Breads (Sourdough) - Soft Loaves
Cinnamon Raisin Soft Sourdough Bread
December 11, 2021
| Recipe by Bake with Paws
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The aroma in my kitchen was just heavenly when I baked this Cinnamon Raisin Soft Sourdough Bread. This bread is so delicious and you can eat it on its own. I think this is going to be a perfect bread for the Christmas bread basket.
The bread texture is soft, moist, fluffy and slightly chewy. As it is made using the Yudan method, it also stays fresh longer.
An advantage of using the Yudane method is that the bread stays fresh much longer. Please click "Bread Making Method" to understand more details on Yudane Method.
If you have any questions regarding this recipe or any other post, please leave me a comment in the “LEAVE A COMMENT” link and I will reply you as soon as possible. Do tag me on Instagram @Bakewithpaws if you attempt on this recipe.
How To Make Cinnamon Soft Sourdough Bread
Yields: 1 loaf
INGREDIENTS:
Yudane Dough:
65g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)
65g boiling water
Sweet Stiff Starter:
56g sourdough starter (100% Hydration), use at its peak to get better result. *
172g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)
72g water
28g sugar (I used organic light brown sugar)
Main Dough:
65g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)
All yudane dough (above)
All stiff starter (above)
10g light brown sugar (I used organic brown sugar)
1 tsp salt (5.7g)
3 tsp (8g) ground cinnamon
45g egg, whisked (from 1 medium egg), balance use for egg wash
35 whipping cream or 20g water (I used whipping cream)
30g butter, room temperature
60g black raisins, rinse with hot water and let them dry on a kitchen paper towel.
Egg Wash: (Optional)
Balance of whisked egg from the above + 1/2 tsp water
Utensil:
450g loaf pan (21.3 X 12.2 X 11.5 cm / 8.4" X 4.8" X 4.5")
* Sometimes I used young sourdough discard and it works too. It is very much depend on your starter.
METHOD:
- Yudane
- Add bread flour in a bowl, pour the boiling water and mix well with spatula or spoon until no dry flour.
- Cling film and leave on the counter for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge. I prepared the night before.
- Take out from the fridge 30 minutes before using to return to room temperature.
- Sweet Stiff Starter
- In a bowl of stand mixer, dilute starter with water, stir in sugar and add in bread flour. Mix with paddle attachment until well mixed and all come together. It can be done by hand mixing too.
- Cover and let it ferment until tripled. I prepared a night before and leave it in aircond room (approximately 24 - 25C room temperature) overnight until tripled. It took about 8 - 9 hours depending on your starter. It should take around 4 - 6 hours to get triple at room temperature at 28C - 30C. The starter should look smooth and round dome. It shouldn't collapse.
- Main Dough:
- Put all ingredients (except butter) into a bowl of stand mixer. I usually torn the stiff starter and yudane dough slightly first.
- Slightly combine the mixture by hand with the paddle attachment before turning on the machine so that the flour will not splash out. Using the paddle attachment, mix at low speed #2 for about a minute or until all incorporated. This step is critical to prevent an uneven mixed dough as the stiff starter is rather hard and a dough hook may not be able to mix it well enough.
- Change to hook attachment and knead for another 3 minutes at low speed #2 (KA) or until the dough comes together. Add in butter and continue knead for 10 minutes at low speed #2 or until reach window pane stage. The whole kneading process, I stopped few times to scrape down the dough from the hook to be sure it is evenly kneaded and also to prevent the motor from overheating.
- Add in raisin and continue kneading for about 1 -2 minute until the raisins evenly mix in the dough.
- 1st Proofing/Resting:
- In the same bowl, let the dough rest for 30 - 60 minutes. Keep it covered with clingfilm or use a lid. This dough I rested for 45 minutes at 29C - 30C room temperature and the dough rose slightly in 45 minutes. (I did not find any big differences of 30 mins to 60 minutes rest. So, please follow your schedule).
- Shaping:
- Transfer the dough to a clean floured or slightly oiled surface then divide into 2 or 3 equal portions. Please use a kitchen scale if you want to be exact.
- Form each portion to a ball. Flatten with rolling pin.
- Fold right to centre and fold left overlap it. Roll out with rolling pin into long rectangle shape. Roll up the dough like Swiss Roll until a small log is formed.
- Place all dough in the prepared loaf pan.
- Final Proofing :
- Let it proof in a warm place until the dough reaches about 1 cm below the height of the pan. This one took approximately 3 hours at room temperature of 29C - 30C. The duration of proofing depends on your ambient temperature and starter.
- Baking:
- Preheat oven at 180C - 200C (top & bottom heat) for 15 minutes.
- Brush with egg wash (optional) and bake in a preheated oven for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Remove bread from oven and let them cool on rack completely before slicing.
GENERAL NOTES:
SOURDOUGH STARTER
Please click this link for "How To Make Sourdough Starter" and "Sourdough Maintenance"
A healthy starter is very crucial as advised by Baking with Gina. It is advisable to feed your starter regularly if you want your bread to rise nicely and to use the starter (levain) at its peak. A starter that is fed regularly will be more active in general. If the mother starter is not strong, the bread dough will not rise a lot even though the starter is used at its peak.
GLUTEN DEVELOPMENT & WINDOWPANE TEST
Gluten forms when flour comes in contact with water. Hydration of the flour causes the sticky and stretchy protein to form, giving structure to the bread. This makes your bread trap air and rise.
Gluten in dough can be developed by autolyse, resting, kneading or folding.
The windowpane test is used to determine whether the dough has been sufficiently kneaded. By gently pulling the dough (or you may pinch off some dough) and trying to stretch it into a thin membrane. If you are able to stretch the dough paper thin and translucent without tearing, then the gluten is fully developed. However, if you can stretch it without tearing but the membrane is not transparent, then the gluten is not yet fully developed.
