Cinnamon Raisin Bread
This Cinnamon Raisin Bread is one of the simplest breads you can make at home from scratch, and it’s loaded with wonderful cinnamon flavor and juicy raisins. It’s completely free of preservatives and dough conditioners, and is wonderful simply sliced or toasted with butter.
Homemade bread takes a bit of work and time, but to me it’s always worth it. I’d rather make my own instead of buying one of those 3-week shelf stable loaves that has 50 unpronounceable ingredients instead of 5.
What I do to make things easier is have a “bread baking day” from time to time where I’ll bake several different loaves at once, then store them in the freezer. It lasts me quite a while.
To those who read my Apple Pie Panini post, this is my recipe for Homemade Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread that I used for the sandwich. This cinnamon raisin bread is adapted from my plain sandwich bread post.
If you’re not a fan of raisins, feel free to leave them out and simply enjoy the cinnamon sugar swirl. It won’t affect the baking results at all!
What’s really nice about this cinnamon raisin bread recipe is there’s not a lot of special requirements. We’ll use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, and other ingredients that are probably already in your pantry.
Tips for Best Results
Resist the urge to add more flour – The more flour you add, the denser your cinnamon raisin bread will be. This is true of all bread. The dough here will be slightly sticky, but this is what gives us a lighter crumb, so be mindful about adding more flour.
Don’t rush the initial rise – You will need about an hour for the dough to double in size, but if your kitchen is cool, it could potentially need two hours. Be patient. This is the time the yeast needs to put the gas bubbles in the dough, which helps the end result be lighter rather than denser.
Get the good cinnamon – Ground cinnamon varies hugely in quality and potency, and ideally you want a good quality Ceylon cinnamon for this so the aroma and flavor really sing. My absolute favorite is King Arthur Flour’s Vietnamese cinnamon.
Step by Step Overview:
Start by stirring together warm milk, butter, yeast, and a little honey, and let it sit for 10 minutes until foamy:
Instant yeast is preferred, but you may also use active dry yeast if that’s all you have.
Also, I prefer honey for its flavor, and I love its qualities for bread. However, you may also substitute white sugar or maple syrup instead.
Combine this liquid with all-purpose flour, eggs, salt, and raisins in the bowl of a stand mixer, and knead with the dough hook attachment for 10 minutes:
Go Fancy with the Raisins
This recipe works great with the standard, smaller raisins that you find at any grocery store. However, feel free to go fancy with the raisins if you’d like! You can try a medley, use jumbo golden or flame raisins, or whatever variety you prefer. Trader Joe’s has some great choices.
Let this soft, sticky dough double in size, covered, and ideally in a warm place. This doubling should take an hour or two (and if your kitchen is as cold as mine is right now, it will take two)!
I also do this right in the stand mixer bowl, instead of transferring to a greased bowl.
Once the dough has risen, it should look stretchy and strand-like, like this:
Remove the dough and stretch it out into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface, trying to add as little flour as possible:
Make the cinnamon filling by mixing together melted butter, brown sugar, and tons of good cinnamon:
Spread the cinnamon filling all over the rectangle, then tightly roll it up:
Pinch the seam shut at the end, then place the dough roll in a standard 9×5 butter greased loaf pan:
Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about an hour, until it rises above the top of the pan:
Into the oven it goes until it comes out a deep golden brown on the top:
If at any point the top of the bread starts to look too golden, you can either cover it with aluminum foil or parchment paper, or move it down to a lower rack.
If you have a thermometer, check that the internal temperature is at least 190F. It’s fully baked when it’s between 190 and 200 degrees F.
After baking, let the bread cool completely on a wire rack before slicing it. If you slice into it too early, the bread will not cut as cleanly, and it may be gummier than it should be on the inside. The cooling stage is an essential part of the process.
How to Serve
Once your delicious cinnamon raisin bread has cooled, you can slice it up and eat it toasted with salted butter, which is such a nice contrast to the sweet raisins and cinnamon. Or make this glorious Apple Pie Panini with it. When I have it, I like spreading it with Homemade Orange Honey Butter.
You may also use this bread for Bread Pudding, Bananas Foster French Toast, or sandwiches.
Homemade English Muffins, Homemade Cornbread, and Pumpkin Muffins are a few of my other favorite recipes to bake. Enjoy!
Recipe Tips and FAQ
Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, in the fridge for 10 days, or in the freezer for 3 months.
Store in an airtight container for up to 3 months. To thaw, leave in the fridge overnight, or on the counter for 1 to 2 hours.
The toaster is best, cut in slices. However, you may also re-warm the whole loaf in a 300F oven for about 10 minutes, until warmed through.
Certainly not all of it, though you may be able to get away with swapping out half of the all-purpose for whole wheat. Expect the crumb to be much denser. You cannot develop as much gluten with whole wheat flour, so it’s not recommended.
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Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 cup whole milk
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2.25 tsp instant or quick rise yeast (you may also use active dry)
- 17.5 ounces by weight all-purpose flour (3.5 cups, measured)*
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup raisins**
- butter for greasing the pan
For the cinnamon filling:
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon***
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- Combine the milk, melted butter, and honey in a microwave safe glass.
- Heat the liquid in the microwave**** to 110 to 115 degrees F, then stir in the yeast. Let this mixture sit for 10 minutes, until foamy.
- Pour the yeast liquid into the bowl of a stand mixer, and add the flour, salt, eggs, and raisins.
- Stir it around with a wooden spoon or the dough hook of the mixer until roughly combined.
