This simple side dish recipe has grilled zucchini planks with a fresh tomato and mint garnish.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 32 |
| Yield: | 2 loaves |
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
- ¾ cup molasses
- 4 teaspoons salt
- 6 tablespoons white sugar
- ¼ cup shortening, melted
- 3 cups lukewarm water
- 2 cups raisins
- 12 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons caraway seed
Instructions
- Dissolve 2 teaspoons of sugar in 1 cup of water. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and allow to soften for 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together the molasses, salt, 6 tablespoons of sugar, and shortening into the remaining 3 cups of water in a large bowl until dissolved. Add the raisins, flour, and caraway seed.
- Mix together until a dough forms, then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 10 to 15 minutes. Place into a well oiled bowl, and brush the top with a little melted shortening. Cover with a cloth and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
- Punch down, and allow to rise again until doubled in bulk, another hour.
- Lightly grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface, punch down, then form into two loaves. Place loaves into the pans, cover with a cloth, and allow to rise again until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Bake loaves in preheated oven for 1 hour until they are nicely browned and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Reviews
very large, firm bread. I didn’t use caraway since I didn’t have any. It tastes great. I freeze it in bagged slices so my husband can grab one out the door on his way to work for breakfast. Freezes well.
This was a very good, flavorful raisin bread. I adjusted the amount to yield one loaf to see if we were going to like it (you can do this by clicking on Change Settings above the list of ingredients). I let the bread machine take care of the dough part. It rose beautifully in the loaf pan. My only criticism is the bake time is way off, so keep an eye on it. It could be because I had only one loaf baking in the oven. This loaf was perfect in 30 minutes.
This bread is really just delicious. I substituted honey for the sugar, and butter for the shortening and it came out great. You lose the refined sugar and the trans fats that way. It’s a really nice, mildly sweet bread that will be great for breakfast-type uses. I also added a little more caraway because this recipe makes FOUR loaves, not two. 12 cups of flour seemed like an awful lot but I diligently followed the recipe, and ended up with a TON of dough. Also, the recipe is missing a key direction: when to add the activated yeast to the other ingredients! I mixed the raisins, flour, and caraway separately. Then I added the yeast to the water/molasses/honey/butter mixture just before adding the flour mixture in parts. So I can recommend doing it that way, because it worked for me!