When I decide on a loaf to bake, it’s typically one that can be used for a wide variety of things like toast, breakfast sandwiches, cheesy bread, dunking into soup on a cold day, etc… but every now and then I want to bake something that doesn’t fit that mold. For this bake, I went with a cinnamon raisin bread that’s amazing toasted in the morning.

Schedule

Using the lazy sourdough method is actually quite simple. The real key to this method is that you can use your unfed starter straight from the fridge without the need to make a levain. There’s also no autolyse which saves about 30 minutes.

Schedule: Here’s a link to the lazy sourdough method.

The exact schedule I used is at the bottom of this post.

Ingredients:

This recipe makes two loaves. Simply divide all the ingredients by two if you only want one loaf.

Dough:

• 900g King Arthur bread flour
• 100g whole wheat flour
• 740g filtered water @ 85’F
• 150g unfed starter straight from fridge (100% hydration)
• 22g sea salt
• 100g raisins which were then soaked in some bourbon
• 20g granulated sugar
• 10g ground cinnamon

Method:

I started by mixing the flours, salt, cinnamon and sugar. I set that aside and measured out 740g water which I heated up to about 85 degrees. To this water, I added my cold starter and mixed it all together. Finally, I poured the water/starter mixture into the dry ingredients and used my hands to mix it all together and perform a few stretch and folds.

In total, I performed 4 stretch and folds separated by 20 minutes. At the first stretch and fold, I added the raisins. The raisins had been sitting in some bourbon for about an hour prior to adding. I also went ahead and added the liquid too for some extra flavor. If you don’t want to use bourbon, some water or apple juice would be good alternatives too. I just wanted something to help soften the raisins so they’d hold up better during baking.

After about 8 hours, I divided and shaped the loaves and let them sit on the counter for a 5 minute bench rest. Finally, I put them in bannetons that I liberally dusted with rice flour. I put the bannetons in vegetable bags and then placed them in the fridge for a 15 hour cold proof.

One hour before baking I started preheating the oven, with dutch ovens inside, to 450’F. When it was time to bake, I took the loaves straight from the fridge and placed them in the preheated dutch ovens, gave them a quick score and then put them in the oven.

I baked the loaves at 450’F for 20 minutes covered, then removed the lid of the dutch ovens and baked for an additional 30 minutes.

Result:

I’m still trying to figure out how to keep any raisins that rise to the crust from charring, but other than that, I’m really happy with these loaves. The cinnamon is perfect for what I’m looking for in raisin bread. The raisins were really well distributed, although I might bump it up to 150g of raisins next time just to make sure there are a little more in each slice. The sugar adds just enough sweetness to balance out the cinnamon and give the bread a little extra flavor.

I’m really happy with how the crumb turned out. I was a little concerned that adding the raisins was going to affect it, leaving big pockets or preventing good gluten development. There are some holes, but the crumb is tight enough that it’s great for toast in the morning.

Changes for next time?

Like I mentioned earlier, I’ll add some more raisins the next time I bake this recipe. I’ll also do a better job of pulling out any raisins that I can see on the surface, or just under the surface, to reduce some of the charred raisins on the crust.

Here are some additional pics of the loaves:

My Baking Notes

• Ambient Temperature @ mixing: 71’F
• Mixed @ 11:50am on November 16th
• Dough was 75’F at mixing
• 4 stretch and folds in first 1.5 hours, adding raisins at first fold
• Started proof @ 8:15pm on November 16th
• Preheated oven @ 10:50am on November 17th
• Out of fridge and into oven @ 11:50am