- Fit the stand mixer with the dough hook, and knead for 10 minutes on medium low speed.
- Cover the dough bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for one to two hours, until doubled in size.
- Lightly flour your countertop and spread the dough into a rectangle that is the length of your loaf pan (I use a standard 9x5inch pan). It doesn't have to be perfect.
- Make the cinnamon filling by stirring together the brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and salt.
- Spread this mixture all over the top of the dough rectangle, then roll the dough up like a cinnamon roll, and pinch the seam shut.
- Grease a 9×5 loaf pan with butter, and place the bread roll seam side down into the pan.
- Cover the loaf with plastic wrap and let it rise for 60 minutes, until the dough has risen past the top of the loaf pan.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and place a sheet pan on the lowest shelf of the oven. Add enough boiling water to cover the bottom of the sheet pan, then bake the bread on the shelf above the water for 40-50 minutes until the inside registers 190 to 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer.
- Let the bread cool completely on a wire rack before slicing it. Enjoy!
- Storing: since there are no preservatives, the bread will only keep for a few days at room temperature. I recommend freezing any unused bread.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Post updated in September 2018. Originally published November 2013.
139 Comments on “Cinnamon Raisin Bread”
This is a wonderful recipe, and I’ve made lots of bread in my life. I roll the dough out, fill it, roll it back up, then cut the “log” in half and shape it into two balls with the open edges tucked to the bottoms of the round loaves. I then bake the bread as round loaves on a cookie sheet. This is our new favorite bread. Also, I cook the raisins briefly with a little water to soften them before I add them to the dough.
I’ve never used a thermometer to check if my baked goods are done, so I’m going to use my meat thermometer and hope it works? The dough turned out very well and everything seems to be doing what it’s supposed to, baking now for about 50 minutes, hope it comes out.
I was curious about the flour weight. It says 17.5 ounces, when flour weighs 4.25 ounces per cup. Is the flour supposed to be packed?
I use the standard used by America’s Test Kitchen, which is 5 ounces per cup. Do you have a scale? If so, definitely go by weight.
I have made the bread several times. It is easy to make and just delicious. However, I am struggling with the area around the rolls rising to much leaving sizable air pockets in the bread. Any suggestions on how to prevent that from happening would be much appreciated.
Great recipe
First two loaves I made my rookie mistakes. After that, smooth sailing!
First time I’ve made bread with honey, you can be sure that will happen more often. The taste of the honey was a wonderful undertone to the cinnamon.
I really questioned the texture of the dough being sticky (even though you told me) which was the first rookie mistake.
Instant to active dry, which I have jars of, and not recalculating was another.
Beautiful bread! Thank you.
Made this bread this past weekend….OMG!!! So DELICIOUS and Easy. I did make one change, I used 2 cups of Bread Flour and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour. Thank you for posting this Yummy Recipe. Will be making another batch this weekend.
This bread turned out quite excellent! The eggs, milk and butter gave the crumb a soft (not cake like soft), but like a brioche soft texture. It rose nicely, and baked through. Sometimes I’ve made raisin bread that appears baked, and sadly it has gummy sections.
I’m very happy with outcome. Thank you
Looks great! Although my dough seems too wet and sticky… where could I have gone wrong?
Did you weigh or measure the flour? You can always add more flour as needed, but it makes the bread denser in the end.
Uh. Actually I melted butter in the milk too. Was that wrong?
I made this and my dough didn’t rise at all. What have I done wrong?
Did the yeast foam up when you mixed it with the milk and honey? I’m wondering if your yeast was dead, if it didn’t rise at all.
Now that you mention it, it didn’t foam. I disturbed it after about 2 minutes and stirred it into the milk. Maybe that ruined it? Was the milk supposed to bubble before cooling to 110f or just warmed up to 110? The yeast itself is new. I used it Easter weekend to make Paska with no problem. I thought I might have messed up with stirring it or not heating the milk properly.
If the yeast doesn’t foam like the picture shows above, that’s a sign of trouble. It doesn’t matter if the milk goes slightly over 110 when you’re heating it, just make sure you do not add it to the yeast until it is at 110. If the milk is too hot, it will kill the yeast.
Just wondering about the boiling water when baking the bread? Does this provide moisture? Preventing something? New to baking breads and wonder if I should do this with all breads? Thanks
Yes, the moisture keeps the top from “setting” as quickly and it gets a chance to rise for longer.
I’m going to buy yeast just to try this loaf. So excited for my first attempt at bread making
Just wanted to say that I love your recipes and that for the first time my bread finally came out the way it should …. Love it and it’s sooo yummy …. my kids ask for it all the time 🙂 Thank you 🙂
Hi Kasia, that is just wonderful!! So happy you loved the bread and your kids enjoy it too.
I am unsure about the flour measurements. You state 17.5-20 oz or 3.5-4 cups. Isnt it more like 2.5 cups? Dont want it to come out too tough!
Thanks!
Hi Karla, the standard for 1 cup of flour is 5oz. This is what America’s Test Kitchen uses.
Thanks for the reciepe !
I’m from Switzerland, it has been a bit difficult to convert the oz/cup/tbsp, but the bread just went out from the oven, and I can’t wait to taste it !
Hi I made this bread using half bread flour and half ap. Came out absolutely delicious. The rise was wonderful as was the texture
I also spread the dough with the melted butter and then sprinkled on the cinnamon sugar. It was easier and more evenly distributed
Thanks for a great recipe