Cinnamon and Raisin Quick Bread

I have many fond memories of Mom making bread on any given Sunday during the fall and winter months.

The furnace was her special place for the ceremonial bowl bread rising process. Like a kid in a candy shop, she’d relish in sheer delight at the site of risen dough.  Then she’d fastidiously knead the dough and allow the allotted time for it to rise again. I never partook in these events.  I merely watched her with sheer amazement.

While I am no longer fearful of bread making myself (I’ve even made a Challah), I actually approach this culinary experience as if embarking on the most awesome science experiment. However, working with yeast is still a little stressful (for me) and takes lots of patience. If you add water that’s too hot, it’ll kill the yeast. Too cold, nothing will happen. And, you need to be able to block out a significant amount of time to wait for the bread to rise. Sometimes, making bread feels like the shuttle launch; all conditions need to be perfect to yield the ideal loaf.

For these reasons, it’s hard for me to deny a bread recipe that doesn’t require yeast or a rising: a quick bread recipe. The operative word here is QUICK. Honestly, this recipe is as simple as your most basic recipe instructions: combine your ingredients, put in the oven to bake, enjoy.

I found this quick bread recipe over at Weelicious (one of my favorite food blogs).  It peaked my interested because it sounded healthy and delicious: Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread.  Healthy and delicious? Plus, after a quick glance through my and fridge, I had all the ingredients on hand – even the no sugar applesauce. Who wouldn’t want a nice warm piece of Cinnamon Raisin bread slathered with butter for breakfast?

I whipped this bread up in no time and 50 minutes later, the apartment was bursting with the warm comforting aroma of baked cinnamon.

While the consistency of the bread is very moist, without butter or jelly on top, there isn’t much flavor. I did use regular flour in place of whole wheat flour from the recipe but that wouldn’t make much of a taste difference.  I would  recommend adding more plump raisins as well as doubling the amount of cinnamon— to give it more sweetness since there’s no added sugar.  Next time around, I might try adding some dried apples and dried cranberries.

Hope you enjoy!