Nick Malgieri has released a recipe for Old Fashioned Raisin Bread as a foretaste of his upcoming bread book (it is called BREAD, and will be released in September.) My baking friend Phyl is a friend of Nick's, so with just two degrees of separation you could pretty much say that Nick and I are buddies!
Over the weekend Phyl decided to bake the raisin bread and the recipe looked so appealing, I decided to join him in the kitchen, virtually that is, since Phyl is in Ohio and I was in California. It turned out to be a regular bread-fest, as Kayte in Indiana also baked the bread. Because of schedule constraints I had to retard mine in the fridge between rises so the other two bakers had each baked, sliced, photographed, consumed, and blogged their loaves before mine even made it into the oven! You can read about Phyl's bread here and Kayte's bread here.
n.o.e.'s notes:
- The raisin bread recipe is on baker Nick Malgieri's blog post.
- I made half a batch - one loaf - in my long thin loaf pan. Everything was exactly per the recipe, except that I mixed and kneaded the dough completely by hand.
- This is an easy one day bread, using the direct method of mixing, rising, shaping, rising, baking.
- I love that the recipe calls for two kinds of raisins (or currants). I reduced the quantity of raisins just a bit, and there were still lots of raisins in each slice of bread. Most of the slices had more raisins than the ones in the picture, actually.
the verdict:
This is a lovely bread, with a soft crumb and, and little pops of sweetness from the two kinds of raisins. Although I was tempted to put a cinnamon swirl into this loaf, it really is nice just as a plain raisin loaf, especially toasted with a slick of salted butter.
We had the toast for dessert after dinner and it was the perfect ending to a meal. My husband couldn't stop exclaiming over this bread, which left me wishing I had made the full recipe!
I'm submitting this bread to Yeastspotting, a weekly roundup of all things deliciously yeasty. Click over there to see what's baking in ovens around the world; new posts go up each Friday.
4 comments:
What, you're in California and you haven't called?!? :-(
This bread looks lovely. How fun that you "know" Nick through Phyl! I'm sure he'd approve of how well your loaf turned out.
I have this loaf on my list to make (after reading Kayte's post). Your bread looks gorgeous!
Gorgeous looking loaf...we really liked this bread. I made the whole recipe thinking I would put one in the freezer for me to pull out a slice at a time for toasting for breakfast but the ballgame guys got to it and there wasn't any left. Guess I will make more soon as it was delicious and easy. My new fav raisin bread! It was fun baking with you and laughing about you doing a little, running off, doing a little more, etc. until it all came together. One must do what one must do, right? lol Fun to hear that Jim liked it so much.
Adding this one to my list of raisin breads that I want to make. =) Soon, I hope. It looks really yummy, and I love raisin bread for toast.
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