Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

This bread is absolutely heavenly. The smell of cinnamon wafts through the kitchen when you throw the bread into the toaster. I like it best slathered with Earth Balance margarine, where the goey cinnamon sugar in the swirl slides with the margarine across the slice. And it is made with 100% whole wheat! I also added walnuts, so you get a some omega-3s with the slice. Eating two slices of this bread for breakfast fills me enough so that I can last until a late lunch.

The recipe is from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. I love this book. I have his The Bread Baker's Apprentice as well, but I prefer to cook with whole grains and found that some of his recipes didn't work so well in the whole grain version. So far, I've made the 100% whole wheat sandwich bread loaf, the 100% whole wheat hearth bread, and the ciabatta (made with half bread flour and half whole wheat flour).

I found a cheaper source of King Arthur's Organic White Whole Wheat flour (my local organic grocer carried it at a price of $10.79 per 5 pounds! ouch), so I have been baking the breads with this flour and have loved the way they've turned out. The cinnamon raisin bread featured here was made with regular whole wheat flour - and as you can see, it worked out fine. But I've found that the white whole wheat flour has risen better.

Here is the bread pictured in the cookbook:


And here is a picture of how my bread turned out: