Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

It was a rainy day today. I woke up at 7:30am and it was raining and it finally tapered off around 5pm. So, what's a girl to do?

Get out her Bread Baker's Apprentice book and bake some bread.

Today I made cinnamon raisin walnut bread, and even though I'm not a huge fan of either raisins or walnuts, this bread is AMAZING. My neighbors love me because I am always bringing them fresh baked goodies :)

The recipe was super easy too, although I had a couple of hiccups along the way. I don't have shortening, so I substituted butter, and I was just an ounce or two shy of 1/2 cup of buttermilk, so I added enough soymilk (since that's all I drink) to get to the right amount. Oh, and after I let the dough rise for 2 hours I realized...

I FORGOT TO ADD THE CINNAMON!

Seriously!!! But, all was not lost, I just added it in then and punched the dough down and kneaded it by hand for a few minutes and well, you really can't tell that it was added way later.

Ready to rise
After rising for about 90 minutes

Following the directions I rolled it out and added the cinnamon sugar and rolled it up and baked it for 40 minutes (turning halfway through), but I didn't get the crusty cinnamon sugar top I had hoped for that the book talks about, but that's no problem as the bread is still absolutely delicious. Even Charlie loved it! I busted him taking a bite out of the edge of the loaf...bad dog!!!

Fresh out of the oven

I'm seeing friends for lunch tomorrow so I'll be taking them a few slices but this is definitely one I'll be making again and again.