No Knead Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I don’t particularly enjoy cooking, never did. I cook now because well if I want my family and me to eat, I gotta cook .

A few year back I had a coffee mug that said ‘the only reason I have a kitchen is because it came with the house’, oh I loved the mug. Anyways, as much as I find cooking boring, I totally enjoy baking. Couple of reason, first of which is the end results are always so yum .

Also when you bake your house smells wonderful!!!

Cakes, cookies you name it. I enjoy baking them. Breads I like but oh the kneading always bummed me out. So after baking 1 loaf I just figured not doing it again. That was until I found a no knead recipe. And so of course I tried it and boy was it amazing. As per my husband, “the best bread he has had”. Now that’s something huh!!

So I have to share the recipe. Here goes

Ingredients

• All purpose flour – 3 cups
• Yeast – half tsp
• Salt – 1.5 tsp
• Sugar – 2 tbsp
• Cinnamon – 2 tbsp
• Raisins (nice and plump) – 3/4th cup
• Milk (room temperature) – 3/4th cup
• Water (room temperature) – 3/4th cup

You start off by bringing all your ingredients together in a large bowl. We will be leaving the dough to rise in this bowl so make sure it is large enough

Place the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, yeast, salt, sugar and raisin) in the bowl, now one thing to be very careful about, you put the yeast and salt on opposite sides of the bowl. If salt directly comes in contact with the yeast it will kill the active ingredients in the yeast, which means your dough won’t rise and in effect your bread won’t turn out right. So you mix the salt into the flour and then mix the rest of the ingredients into the flour.

Make a well and pour in the milk and water. Use a spatula and bring it all together. You can use your hand too.

You should have a wet kind of dough, something like in the picture below. Remember there is no kneading done here. You are just being it all together.

Now cover the bowl with a cling wrap and then place a kitchen towel over it to keep the dough warm. Leave the dough to rise for 12-18 hours. Minimum of 12 hours is mandatory, although I usually leave it for about 20 hours.

This is what my bread dough looks like after 21 hours. It has risen to almost thrice the original volume. And can you see those lovely air pockets….

Check out the gluten strands. Simply amazing.

Dust a surface with some flour, get the dough on it and press it down. You will be pushing out all the air bubbles but that’s ok right now. Fold the dough like you would a piece of paper or cloth and then shape it into a round mound or oval, whatever shape you like. At this point place the dough into the tray that you will bake it in.

Cover this with a cloth and leave it to rise for 1 hour.

After an hour,you will find the dough to have risen again. A good way to tell if your dough is ready for the oven is to poke the dough lightly. If it bounces right back leave it a little longer, but if it doesn’t then it’s all good and ready.

Get your oven pre-heated to 200 C or 400 F.

Dust the top of dough mound with a little flour and you can cut in a design if you like. Once your oven is ready, place your dough in and bake for 45-50 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven

Once done, take it out and let it cool around 15-20 mins. You should have a lovely hard crust with a soft bread inside. When you tap the underside of the loaf, it should sound hollow.

Lather on some butter and enjoy!!!