Friday, January 17, 2014

Whole Wheat Raisin Bread

"Whole Wheat Raisin Bread" (page 394) is a recipe I plan to make again and again. If you find yourself trying to decide which of the yeasted breads to try from this book, I would suggest you try this one first. Made from half whole wheat, half all-purpose (white) flour, sweetened with molasses, and with no added oil, this bread already has a lot going for it nutritionally speaking. But the flavor is what makes it sing! The raisins and cinnamon make this a slightly sweet bread, but not enough to classify as dessert. Since this is a yeasted loaf, plan on at least 3.5 hours to allow for the raising and baking times. This bread makes the most heavenly toast!  
 
Keeping it "McDougall Friendly" checklist:
  • You can make this using 100% whole wheat flour with excellent results. If you do, double the kneading time to 10 minutes so the dough gets fully developed.

2 comments:

  1. Isn't that funny you posted this - about a week ago I made some raisin bread using the Soymilk Bread recipe from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book (one of my all-time favorite cookbooks) and it was delicious! It's been an aeon since I last made raisin bread.

    Actually, I made one loaf of raisin bread and put the other loaf-s worth of dough in the refrigerator, and baked it the next night as a plain boule. I just omitted the oil or butter called for in the recipe, and added a little water to make the dough moist enough. Yum!

    The recipe from the 1000 Vegan... book looks intriguing with molasses. I will definitely need to re-visit this book! What kind of flour do you use when making bread? I used to use almost exclusively Bob's Red Mill whole wheat bread flour, but I recently bought a bag of King Arthur white whole wheat flour and it really made good bread.... There are so many choices.

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  2. Hi Danielle! Ah, yes, Laurel's Kitchen, also my all time favorite breadbook/cookbook. So many of my earliest vegetarian experiences started here. I also have a great attachment to the Raisin Bread recipe in this book.

    Now that I'm not grinding my own wheat berries for my whole wheat flour (yes, I did used to do that!), I will buy Giusto's, Bob's Red Mill, King Arthur's whole wheat or white whole wheat, or whatever is available in bulk in the locat Natural Foods store. It's nice we have so many choices, huh?

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