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If there is anyone out there who doesn't like cinnamon and raisin bread, then maybe you haven't tried to bake your own. This recipe is fantastic, and the aroma as the loaves are in the oven is incredible! Although Peter Reinhart uses only bread flour in his recipe, I have used white whole wheat in place of half the flour called for. This is even better the next day toasted with a little butter.
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Ingredients





Mixture of egg, flour, Adam, cinnamon, sugar, salt, and buttermilk

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mixed ball of dough




After kneading for about 10 minutes, the raisins were added and then the walnuts

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dough left to rise


The initial bulk rise took about 2 hours to get 1.5 times bigger. I read somewhere that cinnamon actually retards the rise of yeast. Maybe this was the reason.

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waiting to be rolled inro a loaf



After the bulk rising, the dough was degassed by rolling into a rectangle sized to fit my loaf pan. I then sprinkled on remaining cinnamon sugar and rolled into loaf.

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raw loaf


Rolled dough waiting to be put into loaf pan and then waiting again for the second and final rise. This time it took another 2 hours to begin to crest the pan.

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beautiful risen bread



Finally, the finished bread, and so worth the wait!

 
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This was so far my favorite recipe from the book. The crumb was so light and chewy and a whole loaf  disappeared in one night! The slightly sweet taste along with the melt-in-mouth chewiness was profound. I will be making this one again! This is another for yeastspotting.
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after mixing the ingredients
The dough was fairly easy to assemble into a ball.

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Braided loaves proofing
After a 2 hour bulk rise, I divided the dough and made two braided loaves.

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done bread
The beautiful golden color came from the egg white wash that was applied before baking. Then a sprinkle of poppyseeds was all that was needed before baking.

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crumb shot
The delicious interior. This was fabulous right out of the oven. the recipe said to wait an hour before cutting, but who could do that?

 
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Italian Easter Bread
Casatiello is a traditional savoury Easter bread from the region of Campania, Italy. It’s loaded with lots of cheese and pieces of meat, usually salami, and traditionally made with lard. Although traditionally it is made in a ring with hard boiled eggs on top, I decided to bake in a loaf pan and forgo the boiled eggs.
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Adam again

Here is the starter once again bubbling away... I will not be posting any photos of Adam getting his groove on from now on out. For those of you you who are following these blogs, know he is alive and well in all the recipes.

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Mixing all together
Added eggs, flour, butter(yes, this one also has LOTS of butter), wild yeast, and milk

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resting dough
Formed a dough and let it  rest

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added cheese and meat
So, the traditional version includes salami, and so this has hot genoa salami added. For the cheese, there is a mixture of Asiago, gouda, and raw milk cheddar cheese.

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dough being formed into loaf
After the dough was allowed to rise-- it was formed into loaves, and then baked in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes

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soft crumb and crust
Deliciously cheesy and savory. Understand that this is a really heavy dough and not to be eaten often.

 
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The story behind Anadama Bread is wonderful: "A fisherman who had a lazy wife came home one day and was tired of the same old porridge made of corn mush and molasses. He decided to take matters in his own hand and added yeast and flour into his meal and baked delicious bread in which he declared: 'Anna, damn her!' "
This bread turned out beautifully. It rose higher than almost any other bread that I'd made, and the taste-- absolutely delicious molasses flavor. Because I am baking exclusively with wild yeast, I knew there would be a bit more rise than expected, but the oven spring was incredible!
The crumb had a lovely crunchy but soft texture. This is an excellent sandwich bread-- especially for PBJ!

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Adam-- My Wild Yeast
First, I add the yeast and flour and water and let stand for overnight to get the yeast to activate. In the meanwhile, I soaked the cornmeal overnight also.

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Mixing all the ingredients
I next use the dough hook and knead the remainder of the flour and other ingredients together until dough is very elastic, about 10 minutes, or so.

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1st bulk rise
So, the dough has now doubled in bulk

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Divided dough into 3 pieces
The actual recipe said the divide in two and make 2 loaves, but, my bread was so risen, I thought I could get 3 loaves out of it.

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Proofing in the loaf pans
After going into the bread pans I thought I made a mistake in dividing it into 3 pieces. (they looked a little puny)

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Ready for the oven
No mistake-- they rose nicely. :)

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Finished bread
Wow! what a beautiful spring from the wild yeast.

 
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I have to admit, I have always been intimidated by the deliciously tangy and chewy taste and textures of sourdough breads. Although I'd known that these breads were made using a wild yeast of just flour and water, I never dreamed I could be successful at my own home-grown version of one-- until now. I recently got a copy of Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor, and made a wonderful bubbly mother starter which I have growing vigorously in my fridge (I have named him Adam by the way). So, I decided to tackle a loaf using  nothing but wild yeast to see how active the culture could be. The bread turned out to be wonderfully chewy and tangy on the inside and brown and crusty on the outside. The crumb was fine, but not too dense with nice sized holes. Nic and I gobbled almost the whole loaf in one sitting!


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I was so thrilled with the results of this yeast, that the next day, I made some pita/naan type bread also. And let me tell you that it was soooooo much better than the store bought ones! They also didn't last through to the next day.


So, now I have taken on the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge where I am joining home bakers across the globe in baking through all of the recipes in Peter's first book: 'The Bread Baker's Apprentice'(BBA), but using only 'Adam' as my leaving agent. Although I am a bit late in the game for joining "officially", It seems like an excellent exercise for my home baking journey.