turned away by this. “Whole wheat” bread that your mom made you eat when you were a kid is nothing like true whole wheat bread you will enjoy from freshly milled flour.
Freshly milled wheat has natural oils that do not leave your bread dry and tasteless. Instead, you’re left with a satisfying depth and richness.
Flavor:
Freshly milled sourdough cinnamon raisin bread is bread you want to eat on a cozy morning when you need a warm piece of bread loaded with spices and smothered in butter. It satisfies those cravings you have deep down inside. You won’t be disappointed!
Our recipe uses real butter and honey leaving you with all the complexities of the flavors in real freshly milled wheat. Plus, these 3 additional spices- cinnamon, ginger, and clove- make the coziest loaf.
A note on wheat varieties-
There are literally thousands of wheat varieties and it can feel so overwhelming to choose the perfect one. Each wheat has unique flavor and nutrition. Narrowing down what works for you can seem like a daunting task especially if you don’t want to waste money buying wheat berries you later don’t love.
My personal choice for delicious bread at the moment is Turkey Red Wheat paired with Khorasan. This combination made a fluffy and flavorful loaf loaded with nutrition. I also love that both of these wheat varieties are Ancient/Heirloom/Heritage. These wheat berries haven’t been hybridized over the years making them easier for the body to process and use.
Feel free to use whatever hard wheat you love for this recipe.
Step-by-Step instructions to make Freshly Milled Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread:
Ten steps to freshly milled sourdough cinnamon raisin bread success!
- Step One: Make sure you have a happy sourdough starter, freshly fed and ready to start making delicious bread.
- Step Two: Soak raisins in vanilla and water for 30 minutes before making bread dough.
- Step Three: Mill your grains. Weigh out all your dry ingredients and put them into a bowl of your stand mixer. Combine dry ingredients with butter.
- Step Four: Add water, sourdough starter, honey and drained vanilla soaked raisins to dry ingredients. Mix until mixture is “shaggy” or just barely incorporated. Let rest 15 minutes.
- Step Five: Put dough hook on mixer and knead dough until smooth. Check dough using the windowpane test- this means you can pull dough up and it does not tear, it just thins. Think of it as you’re looking through a stained glass window of dough.
- Step Six: Let dough rest and rise covered in a warm location for 8 hours, overnight, or until dough has doubled in size.
- Step Seven: Once dough has doubled, it is time to form them into loaves. Take dough and form into a roughly 8×10 rectangle. Spread sugar and spice mixture evenly over the top.
- Step Eight Then simply roll loaf up, folding the ends in at the end. Once dough is in a loaf, gently pull dough towards you to tighten everything up. Note: this is my technique. You can make your loaves in whatever way makes sense to you. There are no rules here!
- Step Nine: Place loaf in greased bread pan and slice an air gap in the top. Cover loaf and let rest 1 hour. Loaf will stay fluffy and not become dense when baking.
- Step Ten: Bake loaf at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown on top.
- Remove bread from loaf pan and let cool on wire rack. Once cooled, I like to slice my bread and place it in a freezer bag. I usually make large batches of bread at a time. I double or triple this recipe. Then I keep my stash of sliced bread in the freezer until I’m ready to use it. This makes it so convenient to always have fresh bread!
