With swirls of cinnamon and plump raisins, this gluten free cinnamon raisin bread is the perfect light breakfast. Toasted and slathered with butter, how could it possibly be gluten free?
When was the last time you had a piece of cinnamon raisin toast? A while you say? Me, too. Well, until now that is. I remember buying loaves of cinnamon raisin bread for my son a few years back. Somehow, even though the loaves were sealed in plastic and then in a plastic bread bag, the waft of cinnamon yeasty goodness would still get through.
You know what I mean? Do you ever go down the bread aisle at the grocery store and just smell all that yeast? It’s like the bread is baking right there, that’s how overwhelming it is sometimes.
That’s agony for those of us who can’t have any of that anymore. But thankfully, some of us will never give up trying and I’m one of those. Before I was diagnosed, I surely didn’t have cinnamon raisin bread daily. But, again, once we’re told we can’t have something, we seem to want it more, right?
The Dough for Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I can’t seem to stop making new things from old. What I mean is I like to take something I’ve already made (like cinnamon rolls) and use the dough to make something different with it. I’m a repeat offender and I can’t deny it. From my gf cinnamon roll dough, I’ve made: Hawaiian rolls, chocolate babka, kolaches, hot cross buns, king cake, apple fritters, yeast donuts, etc, etc.
And now we can add cinnamon raisin bread to this list!! It’s so easy when you already know how to make the dough, as you’re already halfway there. If you’ve never made this dough before, what are you waiting for? Haha! But seriously, if you haven’t made it before, check out my video on my cinnamon rolls post here to see how easy it is to work with! It’s just like REAL wheat dough!!!
The Filling
The filling for this wonderful bread isn’t as elaborate as the filling for cinnamon rolls. This is cinnamon raisin bread after all. We don’t need all that filling. Just a simple cinnamon raisin swirl will do.
Start by plumping up the raisins so they’re nice and juicy. We don’t want shriveled up hard raisins in our bread! Pour boiling water over the raisins in a small bowl and let them soak for at least 30 minutes.
To make the rest of the cinnamon swirl, roll out the dough and spray it with nonstick cooking spray (make sure it’s gluten free). Sprinkle a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon over the dough, followed by the raisins. Roll up the dough and pinch the seam to seal. Place it in a loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to rise in a warm, draft-free location until about doubled in size (it should rise over the top of the pan). Bake for 35-40 minutes, until nicely browned.
Slice it, toast it, slather it with butter, make french toast out of it. I don’t care! Whatever you do with it, just MAKE this gluten free cinnamon raisin bread because it’s the real deal!!
Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Ingredients
- ½ recipe gluten free cinnamon roll dough
- ½ cup raisins
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Make the dough according to recipe instructions through storing it in the refrigerator overnight.
- On baking day, pour boiling water over raisins in a small bowl until raisins are completely covered. Allow to soak for 30 minutes. Drain water and discard, drying raisins on a layer of paper towels.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and knead it as instructed in the cinnamon roll recipe, using plenty of flour on your rolling surface. Divide it in half and place the other half back in the fridge, covered, for another use (see the many recipes listed above). OR, double the filling ingredients and make two loaves of cinnamon raisin bread!
- Roll out the dough into a large rectangle about ½-inch thick and wide enough to fill pan (8 inches wide). Spray the dough with nonstick cooking spray. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of dough, followed by raisins.
- Roll up jelly roll style as tightly as possible and pinch seam to seal, using extra flour as necessary. Place in loaf pan, seam side down and ends tucked under.
- Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in warm, draft-free area until doubled in size and risen over top of the pan, about one hour (it could take longer depending on the ambient temperature).
- Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes, until deep golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped.
- Cool on wire rack in loaf pan for 10 minutes, and then remove from loaf pan to finish cooling. Allow to cool completely before slicing. Store well wrapped at room temperature for a few days, or cut into slices, flash freeze in single layer on baking sheet (to keep slices from sticking together), and store in freezer bag or plastic wrap for up to three months.
This looks really good! I’m sure tempted to make this. I’ll let you know if it turns out!
Yes, please do 🙂 Thank you, Brandi!
Does Bob’s Red Mill Stone Ground White Rice flour work for the batch of flour you make? It’s the first thing I found in my area that was rice flour. Thank you!
It will change the texture of the bread and it won’t be quite as tender and light as it should be. I used to use Bob’s Red Mill rice flour back when I was first starting out and never got the texture I was longing for in gluten free breads. If you can’t get the superfine flour on Amazon, you could try adding about 1/4 to 1/2 cup more milk to the recipe, but I can’t say you’ll get the same texture.
I am so overwhelmed by all of your fantastic recipes. I have this list going of everything I want to make and I am running out of freezer space to store the baked goodies!!!!! But I guess this is a good problem to have! I want to just keep making all of these new delicious looking recipes but then I have to tell myself I need to eat up what is in the freezer first.
Haha! Too funny!!
What might help is making several different things from one dough. I do it all the time. I’ll make my sweet dough (cinnamon roll dough) and divide it in half, make cinnamon rolls with half and Hawaiian rolls with the other half. Or English muffins with one half of a recipe and Italian bread with the other half.
