The Crazy Kitchen: Cinnamon and Raisin Bread

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Wednesday 15 May 2013

Cinnamon and Raisin Bread

After watching a few episodes of Paul Hollywood's 'Bread' series I vowed I would get to grips with making bread by hand. I was then asked if I would like to put a Panasonic breadmaker through its paces so the handmade bread quickly went out of the window...I mean, why have a dog & bark yourself.

Feeling a little under the weather and in need of comfort food I wanted to get a loaf made straight away. Thankfully I had already stocked up on bread flour and yeast in preparation and decided upon a fruited bread, adapting a milk bread recipe from my Complete Book of Bread & Bread Machines, which has some great recipes in.

After a quick glance through the instruction booklet for the Panasonic machine it seemed straightforward enough, I just had to remember to add the dry ingredients to the pan first, unlike the machine I'd used previously. This one also has a yeast dispenser, to add the yeast only when it's needed, as well as a nut dispenser which adds nuts and dried fruit to the dough later in the process, to avoid being chewed up by the machine.


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I was surprised that the loaf was going to take 4 hours to bake, rather than the 3 hours in my previous machine. I suppose breadmakers are a little like slow cookers, they are a great convenience but you do need a little forward planning & organisation.

I was a little confused when I started up the machine as it didn't appear to do anything, but after checking the booklet again it would seem that for the majority of the cycles there is a rest period of around 30 minutes before the kneading begins, I believe this is to regulate the ingredients.

Anyway, after the 4 hours (perfect timing just as we walked in from the school run) I was presented with this little beauty...

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I say 'little' but it was actually huge - a whopping 8 inches in height! There are options to make smaller loaves, the quantities just have to be adjusted accordingly.

Cinnamon and Raisin Bread

675g Strong White bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp granulated sugar (I used Truvia baking blend instead)
2 tbsp melted butter
280ml milk
130ml water
3 tsp ground cinnamon
7g dried yeast
100g juicy raisins


  • Add the dry ingredients apart from the yeast and raisins to the loaf pan
  • Add the wet ingredients to the loaf pan
  • Insert the pan into the breadmaker
  • Add the yeast to the yeast dispenser & the raisins to the nut dispenser
  • Close the lid and start the machine - I used the raisin bread setting (03), with a medium crust and size XL
  • Once baked remove immediately from the pan


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The raisins in the bread stayed completely whole & were well distributed. I think I will add additional cinnamon next time as it could've done with a little more flavour. Still very enjoyable sliced and buttered, or toasted, or as a banana or jam sandwich, or even toasted with caramelised bananas over and served with ice cream...

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I have been sent the breadmaker to trial for a period of time

4 comments:

  1. mine has a tray to add bits later, but only certain stuff you can put in it, cannot add choc drops, some fruits are to wee, some seeds fall through etc, so it is limited in use. I need to use mine more.

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  2. mmmmm that bread looks soooo good and i bet it smelt amazing too (and tasted delicious) that looks like a wonderful bread maker - how lovely to be able to make your own x

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  3. That load looks huge, I love fresh bread yum yum x

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  4. I missed this posting! I have got an old Panasonic bread maker but without the nut dispenser (which is a must have feature). Having used other brands I think Panasonic are the best. Everything always turns out well and the recipes are lovely too.The fruit bread looks delicious - it does take longer to bake using the Panasonic but is always well worth the wait. If I was sent this to trial I would struggle to part with it:)

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