Tuesday, June 15, 2010

TWD: Raisin(less) swirl bread

I am one of those bakers who has been afraid of yeast for some reason.  I know why:  early in my marriage to hubs, I had just gotten some cookbooks and decided to make some homemade yeast bread.  I had never done it before, but was not afraid.  I got my ingredients out, mixed everything together...and it didn't really rise.  But I was (as I regularly am) confused...I thought maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me and that it really did rise and I just didn't realize it...so I went ahead and baked it.  And it was hard as a rock.  Turned out that my yeast had expired. 



I didn't try yeast again (though I regularly bake sourdough bread) until I made this bread earlier in the year.  It was wonderful, so when I saw that Susan of food.baby chose the (yeasted) raisin swirl bread from pp. 59-60 of Baking from My Home to Yours, I was excited to try again. 


I'm a big fan of cinnamon raisin swirl bread, but after scanning the ingredient list I realized that if I left out the raisins, it would be a big hit w/hubs, so I thoughtfully made a raisinless bread and doubled the cinnamon & sugar in the swirl. 


right out of the oven 
It is SO GOOD!!!  As soon as it came out of the oven we were tearing off bits and yumming it up.  There is still some left b/c it has been a whirlwind few days and I spend yesterday in Louisville and he is in Lexington today, but I enjoyed a slice toasted and buttered today and fell in love!

Thanks to Susan for your pick, and check at the LYL post on the TWD site to see who baked along this week!

9 comments:

  1. Your bread looks fantastic! It looks like you no longer have to fear yeast (unless it's expired). Extra cinnamon and sugar sounds like a delicious modification.

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  2. your swirl looks fantastic! glad you didn't give up on yeast!

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  3. Looks delicious! Love the swirl, so fun!

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  4. oh yum! how do you make it swirl like that??

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  5. Im glad you enjoyed the bread. I made some into the french toast Dorie suggested and it was excellent!

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  6. My yeast is probably over a year old, but a good trick is to keep it in the freezer. It'll keep for ages that way. (Why is it that I have tricks for dealing with yeast, but have always been afraid to use it?!)
    Your bread looks so good!

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  7. Looks delicious! I'm with the hubs--I wouldn't touch this with raisins in it, but without? I'd eat that entire loaf all by myself! It looks so fluffy and soft!

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  8. It looks like you overcame your fear and did a great job on this bread! Wasn't it delicious?

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  9. Glad you are now Yeast Fearless. Bread is so much fun to make.

    Looks tasty.

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