Out of this World Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I know it has been a long, LONG time since my last post but I've been really busy working on super awesome videos and getting my office at my boss' house organized. But I've had a few days off and after a lovely Valentine's Day and a full day at Disneyland on Monday I decided I wanted to bake something.

A few weeks ago I picked up the February issue of Martha Stewart Living because the cover was so darn pretty and the cover advertised "One Simple Recipe, 4 Great Breads." Well Martha wasn't kidding - this bread is simple and DELICIOUS. I made the cinnamon raisin loaf and it is incredibly delicious, like better than brownies for dessert delicious. Put a slice in the toaster and spread a little bit of butter on it and try not to eat half the loaf in one evening. YUM. If anyone makes this I'd love to know how it turns out!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread
From Martha Stewart Living

1 Tablespoon plus 1 1/2 Teaspoons active dry yeast (two 1/4 ounce envelopes)
2 1/4 cups warm water
3 Tablespoons plus 2 Teaspoons honey
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for bowl, pans and brushing
7 Cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface and dusting
2 Tablespoons coarse salt
1 Cup raisins
1/2 Cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Sprinkle yeast over 1/2 cup water. Add 2 teaspoons honey. Whisk until yeast dissolves. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
2. Add butter, remaining 1 3/4 cups water and 3 tablespoons honey. Mix the flour and the salt together. Add 3 cups of the flour mixture to the yeast mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Add the raisins, mix until smooth. Add the remaining 4 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ragged, slightly sticky ball.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Wash out the mixing bowl (or use another bowl) and butter the sides of it. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic but still slightly tacky - about five minutes. Shape into a ball. Transfer to prepared bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
5. Allow the dough to stand in a warm place until it doubles in volume (it shouldn't spring back when you poke your finger in), about 1 hour.
6. Butter two 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch loaf pans. Once the dough has risen punch it down and divide it in half. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
7. Shape one dough half into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle that is about 8 by 10 inches. Lightly brush the dough with water and sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar mixture, leaving a 1/2 in ch border around the edge. Starting with the short side roll dough into a log. Seal edges with fingertips and tuck ends under. Transfer the dough seam side down to the pan. Brush the top with melted butter. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
8. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Drape the loaves with plastic and let dough stand until it rises about one inch above the tops of the pans - 45 minutes to 1 hour.
9. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Bake, rotating pans after 220 minutes until tops are golden brown, about 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to wire racks. Let cool slightly; turn out loaves. Let cool completely before slicing (no really, do this, I didn't and it was bad).

*I made my bread by hand, using a wooden spoon, as the recipe suggests. If you are so lucky as to have a KitchenAid mixer with a dough-hook attachment go ahead and use it, but don't tell me because I will be jealous.

Update

For any of you still reading this blog that I never update please know that I have a reason: I've recently started working for an Art Director in LA and I have not cooked in approximately a week. Or baked. Or done any sort of culinary activity. And that makes me sad - however, I've been given this awesome opportunity to learn from someone who is incredibly talented and well respected and hopefully it will help me to foster some sort of career of my own eventually. When we're not in pre-production I'll try to update my blog more often.

Have lovely days, exciting culinary adventures and stay tuned because someday maybe I'll have time to cook something other than pasta .

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies and Apologies

For those of you who occasionally glance at my blog, I apologize for my apparent lack of commitment to posting. But, in my defense, I've been busy graduating from college. As 2010 begins I promise to try to post at least once a week and hopefully I can stick with this. So as for a recipe I have an interesting twist on a recipe I think is best done by Nestle Tollhouse - Chocolate Chip Cookies...made with extra virgin olive oil instead of butter.
I have to admit, these cookies were pretty darn good and I was amazed that I couldn't taste the olive oil. The cookies were best fresh out of the oven or dipped in milk the next day. I'm sitting in the Portland Airport right now and I have to say, I'd really like one of these fresh out of the oven.

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from The Crepes of Wrath

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 or 2 tablespoons of milk
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. Combine sugars, vanilla, and olive oil. Stir in the eggs one a time. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, then add in a tablespoon of milk to make the dough a bit firmer, maybe another tablespoon if you need it/if you feel the dough is too sticky/dry.

3. Roll the dough into balls with your hands and place on a greased and/or lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden and set. Mine took about 10 minutes. These get overdone quickly, so take them out a bit early if you’re unsure. Allow to cool for a bit on the baking sheet, then move to another surface to finish cooling.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Buttermilk Icing

This is perhaps the most delicious cake I've ever made and I don't even really like pumpkin all that much. I encourage you to make it. The best thing about this cake is that it keeps really well - like for days and days. I made this cake on Tuesday night and it was just perfect for Thanksgiving and lasted (barely) until Monday when it was still awesome and moist.

When I went to make this cake I discovered, much to my dismay, that my buttermilk had gone bad. This was really quite irritating because I'd bought it on Sunday and the expiration date was the 25th of November, also known as tomorrow. I was very annoyed. Looking back on it though I think if it hadn't had the orange fuzzy dots in it (gross) I probably would have thrown out perfectly good buttermilk - because it is supposed to be very chunky. My advice: give it a good shake to distribute everything and try to ignore the sound it makes as it splats into the measuring cup.


Pumpkin Spice Cake with Buttermilk Icing
Adopted from Gourmet (via Epicurious)

For cake
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for greasing pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (Mine was a heaping teaspoon...I love cinnamon)
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (a 15-ounce can is more than enough; not pie filling)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

For icing
(I think you could probably get away with making half of this recipe - I had a ton of extra)

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons well-shaken buttermilk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Make cake:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter pan* generously, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.

Beat butter (1 1/2 sticks) and granulated sugar with a fork in a large bowl until pale and fluffy, then add eggs one at a time and stir to incorporate after each egg. Add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and reinvert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.

Make icing:
While cake is cooling, whisk together buttermilk and confectioners sugar until smooth. Drizzle icing over warm cake, then cool cake completely. Icing will harden slightly. (I actually didn't drizzle until the next day, I heated up the cake a bit and drizzled and it was just fine - it wasn't a hard icing but it was still delicious.)

*The original recipe is made in a bundt pan but I don't have one (and Brad so kindly talked me out of buying a $12 pan I clearly don't need) so I used a springform pan and it worked great. I think these would also make excellent muffins.