Easy Cranberry-Raisin Bread

Day 192 of 365

Today is National Homemade Bread Day, which is kind of a big deal to me. We make from scratch every single bit of bread our family eats. Sandwich bread, bread for toast, hamburger buns, bread sticks, biscuits, tortillas–all are made from scratch from organic flours and most include flours we mill ourselves from whole grains.

Making all of our bread homemade didn’t happen overnight. It was a process, but we were highly motivated to switch from buying breads at the store for three reasons: First, Ron makes bread like a magician. His wheat loaves are so delicious, and his Challah is like a work of art. There is no bread I can buy at the store that can compare. Plus, I have become a fairly skilled at breads myself. Second, Ron was getting sick from eating store-bought breads or doughs of any kind. When we found out about the amount of glyphosate in wheat products, that became our third reason for making the change.

I love all breads way too much. One of the reasons I fell in love with Ron was I tasted a slice of his homemade bread fresh out of the oven–with honey. Yeah, that was it.

But one of my favorite breakfast or snack breads is cranberry-raisin bread. It’s a little crisp on the outside and chewy on the insides, and dried fruits in breads are my favorite. It’s such a cozy bread!

I am sharing a modified version of a recipe I originally found at The Kitchen Whisperer.

Easy Cranberry-Raisin Bread

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour or bread flour (I prefer about a 50-50 combination, but one or the other will do)
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup golden raisins
juice from one freshly-squeezed mandarin orange or about 2 Tablespoons orange juice
1 and 1/2 cups warm water (this amount may need to be adjusted, but 1 and 1/2 is usually where I land)

Materials

Dutch oven
parchment paper
spoon and spatula

Directions

Mix all ingredients minus the water and juice into a very large bowl (large enough to allow for a doubling in size of your dough). After you have mixed the dry ingredients (including the cranberries and raisins), add your orange juice and water. Mix everything together until all flour is combined and you have a “shaggy” dough.

Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and let your dough rise for about 12 hours. (I make the dough after dinner at night and then bake it in the morning for a delicious treat at breakfast).

After 12 hours, uncover your dough and use a spatula to scrape out the dough onto a floured surface. There is no kneading. Using floured hands, just form the dough in a ball and place it on parchment paper. Cover it with your plastic wrap once again and let it rest for 30 minutes.

While your dough is resting, heat your over to 425 degrees and put your Dutch oven right in the oven. When the 30 minutes is up, take out the very hot dutch oven, remove the plastic from your dough, use the parchment paper to carefully pick up your ball of dough, and place the dough wrapped in parchment paper into your Dutch oven.

Cover the with the lid and bake, covered, for about 25 minutes.After 25 minutes, remove the lid and bake for 5 to 8 minutes longer.

When your bread is browned on the top, it should be ready. Enjoy it fresh out of the oven with salted butter or store in a bread bag after it cools and warm it up later. Just be sure to use salted butter on it. The salted butter brings out the flavors so well.

I hope you enjoy! When I first served this bread on a Christmas Eve morning, my son said, “This is the best Christmas Eve ever.”