Hiya — I was super excited to try this recipe… so I went all over hither and yon to find all the essential ingredients for my bread dough…I’m not exactly “wowed” by my dough not really rising– it took nearly 4 hours yesterday to get it to (maybe) double in size. Now I’ve got it sitting in a warm (turned off) oven on the second hour of waiting for it to rise again. Could it be because I used organic sugar instead of granulated? I’ve used everything else in the recipe to a T. I’m a bread-baking newbie, and this inspired me to learn how to use my KitchenAid mixer that has been sitting on my kitchen counter, gathering dust for over 4+ years. Any suggestions are appreciated. ~Thank you!
Oh no! One of the things I’ve learned with baking gluten free is that it seems to take longer for things to rise than with traditional gluten-filled flours. What I do if the dough doesn’t seem to be rising (and it can depend so much on your environment) is turn my oven on to about 200 degrees F. When it’s preheated, I turn it off and mix my dough for 5 minutes. By then the temperature is just warm enough for the dough to rise properly. It will almost seem like it’s too hot, but not for gluten free dough. i don’t think using organic sugar would make a bit of difference in the dough rising, but changing the amount of sugar certainly would. Did you use the right yeast? It needs to be fast acting, also known as rapid rise or bread machine or instant yeast. If you use active dry yeast, you must activate the yeast in warm water with a little bit of the sugar before putting it into the other ingredients. That will make a HUGE difference in whether the dough rises or not.
If I only have dry yeast how much should I use? And how much water/ sugar ratio?
Check out this website for info on substituting the yeast: https://www.thespruceeats.com/baking-yeast-dry-and-fresh-yeast-measurements-1446706#:~:text=To%20use%20active%20dry%20yeast,4%20teaspoons%20active%20dry%20yeast.&text=1%20package%20instant%20yeast%20(2,teaspoons%20or%20almost%209%20grams).
This was seriously amazing! Worth all the effort to get the special flours and all the time to proof, rest, and proof again! such a great texture and chew. We couldn’t wait to cut into it and had a slice when it was still warm…heaven. Thank you so, so, so much! Trying to decide what to make with the other half of the dough! So many options.
Aww, yay!!! I’m so glad you liked the bread! It’s one of our favorites 🙂
I have a hard time with the grams instead of cups. I would like to have the flour blends In cups and spoons.
I’m sorry, Nita. I just can’t do the flour blends in cups. This is from my flour blends page:
WHY ARE THESE BLENDS IN GRAMS AND NOT CUPS?
I developed my blends in grams because it’s so much more precise AND unbelievably easy to weigh ingredients than to measure by volume. My blends don’t translate very well to cups. I sure don’t have an 18th of a cup measurement, do you? I strongly suggest you invest in a scale (they’re very cheap) and weigh your ingredients–you’d be surprised at how easy it is and you’ll most likely never switch back.
The recipe was perfect, like they always are with your gluten free bread flour recipes. I made this for a picky eater so no raisins, and used brushed on butter instead of canola oil spray. Great results, obviously denser and less tightly coiled but fantastic.
I made a few little changes, including an egg wash and dousing it in raw sugar to make a crunchy crust. I also subbed whey protein for albumen protein, not because I didn’t have whey, but because I read a polish academic study involving the different replacement proteins in gluten free goods and the conclusion of the study indicated people reacted best to albumen protein, out of albumen, whey, soy, pea, and one other I can’t immediately recall. I’ve tried this dough with whey protein too for the doughnuts and it was fantastic, the best gluten free doughnuts I’ve ever made. But I always get a strange aftertaste with whey, especially after the pastries cool down. Albumen doesn’t seem to have that for me.
Next time I’ll try it with soy protein and see how that compares. I’m always in search of the perfect gluten free texture for the coeliac people in my life, (I am not gluten free) and your recipes are in the top 3 closest to gluten containing recipes in terms of texture and taste I’ve ever tried. Out of many, many cookbooks, and many, many blogs.
Thank you so much, Gabriella!! I think I’ve either gotten used to the flavor of whey or just don’t taste the difference, but I know that some do have an aversion to it.
I had trouble with the flavor of whey myself. I bought several brands, all landed in the trash as they taste chemically and not nice. Finally found an organic brand that smells of milk and has a pleasant flavor.
I am confused about the amount of instant, fast-acting yeast to use. In the notes, you say to use the same amount of yeast. Each yeast package contains 1/4 oz or 2 1/4tsp. How many packages should I use?
Sorry, Eileen! I just read my notes and you’re right. It is very confusing the way I worded it. I will change that right away. What I meant is to heat the milk and add all the yeast to the milk, along with 1 tsp of the sugar. I buy my yeast in bulk so I don’t use the little packets, but you’ll need 7 1/2 tsp.
I just found instructions for only 1/2 c of raisins per loaf. I think I have my answer and will try with 2nd loaf.
I just found instructions for only 1/2 c of raisins per loaf. I think I have my answer and will try with 2nd loaf.