However, from my experience not all the recipe can achieve a thin and translucent window pane stage easily. For example low hydration and low fat dough. For such recipes, a reasonable window pane is good enough and it can be left to rest. Gluten will continue to develop while resting. Exercising restraint to not over-knead the dough prevents the gluten from being overworked and broken. Some of you may have experienced the dough breaking during the second proofing. It is because the dough is over kneaded.
The total kneading time for me is usually 15 minutes at low speeds except brioche dough with high fat percentage or dough using liquid fat which usually takes a little longer (maybe 18-20 mins).
From my experience, I found that high hydration dough with high percentage of fat will be easy to stretch and achieve a paper thin windowpane stage.
KNEADING TIME
For kneading, please regard the timing provided as an indication only. It is only meant as a guide. Timing may differ depending on the brand of flour and electric mixer used. The protein content may vary from one brand of flour to another.
FLOUR
The right flour plays a very important role in bread making. To achieve fluffy, soft and light bread, I used Japan High Gluten Flour in most of my bread baking. The protein content is around 12 - 13%.
HYDRATION
The liquid measurement given is also a guide. It is advisable to always reserve some liquid and not add it all in one go. This would give you the opportunity to adjust if necessary. If dough is too dry, add the reserve liquid one tablespoon at a time until the right consistency. This is because each flour absorbs water and hydrates differently.
PROOFING
Please note that the proofing timing may also vary depending on your climate, environment, flour and your starter.
If you are unable to judge by just looking at the dough, you can do the finger poke test:
- Lightly press the side of the proved dough with your finger. If it bounces back immediately without any indentation, it means the dough is under proved and needs more time before baking.
- If the indentation stays and it doesn’t bounce back, it means it has been over proved.
- If the indentation slowly bounces back and leave a small indentation, it is ready to bake.
- There will be a final burst of rising once the bread is placed to bake in the oven and it is called oven spring.
If your bread collapses or gets wrinkled on top after removing from oven, it could be because your dough over proved during the second proofing. Please proof until the tip of the dough just reaches the rim of the pan, around 80% - 90% in size.
BAKING TEMPERATURE AND TIME
Do also note that the baking temperature and timing provided are what works for my oven and should also be regarded as a guide only. Every oven behaves a little differently, so please adjust accordingly for your oven.
Labels:
Breads (Sourdough) - Soft Loaves,
Hi, Bake With Paws. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I always love the combination of cinnamon and raisin, sadly I don't have any starter or levain at home. Could you make this recipe using instant yeast in your future post?
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Lia
Hi Lia, Thank you for reading this post and your request. Sure! I will. But, in the meantime you can use the below link recipe in my blog. Just add cinnamon powder and raisin to it.
ReplyDeleteSoft & Fluffy White Bread:
https://www.bakewithpaws.com/2020/05/soft-and-fluffy-white-sandwich-bread.html
Cheers :)
Thank you so much for this recipe! I tried it last week and it worked beautifully! So soft and flavoursome! Your recipes are amazing!
ReplyDeleteHi, Thank you for trying this recipe and your kind feedback. I am glad that you like it.
DeleteMerry Christmas :)
Tried this and it worked well! Would it be possible to exclude the egg from this recipe?
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for trying and your feedback. Yes, you can just replace with milk. But, please take note that the bread may turn out slightly sour sometimes if egg is omitted.
DeleteCheers :)
You mentioned use of milk powder in the recipe for cinnamon raisin soft sourdough bread but no milk powder was seen used in the video or in the ingredient list. When is it added? I would like to try this recipe :)
ReplyDeleteMay I know whether we can substitute the whipping cream with Greek yogurt?
Hi there, Thanks for visiting Bake with Paws. Sorry for the confusion. There is no milk powder used in this recipe. Milk powder I mentioned above is just general notes apply to my other recipes too. I forgot to remove it. I have deleted now to avoid confusion.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I have not tried using yogurt in this bread and not sure how it will turn out. You may want to try and curious to know too.
Cheers :)
Why don’t you have the recipe in ounces? Sure would greatly appreciate it!!
ReplyDeleteThank you
Hi, thanks for visiting Bake with Paws. I am so sorry that I we do not use ounces here in Asia. We all use gram here.
DeleteCheers :)
Hello.. Love reading your blog ❤️ So much details in every step. I've tried this recipe and indeed very soft but I still didn't get the shredable crumb. Is that something to do with achieving good windowpane, hence shredable crumb?
ReplyDeleteHi, thank you for trying this recipe and your feedback. Yes, good windowpane stage is very important. It could be the flour you used. Usually Japan High Gluten flour will yield this result.
DeletePlease read the General notes about Window Pane stage.
Cheers :)
I see... I just received my japan high gluten flour and will give it a try. This tang zhong method really makes the bread sooo soft but it's so hard to cut it nicely. Did I do something wrong?
DeleteHi, This bread is abit soft. So it is advisable to wait till your bread completely cool then only cut. It may easier to slice. However, I usually tear the bread for photography and next day only I slice the bread unless I wanted to try immediately.
DeleteBtw, I used Yudane method instead of Tangzhong. You can read the differences on the Bread Baking Method on the top bar in my website.
Cheers :)
Oh yes, I mean Yudane, followed your recipe exactly. I cut the bread until it's completely cool / the next day. I just tried with Japan high gluten flour. It has shreadable crumb when I tear it. (not like before) but when I cut it, many small crumbs fell and the bread slices are just not neat :(. I use bread knife too, btw.
DeleteHi, thanks for your feedback. Yes, I agreed this bread is very soft and hard to slice. But, I still manage to slice it and not very thin about 1.5 cm. It could be my bread knife very sharp. However, try to make into buns instead.
DeleteCheers :)