Old Fashioned Raisin Bread

I must thank Joyce from Kitchen Flavours for recommending this recipe to me. 

Good that Joyce has mentioned Nick Malgier and his new book titled Bread to Lena, from Frozen wings and me. His sneak preview recipe, Old Fashioned Raisin Bread is a great opportunity for us to try before committing ourselves to buy Nick's new book.

I have baked this recipe into two types of loaves. One is with raisins and other one is plain without the raisins. Nick is right saying that there is nothing fanciful in these breads but both are very soft and delicious. The raisin loaf is slightly sweetened in taste and fully loaded with raisins. The plain loaf is just plain, sweet and fluffy on its own. I like this bake and will consider buying Nick's book which is releasing in September 2012.

As you can see, I am extremely lucky knowing Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena, from Frozen wings from baking and blogging. 

Through our Bake-Alongs, Cook like a Star and The Home Bakers, I am extremely lucky too to gain lots of friendship. And, here I am very lucky again and again to be awarded with the following awards from my baking friends...
Alice from I love I cook I bake at here

Andrea, Get your feast on! at here

Angeline, Angeline’s side of Story at here

Anna, Crunchy Creamy Sweet at here

Caity, Awkard Kitchette at here

Jasline, Food is my Life at here

Ellen, Ellen B Cookery at here and here

Gghie, The Red Apron at here

Guru Uru, Go Bake Yourself at here and here

Sarah, The view from the table at here 

Serena, Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch at here

Alice, Andrea, Angeline, Anna, Caity, Jasline, Ellen, Gghie, Guru Uru, Sarah and Serena are all great cooks and bakers and their blogs are awesome with lots of yummy food and recipes. I would strongly recommend all of you to visit their blogs for great cooking tips and techniques. 

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To receive some of the above awards, I have to share 7 random things about me...

1. I'm girly person but sporty too and wish to run a full marathon one day...

2. I love wearing flowers or ribbons on my hair.

3. Although I'm girly, pink is not my favourite colour.

4. As mentioned in my previous award post, I love wearing boots especially Wellington boots...  I really love my gumboots and wear them very often to work especially on rainy and wintery days. My son likes to describe me like what Freddy Fox describes Peppa Pig... "Mummy, you smell like flowers on Wellington boots."

5. I feel like an old granny sometimes, knitting blankets, cardigans and toys for my son.

6. I hate driving and like to day-dream when I'm riding in a car as a passenger.


7. My son and I like to talk a lot and I like to tell him a lot of my aspirations. I wish that I can own a cafe one day. A cafe that bakes fresh breads, cakes and cookies with lots of love and fresh seasonal produces. A cafe that is filled with skylight, furnished with timber tables and chairs, decorated with native Australian flowers displayed in recycled bottles and jars. Sometimes, my son will tell me his aspirations too... "Mummy, I wish to work with you at your cafe. I will make sure your customers will pay before they leave our cafe." LOL!

Here I am passing on all my awards to my friends who have been baking a lot with me with blog hop events and they are:

Joyce from Kitchen Flavours
Lena, from Frozen wings
Alice from I love I cook I bake
Anne from My Bare Cupboard
Angeline, Angeline’s side of Story
Anggie from Anggie's Journal
Anuja from Simple Baking
Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out
Edith from Precious Moments
Emily from Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray
Doreen from My Little Favourite DIY
Jasline, Food is my Life
Jeannie from Baking Diary
Jessie from Jessie Cooking Moments
Kit from I Lost in Austen
Mich from Piece of Cake
Mimi from MiMi Bakery House
Riceball from lilnut.net
Vivian from Vivian Pang Kitchen
Yan from Blog with Yan
Yvonne from From Taiping with Love

Thanks for cooking and baking along with me. I really enjoy baking with you gals and appreciate our friendships that we have through baking. 

A simple and delicious raisin bread

Baking the raisin bread...

Baking a plain loaf without the raisin...

This recipe is really good!

Finally, Here's the recipe from Nick Malgier

(with my modification in blue)

1 cup / 225 g room temperature tap water, about 75°F 

3 tsp / 10 g fine granulated active dry or instant yeast
1 cup / 225 g whole milk, scalded and cooled 

(replaced with 30g milk powder plus 225ml of water)
5 cups / 675 g unbleached bread flour
1/3 cup / 70 g sugar
1 1/2 tsp / 10 g fine sea salt
4 tbsp / 55 g unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces and softened
1/1/2 cups / 150 g dark raisins or currants
1 1/2 cups / 150 g golden raisins

Two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 3/4-inch loaf pans brushed with soft butter or coated with vegetable cooking spray.

Whisk the water and yeast together in the bowl of a stand mixer; whisk in the cooled milk (or milk powder plus water).

Stir together the flour, sugar, and salt, and add to the mixer bowl. Use a large rubber spatula to stir the ingredients to a rough dough. Distribute the pieces of butter all over the top of the dough.

Place on the mixer fitted with the dough hook and mix on lowest speed until the butter is absorbed, about 2 min. Increase the speed to low / medium and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic, an additional 3 min.

Decrease the speed to lowest and add the raisins a little at a time, continuing to mix until they are fairly evenly absorbed by the dough.

Scrape the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly to ensure that the raisins are evenly distributed in the dough.

Drop the dough into a buttered or sprayed bowl and turn it over so that the top is coated. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough ferment until it doubles in bulk, about an hour or longer if it’s cool in the kitchen. 

Note: Instead using my electric mixer, I've used my bread-maker to knead the bread dough. I've placed all my ingredients into my bread-maker and use "dough" setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr.

Invert the risen dough to a lightly floured work surface and cut it into 2 equal pieces, each about 715 g. Gently pat one of the pieces to a rough square and roll it from the top down, jellyroll style, into a tight cylinder. Pinch the edge in place and drop into one of the pans, seam side down. Repeat with the other piece of dough.

Cover the loaves with buttered or sprayed plastic wrap and let them poof until the dough comes about an inch above the edge of the pan.

Once the loaves are almost proofed, set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees.

Place the pans in the oven and decrease the temperature to 350°F. Bake the raisin bread until it is well risen and has an internal temperature of 200°F, about 45 to 55 min.

Unmold and cool the loaves on rack on their sides. Let cool several hours before wrapping.

Note: I have baked two type of loaves using this recipe. One is with raisin and other is just plain without any raisin. The one with raisin was baked using 1/4 amount of recipe with 75g raisin in a 10 x 10 cm loaf tin. The other plain one was baked using 1/2 amount of recipe without any raisin in a 10 x 20 cm loaf tin.  

Both were baked for 30 min at 180°C fan forced.

Happy Baking

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