Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread

Cinnamon and raisin are a perfect flavor combination. Enjoy this sweet cinnamon sourdough bread studded with raisins and baked in an artisan style loaf. It’s the perfect bread for your morning toast. I love slathering it with a little bit of butter and enjoying the sweet cinnamon raisin flavor. And guess what, the kids love it too!

Why You’ll Love Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread

This easy-to-follow recipe uses a cinnamon sugar paste instead of sprinkling sugar straight onto the dough. I made too many loaves with dough that was overly wet and difficult to shape until I realized I could make a paste like I use in my sourdough cinnamon rolls. This gives me a little extra time to shape the dough and results in a perfect cinnamon sugar flavor. In short, this cinnamon raisin sourdough bread is just delicious. You’ll be wanting it on repeat!

Important Ingredients in Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread

• Sourdough Starter: Use an active/ripe sourdough starter (doubled in size/bubbly/mild sour aroma) to mix the levain.
• Bread Flour: I almost always use a 12.5% protein bread flour for my breads. This cinnamon raisin sourdough is mixed with a high water content and needs to be paired with a strong flour. If you don’t have bread flour and substitute all-purpose, you will need to reduce some of the water in the recipe.
• Water: I use tap water in my baking and usually warm it up to help keep the dough warm during the fermentation process. If the dough is cold, the fermentation will move more slowly.
• Salt: Salt enhances the flavor and helps temper the fermentation – don’t leave it out!
• Raisins: Use any good quality raisins that you like in this recipe. I do not soak the raisins before adding them into the dough. I purposefully increase the hydration of the dough to compensate for the raisins soaking up some of the moisture. If you choose to use soaked raisins, decrease the water in the recipe by 25 grams.
• Cinnamon Sugar Mixture: Cinnamon sugar can often be difficult to add into a high hydration sourdough bread. It makes the dough sticky quickly because sugar absorbs water. To help compensate for that, this recipe calls for a paste of cinnamon/sugar mixed with softened butter, a little flour and a pinch of salt. Mix the paste together and spread it over the dough after bulk fermentation and right before shaping.

Sample Baking Schedule for Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough

A sample baking schedule helps me when baking with sourdough. Sourdough takes much longer to rise than commercial yeast bread. This schedule helps me plan my bake.

A few notes: This schedule assumes the dough temperature is 78°F throughout the process. If you’d like to make the bread all on the same day, skip the cold fermentation and let the dough rise for a few hours in a banneton before baking.

How to Make Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread

Mix Levain

1:1:1 Levain (ready in 3-4 hours/same day): This recipe calls for a levain mixed the same day you mix the dough. It should take 3-4 hours until it’s ready to be mixed with the dough, if you keep the levain temperature at 78-80°F. Levain is ready when it has doubled in size, has lots of bubbles, a slightly sour aroma and is just about to start going down from its peak height. Mix together:

• 35 grams of ripe/mature starter
• 35 grams of warm water
• 35 grams of bread flour

If you prefer to mix the levain the night before, you can mix a 1:10:10 levain that is ready in 10-12 hours or overnight. Mix together:

• 5 grams of ripe/mature sourdough starter
• 55 grams water
• 55 grams bread flour

Do you have to use a levain in this recipe? No. I prefer it, but if you have a well-maintained and frequently refreshed starter, you can substitute that in place of the levain in the recipe.

Begin Bulk Fermentation: Fermentolyse

As soon as the levain is ready (bubbly, doubled in size, peaked), mix together the ripe levain, bread flour, whole wheat flour and water. This method is called a fermentolyse, and it helps strengthen the gluten strands in the dough before the salt is added. Salt has a shrinking effect on the gluten strands, so doing this first gives a better overall texture and crumb to this bread. Cover the dough, set it in a warm (78°F) place and let it rest for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add the salt and 25 grams of reserved water. Pinch chunks of dough and reincorporate them together gently. Pick up one side of the dough and fold it over on itself. Wet your hands as needed and continue to work with the dough, gently kneading until all the ingredients are incorporated and the dough is smooth. This will probably take 3-5 minutes. If you prefer doing this step in a stand mixer, that works too. Transfer the dough to a plastic container or a glass bowl if desired.

