Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

Wait Brian, what happened to the Ciabatta?

Um…what?

What happened to the Ciabatta?

Ah…nope, don’t know what you’re talking about. You mean Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread. That’s what I worked on this week. Don’t know what a Chi-bata is. Is that some kind of new fangled exercise you buy on T.V. from that guy who used to play The Incredible Hulk? No, not Bill Bixby, that other dude. Never mind, can I get on with this?

I have done this recipe before, and pretty much came to the same results. This particular recipe of cinnamon raisin bread has all the qualities one wants from raisin bread. Namely, cinnamon and raisins. It is light, flavorful, good finish and fills your mouth with a nice little after taste of roasted walnuts. The recipe indicated that I could have eliminated the walnuts without any further changes to the recipe itself and I may do that in the future.

I find that kneading nuts into the dough tends to tear the dough ever so slightly, which is what I thought was preventing it from rising properly. However, after some measurements after I set the pans for proofing, I discovered my pans were too small. I thought they were losing air or not rising because of the tears, but it turns out my loaf pans are too big. I never really paid attention to the sizing requirements. This recipe calls for an 8.5 x 4.5 and as it turns out my loaf pans are 9 x 5. That’s a big difference in bread making when you’re trying to make a proper loafs. So, in these pans, the loafs look particularly small, when they really aren’t.

I have since asked for smaller pans for Christmas.

Incidentally, I’m lazy, and just didn’t post the Ciabatta from last week. Truth be told, it didn’t turn out how I wanted. It lacked the large irregular holes that are the signature of a Ciabatta. It would have been like serving Cinnamon Raisin bread, without raisins.

Next week, in time for Thanksgiving…Corn Bread