Sugar Coated Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

I'm longing for road trips. Trips to DC, the North Carolina mountains, the coast, somewhere. With the bright sun on the dashboard and either the quiet companionship of a good book or some cheerful tunes.

Perhaps my favorite things about road trips though are lunch breaks, with a good peanut butter sandwich, apple slices and water.

Some of my fondest memories of trips involve pit stops either at awkward middle of nowhere fast food places or rest stops. I can't forget the time my family inadvertently tried to get on Quantico Marine Corps base three different times - we were just looking for a gas station! There's also the time we met a cat coming home from the Outer Banks. We astutely named her Plymouth after the town the rest stop was in.

So back to the peanut butter sandwiches. What could be better than to have them on cinnamon raisin bread? If you're going on vacay, and don't want to have to eat out every day or go to a grocery store, baking a loaf of the bread the day before will at least help for the lunches.

This loaf is gorgeous with its cinnamon swirl, specks of raisins and sugar coated topping. 

Sugar Coated Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread Adapted from Peter Reinhart (Check out all his fabulous books here)

Ingredients

• 1   3/4 cups bread flour (recommended KAF)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 5/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 5/8 tsp cinnamon

• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 tbsp Earth Balance shortening
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 3/8 cup water 

• 3/4 cup raisins

Cinnamon Swirl/Topping

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon  

For greasing loaf

• 1 tbsp Earth Balance buttery stick

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine ingredients from first column - flour, sugar, salt, yeast and cinnamon. 

Once combined, add applesauce, shortening, almond milk and water

Knead dough for 10 minutes. In the last 2 minutes, incorporate raisins.

Transfer dough to oiled bowl and let rise for 2 hours.

Prepare cinnamon swirl topping by mixing sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.

Roll dough into a rectangle, about 10 x 12 inches. Sprinkle with half of cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll up tightly, pinch ends and transfer to greased 9 x 5 loaf pan, seam side down.

Let rise an additional 2 hours. (Loaf will not rise above pan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake loaf for 20 minutes. Rotate pan 180 degrees and bake an additional 20 minutes or until the center of the loaf reaches 190 degrees.

Immediately brush loaf with butter and sprinkle remaining cinnamon sugar over loaf. (Tip: Do this over a pan to catch extra butter/cinnamon sugar.)