Weekly Wonders: GF Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough

I know these haven't been exactly weekly, but... Today I show you how to make gluten free cinnamon raisin sourdough bread.

If you would like to make your own gluten free sourdough starter, please see this post.

This is our goal for today:

It takes some time, but I thought the results were well-worth the effort.

Note: Since this is the first time I've made this bread, there are definitely some things I would tweak next time. I'll write up the recipe the way I did it, but see my comments along the way for suggestions on improvements.

You will need:

75 g   Potato starch
75 g   Tapioca starch
50 g   Sorghum flour
20 g   Millet flour
17.5 g   Sweet rice flour
15 g   Sugar
15 g   Xanthum gum
7.5 g   Salt
3 3/4 cups   Sourdough starter
1/4 cup   Almond Milk
1/3 cup   Sugar
1 tbsp   Cinnamon
1 cup   Raisins
Small amount of brown rice flour for the crust

Begin by soaking the raisins in warm water.

Then, in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together all ingredients from potato starch through salt.

Add the sourdough starter and Almond Milk.

Mix on medium speed until the batter (dough) comes together. It should look like this at the end:

While you are mixing the batter, combine the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon in a small bowl.

Also, grease and flour (with the brown rice flour) your brand new, ceramic loaf pan that your hubby bought you for Valentine's Day. Thanks, hubby!

A note about the pan: In the past I've used a tin loaf pan for baking and my bread would always have a nice oven rise and then crash upon exit. The bread was usually tasty, but the bottom would become condensed and the slices would be really small. I did some research and found one gluten free blogger who claimed that a ceramic pan would give you the best results. She explained that stoneware heats in a more even manner, and therefore holds temperature better, than tin, and that gluten free bread could use all the help it can get to stay risen. I'm pleased to say IT WORKS! My bread did not sink this time and the slices came out nice and tall.

Remove from the stand mixer and gently fold the (drained) raisins in.

Before you continue, preheat your oven to 200°F. Once the oven reaches temperature, turn it off but keep the door closed. This will be the warm place where your dough will rise.

Next, get a piece of parchment paper, (or if you are lucky enough to have a Silpat, use that) and sprinkle it with a generous amount of brown rice flour. Then place spoonfuls of the bread batter onto the floured surface.
Note: DO NOT use sweet rice flour on the parchment paper. I did and the result was a loaf that stuck to the bottom of the pan...

Cover the dough with another piece of parchment paper or Saran wrap, and gently pat it into a flat, semi-round shape. I suppose you could use a rolling pin for this, but my dough was so soft I was able to use my hands.

Remove the Saran wrap and coat the dough with a good amount of the sugar-cinnamon mix. Leave some of the mix for the top of the bread.

This next part is a bit tricky. Using the parchment paper, you want to roll the dough into a log (to create a spiral of cinnamon). I used a spatula to encourage the floured surface of the dough to leave the parchment paper, but also held the paper up to push the dough into the spiral. Here's a not-so-great picture of what I mean:

When you are done you should have a log like this:

Seam side.

Again using the parchment paper, roll the loaf into the pan. My mistake here was that the log was too wide for the pan. I was still able to squish it in and smooth the top, so everything was ok, but this added to my difficulty removing the loaf from the pan. Also, next time I would leave the loaf on the parchment paper and put the whole thing into the pan, it would have made extraction a lot easier!

Cover the whole pan loosely, but sealed, with Saran wrap. Allow room for a significant rise.

Then place it in the warm oven and let rise for four hours.

Remove the loaf from the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F.

Using a pastry brush, coat the top of the loaf with water. You don't want it dripping, but definitely give it a soak. This will contribute to a nice crust.

Use the rest of your sugar-cinnamon mix to coat the top of the bread.

Finally, with a very sharp knife, cut a few slashes in the top of the bread to help with oven rise.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 190°–200°F. You might want to loosely cover the top of the bread with tin foil if it begins to brown too much.

Remove the bread from the oven and from the pan and allow it to cool on a wire wrack for at least an hour before cutting into it. The wait is hard, I know, but it will help your bread stay together.

As you can see, my loaf fell apart a bit because I had so much trouble removing it from the pan. Sad. So next time I will definitely line the pan with parchment paper. If nothing else, it will make for easy lifting.

BUT! The bread was still delicious! I really enjoyed the tangy sourdough with the sweet raisins and cinnamon. And, take a look at this impressive cross-section:

It's like real bread! No collapsing. I couldn't be more pleased.

Happy baking!