Miller's Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

Miller does not refer to a person here, but rather to the trade of grain milling; this recipe comes the Stafford County Flour Mills in Kansas, which mills grain and makes bread according to Mennonite traditional recipes. If you want to use the real McCoy, try buying their Hudson Cream Flour at staffordcountyflourmills.com. I used regular bread flour, but followed along with the rest of the recipe!

I did encounter a problem, however. When I mixed all the ingredients together, my dough was so moist it looked more like a batter bread instead of a yeast bread to be kneaded! To make the dough work-able, I added 1/4 cup more flour than called for in the original recipe, which yielded a dough of the right texture. See how your dough turns out and you can always add more flour if you need to. As always with flour, spoon into measuring cups and level with a knife for accurate measurements.

Place 2/3 cup raisins in a saucepan; cover with water and bring to a boil, then remove from heat, cover, and let stand 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain soy milk (such as Silk) in a saucepan over low heat until a thermometer reaches between 100 and 110 degrees. Stir in 2 and 1/2 tablespoons vegan butter (such as Earth Balance), stirring until the butter melts.

While the soy milk heats, combine 2 and 3/4 cups bread flour, 1/4 cup packed organic brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3/4 tsp. salt and one packet of yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons), in a large bowl.

Add the warm milk mixture, along with the equivalent of 2 eggs using egg replacer (such as Ener-G) - whisk the "eggs" slightly so they are a bit frothy before adding them to the bowl.

Stir until a soft dough forms, then stir in the raisins. Transfer to a floured surface and knead for 8 minutes (punch dough down, fold over, quarter turn, repeat!) The recipe said to add up to 1/4 cup more flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, but as I mentioned above, I added a full 1/2 cup more.

Place the dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat the top, and let rise, covered, for 1 hour - ideally some place free from drafts and about 85 degrees. Punch the dough down, cover and let rest 5 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 14x7-inch rectangle. Starting one one short edge, roll the dough up, pressing to eliminate any air pockets and pressing the seam and the ends to seal it. Place, seam-side down, in a 9x5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise another 30 minutes.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove from the pan, cool on a wire rack, and then slice into 14 slices. Delicious with jam for breakfast!

Each slice is 170 calories.

Full disclosure: I have a bad habit of forgetting to replace staples from my pantry; I'm so used to having certain things there, that, when I run out, I don't think to replace them! So I began the recipe and then remembered I had finished off my cinnamon last week. Thinking quickly, I used the Pumpkin Pie Spice in my cabinet, which is just a blend of mostly cinnamon with a little bit of ground clove, ginger, and nutmeg mixed in. It did the trick in a pinch!

Cost:
none, although I should have bought new cinnamon....