Who has not eaten Cinnamon Raisin Toast for breakfast, at least as a child? Here’s a simple, perfect milk bread recipe that can be made as plain white bread, or with the cinnamon and raisins, or just cinnamon if you prefer.

I often made bread like this when I was young. In fact, it’s my earliest baking memory when I did something all by myself. My father loved it.

What is Milk Bread?

Most yeast breads are made with water. Yeast breads made with milk tend to have a softer, tender crumb as compared to a rustic loaf; more like a loaf of store bought bread, but without preservatives. The dough comes together easily is a big soft ball, and it is easily shaped. Milk breads often have eggs incorporated as well. This gets away from the basic water-yeast-flour-salt bread recipes. This bread does not use a sponge starter like Japanese Milk Bread, so it’s quite easy to mix up.

This recipe could be used to make cinnamon buns as well, just bake for a shorter period of time after rolling and slicing, and add icing.

The key to yeast breads to is watch the temperatures of everything – warm milk or water, but not so hot as to kill the yeast, about 100-110 F – and a warm place for dough to rise. I tend to use my oven – turn on the heat for maybe a minute, just long enough to warm it up a bit. Or, my brother’s method, set the bowl of covered dough on a heating pad on low. If you have a warming drawer under the oven, that works too. Ideally in this recipe the eggs would be sitting out to come to room temperature, but I seldom remember to do that in advance.

I do use a thermometer to check the temperature of liquids and the bread before I take it out of the oven.

This dough rolls out easily into a rectangle, about 15 x 8″. Brush with the melted butter, sprinkle with all the cinnamon sugar mix and the raisins, then roll up from the short side, which should be the width of your bread pan.

Tuck the ends under a little, and pinch the long seam close. Place seam down in the buttered/oiled bread pan.

Then the dough sets someplace warm to rise once more.

This recipe is for one loaf. I usually make two at a time, just start up 2 bowls and measure ingredients twice. Although I like to use my KitchenAid mixer to knead, this dough is easy enough to stir and knead by hand. I don’t recommend mixing up all together and trying to divide in half. You’ll get better results one loaf at a time.

I keep a can of cooking spray handy when I make bread – it’s perfect for spraying the top of dough when I set it aside to rise. The spray oil keep the dough moist and prevents it from drying and forming a crust.

Once the second rise id done, it’s time to bake. Do let the loaf sit for about an hour to cool after removing from the pan, so the bread won’t crumble and unroll when it’s sliced.

Remember, homemade gifts, especially gifts from the heart and your kitchen, are wonderful anytime, but especially for the holidays.

Suggested products:

KitchenAid Mixer

Heavy Steel Loaf pans