This recipe has so many things to love. We love the taste of raisins and orange together. And we’re particularly partial of golden raisins. We also love white rye flour. It’s mild and has an almost sourdough-like taste. All in all, we’re pretty proud of this bread.
You can buy, plump, giant golden raisins at The Prepared Pantry.
If you are having trouble finding white rye flour, medium rye will work. Better yet, try our white rye flour blend and use that in place of both the rye and bread flours. If you use our blend, it will have the right ratio of rye and bread flours along with extra gluten and dough conditioners to make a great bread.
Golden California Raisin Bread Recipe
Ingredients
zest from one orange
about 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup whole milk or one cup reduced fat milk and one tablespoon butter
about 1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup honey
1 seven gram package instant yeast
2 cups white rye flour
about 4 cups high protein bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 1/2 cups golden raisins
Directions
1. Grate the zest from one orange being careful not to get the bitter, white pithy layer. Set the zest aside.
2. Squeeze the orange juice from one or two oranges until you have about 3/4 cup. Mix the orange juice with the milk and water. You should have 2 1/4 cups of liquid mixture. Add the honey. Heat the liquid mixture in the microwave until it reaches 105 degrees.
3. Place the rye flour and yeast in the bowl of your stand-type mixer. Add the warm liquid mixture and beat with a dough hook until it is partially mixed—about 30 seconds. The purpose of this mixing is to hydrate the yeast.
4. Add most of the bread flour to the bowl. Add the salt, cinnamon, and orange zest. Knead with the dough hook at medium speed for four minutes adding more flour to reach a soft but not sticky dough. Add the raisins and knead them in. (You may need to knead the raisins in by hand.) Set the dough in a greased bowl, turn once, and cover. Set the bowl in a warm place and allow it to double in size.
5. Grease two 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pans. Form two loaves, cover them, and let them rise until doubled and puffy.
Bakers Note: This bread is very good. The key is to let it rise enough. The yeast has to lift a lot of raisins and the bread has a high rye content and it just takes a while. Be patient. If there is a second key, it’s to use quality golden raisins. They should be soft and plump.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until done. The internal temperature should be 190 to 200 degrees. Remove the bread from the pans and let the bread cool on a wire rack.
Bakers Note: Whole milk has an enzyme which retards the growth of yeast. We recommend that you use Bakers dry milk, high heat treated dry milk, for this recipe, though liquid milk will still make an excellent bread.