Bulk Fermentation: Stretch and Folds

Sourdough cinnamon raisin bread is an artisan style bread, which means we don’t use traditional kneading methods, instead we use a series of gentle folds to help strengthen the gluten strands in the dough. This dough usually gets about 3-4 sets of stretch and folds over a 2 hour period, if the dough is kept right around 78°F.

Stretch and Fold: To stretch and fold, wet your hand (so it doesn’t stick to the dough). Reach down to the bottom of the bowl of dough and pull the dough up and over the top of the dough. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the stretch and fold. Turn another quarter turn and repeat. Perform one more quarter turn with stretching and folding the dough. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. Repeat every 30 minutes for a total of 3-4 times.

Adding Raisins: Right before your second set of stretch and folds, add the raisins on top of the dough. As you stretch and fold the dough, the raisins will incorporate. Alternatively, you can use coil folds to add the raisins if you prefer. As you repeat your stretch and folds or coil folds a third time and as the dough rests, the raisins will incorporate throughout the dough.

Bulk Fermentation: Resting

After the 2-hour period of stretch and folds, let the dough rest in a warm 78-80°F place until puffed up and jiggly with a few scattered bubbles around the top. Because we are not going to pre-shape this dough due to the addition of the cinnamon/sugar, this process usually takes about 2-3 hours. If the dough isn’t showing signs it is ready to shape, give it another half hour and check again.

Adding Cinnamon Filling to Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread

Preparing Cinnamon Sugar Mixture: One of the tricky parts of adding cinnamon sugar into a high hydration sourdough loaf, is that the sugar works to pull moisture out of the dough. This happens quickly and the dough can become difficult to work with if you spend too long trying to shape the dough. To counteract this process, I mix together a filling of softened butter, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, a little flour and salt until it forms a thick paste.

Adding Filling to Sourdough: Once the dough has rested and is showing signs of readiness, prepare a banneton or small bowl. Place a kitchen towel or hair net in the bowl and liberally flour. Dump the dough out on the counter. Wet your hands and pull the dough out into a square or rectangle shape. The dough does not need to be stretched very thinly. Dollop most of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the dough, working quickly and spreading it across the dough. Fold one side of the dough to the middle and the other side of the dough to the middle. Add the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top of that dough and then roll the dough up into a cylinder or circular shape. Immediately place the dough into a prepared banneton or bowl.

Cold Fermenting Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread

Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a shower cap and place in the refrigerator for 18-24 hours. If it goes a little longer than that, it should be okay – up to as much as 48 hours depending on the temperature of your refrigerator and how quickly the fermentation is moving.

Want to bake the same day? Skip cold fermentation. Cover the dough and let rise in a warm 78-80°F place for about 2-3 hours until puffed up, jiggly and risen. Pre-heat Dutch oven and bake.

Baking Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread

Pre-heat the Oven: Put a Dutch oven (top and all) into the oven and preheat to 500°F. Allow the Dutch oven to heat for about 30 minutes to an hour at 500°F. This builds up steam, which is necessary to achieve the beautiful oven spring and crispy crust that artisan bread is known for.

Scoring the Dough: Once the oven is preheated for 30 minutes, pull the loaf out of the refrigerator. Remove the plastic wrap (this is easy to do straight out of the refrigerator if the dough is chilled – not easy if the dough warms up) and place a piece of parchment paper on top of the bread dough. I like using parchment in this recipe because sometimes the cinnamon sugar will leak out, which I don’t like getting on my Dutch oven. Flip the dough over so that it is now sitting on the parchment paper. Take off the bowl/banneton and kitchen towel. Use a bread lame or very sharp knife to score the dough. I find a simple score, nothing too intricate, is best when working with this dough. If a raisin pops out, just take it out completely or else it will burn.

Baking the Bread: Carefully remove the Dutch oven from the 500°F oven with hot pads. Take the top off and place your bread into the Dutch oven (including parchment paper – this helps with the transfer). Be very careful not to touch the sides of the hot Dutch oven. Put your hot pads back on before you pick up the lid of the Dutch oven and place it on top of the bread. Put the whole Dutch oven back into your oven. Lower the temperature to 450°F and bake for 20 minutes. Once 20 minutes are up, take the top off the Dutch oven and continue baking for 20 minutes until the bread is fully baked. Let cool completely before slicing and enjoy!