Bread Machine Cinnamon Raisin Bread
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My white bread fills the house with a yeasty bakery smell while it bakes. This bread machine cinnamon raisin bread doesn’t. The cinnamon comes through first and the yeast stays in the background, and that’s your first clue this loaf is the treat, not the thing holding a sandwich together.
The first loaf I made taught me the one thing this recipe asks of you. My machine has no raisin dispenser and no mix-in beep. I was worried raisins added too early would sink, so I held them back and added them between rises, after the dough had already come together. It didn’t work. The machine moved them around a little, but they baked packed along the bottom of the loaf and never made it into the bread. Stick with the dispenser or the mix-in beep. Everything else behaved like my bread machine white sandwich bread, an ordinary yeast dough, even with plain all-purpose flour.
Once they’re in the dough, the raisins bake up plump and juicy, the same thing they do in my applesauce cake with raisins and walnuts. Toast a slice and spread it with butter, honey, or cream cheese, or cut the toast into sticks for dipping into homemade slow cooker applesauce. The loaf also works for French toast and sweet breakfast sandwiches. When you want another loaf going, my bread machine loaves and other homemade breads are all in one place.
How It Comes Together
Everything goes into the bread machine pan in layers. The warm milk mixture goes on the bottom, the flour and cinnamon go over it, and the yeast sits in a small well on top so it stays dry until kneading starts. I whisk the wet ingredients in one bowl and the flour and cinnamon in another before anything goes into the pan. It’s one extra bowl, and the cinnamon is already spread through the flour before the machine ever turns on.
Raisin timing is the step that decides this loaf. Load the raisins into the fruit and nut dispenser if your machine has one, or add them at the mix-in signal. Once the dough has pulled into a ball, the machine can’t work them in, and they bake packed along the bottom. The right moment varies by machine, so check your manual for when yours adds mix-ins.
Newer machines run the Basic or White cycle in about three hours. Mine is older, and its white bread cycle runs closer to four, so check yours before you plan your day around it. I set the crust to light or medium. The loaf is done when the crust is golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when I tap it.
Give it 30 minutes on a wire rack before slicing. That’s plenty for this loaf.
The full ingredient list, measurements, and step-by-step instructions are in the printable recipe card below.
Ingredient Notes
Whole milk. I use whole milk, but any milk will work.
Unsalted butter and table salt. The recipe I started from called for 1½ teaspoons of salt, which is right at the max. I brought it down to 1 teaspoon and use unsalted butter, so the salt stays where I set it.
All-purpose flour. I bake this with plain white all-purpose flour. Bread flour can go in at the same amount if that’s what you keep.
Active dry yeast. No proofing. It goes straight into the flour well, dry.
Raisins. Golden raisins or dried cranberries swap in at the same amount. Skip apricots and prunes. They’re too big for this loaf.
What I’ve Learned Making This
I warm the milk first and then stir the butter into it, so the milk melts the butter and there’s no second pan. Warm to the touch is enough. It doesn’t need to get anywhere near scalding.
A zip bag on the counter keeps this loaf overnight. After that it goes in the fridge, where it keeps a few more days if my three kids leave it that long. It goes quick.
I slice the whole loaf before freezing it. That way I can thaw a couple of slices or the entire loaf in the fridge overnight, without sawing through frozen bread.
Bread Machine Cinnamon Raisin Bread with Plump Raisins
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk warmed
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 cup raisins
Instructions
- Warm the milk until it is warm to the touch but not scalding, then add the butter and stir until it melts. Add the sugar and salt and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Transfer to the bread machine pan.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and cinnamon until no streaks of cinnamon remain. Spoon the flour mixture over the liquid in the bread machine pan so it covers the liquid completely.
- Make a small well in the top of the flour and add the yeast, keeping it out of contact with the liquid. If your machine has a yeast dispenser, add the yeast there instead.
- If your machine has a fruit and nut dispenser, load the raisins there now. Otherwise, set them aside to add at your machine’s mix-in signal. Raisins added after the dough has formed a ball will not knead through and bake packed along the bottom of the loaf.
- Select the Basic or White Bread cycle, set the crust to light or medium, and press start. Let the machine knead, rise, and bake the loaf, about 3 hours, until the cycle ends.
- Using oven mitts, remove the bread machine pan and turn the loaf out onto a wire rack. The loaf is done when the crust is golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.
- Cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
