Kitchen Improv

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

My kids and husband love my version of this classic bread. My recipe lacks the extra fat and corn syrup that you’ll find in commercially baked versions. Mine also turns out lighter, so you’ll need to adjust your yeast and rise times if you like the dense texture of the store-bought variety.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon bread flour
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups milk (I tend to use 1% fat content)
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
Add the tablespoon of bread flour to the raisins in a small bowl. Toss to coat all of the raisins, and then sift off the excess flour. Set aside.

Combine the milk, sugar, and oil into the bottom of the Zojirushi pan. Add the flour, cinnamon, and salt on top, making a small well where the yeast should be added. Set your machine to these times:

Preheat for 18 minutes
Knead for 22 minutes, adding the flour-coated raisins during the last five minutes of the knead cycle
Rise for 60 minutes
Rise for another 60 minutes after punch-down
Bake for 45 minutes

When the baking completes, immediately turn the loaf out onto a clean, dry towel. Let loaf cool completely before slicing and bagging.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

This seems to be the favorite bread recipe in our house. Note that the ingredient ratios are optimized for a Zojirushi machine used at a high elevation and will yield a two-pound loaf. Some adjustments are offered, below, for lower elevations. Both variations will work fine if used for a hand-kneaded loaf.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees F is fine)
3 Tablespoons honey
1/2 cup canola oil
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
Combine water, honey, and oil in the bottom of the zojirushi pan. Add the flour, gluten and salt on top, making a small well at the top. Add the yeast into the well, then fit the pan into the machine.

You can use the Basic Wheat setting with the desired crust configuration, but I find that even with a light crust, the pre-configured cycle leaves me with a very dry loaf. Below are the cycles and times I use:

Preheat for 18 minutes
Knead for 22 minutes
Rise for 75 minutes
Rise for another 60 minutes after punch-down
Bake for 45 minutes

I always time my loaves to ensure I’m at home and awake when the cycle completes. I find that if I leave it in the pan on the warming cycle, it dries out quickly. Or, if I leave it in the pan to cool, the bottom gets soggy. Thus, I find it very important to immediately turn the loaf out onto a clean, dry towel to rest. Let the loaf cool entirely before slicing and bagging.

Low-Elevation Variation
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
3 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup canola oil
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Basic White Bread for the Zojirushi

This is as basic and ‘white-bread’ of a recipe as you’ll ever find me making. It makes a good first loaf if you’re just starting to bake bread and learn the process. Remember, these ingredient ratios are for high-elevation in a relatively dry climate.

I love this recipe for making simple dinner or sandwich rolls. If that’s your aim, remove the dough after the first rise and shape into rolls. Place the rolls on the baking sheet and cover with a dry towel to rise in a warm place. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, depending on your roll size. If you want extra browning, brush the tops with an egg glaze of 1 egg and 4 teaspoons of water. For a soft, tender crust, brush the tops with melted butter when you remove it from the oven. Or, for a soft, shiny crust, brush the just-baked rolls with a little milk.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons powdered dry milk
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
Combine the water, sugar, and butter at the bottom of the Zojirushi Pan. Next, add the flour, salt, and milk on top, leaving a well where the yeast will be added. Fit the pan into the machine and set for a basic white setting with the desired crust.

Turn the loaf onto a clean, dry towel immediately after baking. Let the loaf cool completely before slicing and bagging.

Whole-Grain Wheat Bread

If you don’t like a whole-wheat bread, this is a good in-between with a softer texture like white bread, but with whole-grain benefits. This makes great sandwich bread.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
Combine water, sugar, and oil in the bottom of the Zojirushi pan. On top, add the flours and salt, leaving a small well at the top for the yeast. Fit the pan into your machine and set for a basic wheat cycle with the desired crust. I find I must remove the pan and turn out the loaf as soon as the baking cycle completes, else the warming setting will leave me with a dry and crumbly result.

Adventures in Breadmaking

In May I vowed to quit buying commercial bread. Not only are the prices of my favorite brand skyrocketing ($4.59 to $5.29 per loaf), the company has recently started adding soy to their ingredients list. I did some research and reviewed my mom’s stack of artisan bread recipes and decided that my wallet and my stomach would be better off if I started making my own loaves.

Because handmade bread takes so much time from start-to-finish and requires a watchful eye to catch the end of a proofing cycle, I decided I would buy a bread machine. Well, why not? Even if with one, I can still make hand-kneaded loaves the old-fashioned way on occasion, right?

After comparing the budget-variety machines with the Cadillac models, I decided on the Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme. I love the large loaf size, three custom recipe settings, and variety of pre-defined cycles that allow for more than just a simple brick-shaped loaf of chewy-crusted bread that seem to be the norm with so many other machines.

My first few loaves were nothing short of abysmal. Not accounting for the recipe tweaks needed for high-elevation baking, nor the incompatibility of my mother’s recipes with the machine method, I turned out some bread that my mother would have been ashamed of.

With patience, time, and the forgiving boys in my family who ate every slice, my attempts to create the perfect loaf have resulted in a handful of recipes that are repeat-worthy and have become staples in my home. Aside from the cost of the machine, which I estimate I’ll recapture in about eight months, I now spend a little over $2 per loaf of bread and don’t have to worry about soy or other undesired ingredients finding their way into my food.

Here are some recipes you may enjoy:
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Whole-Grain Wheat Bread
Simple White Loaf