The most delicious homemade cinnamon raisin bread baked to perfection in a hot dutch oven! It has a doughy inside with sweet raisins and cinnamon, and a crunchy outer crust.
There is nothing quite like homemade bread. Especially this perfectly sweet cinnamon raisin bread. It has a light and crunchy crust, with a doughy inside, and it’s of course studded with perfectly sweet raisins. We love toasting this bread with butter or our recommended cinnamon honey butter for complete perfection!
For this recipe, all you’ll need is 1-bowl for mixing, a dutch oven pot, and a little over 30 minutes for the bread to bake. It’s EASY, so so tasty, and freezer-friendly.
Let’s get baking!
Our favorite dutch oven pot
We recommend a 6 Qt dutch oven pot for this recipe because it creates high & stable temperatures that are ideal for bread making. We love Lodge cast iron because they are quality cast iron and affordable! We use it with bread making, soups, popcorn, and so much more.
If you click this link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.How to Make Cinnamon Raisin Bread
- Activate the yeast with warm water.
- Add rest of ingredients and stir until dough is sticky.
- Place the dough on a floured surface then shape with hands into a ball. Place in a greased bowl, cover with a damp towel in a warm place and let rise for 3+ hours or until doubled in size.
- Remove risen dough and use just enough flour on your hands and on the surface to form it into a ball.
- Place on parchment paper then use edges of the paper to lift into the dutch oven. Cover and bake at 450F for 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake until golden brown on top (another 5-10 minutes).
Tools You’ll Need
You can make this bread in a Kitchen Aid electric mixer (with bread attachment) or use a rubber spatula/wooden spoon and a large bowl to stir ingredients together.
Tips for Success
- Use your oven to proof the dough: whenever dough needs to rise, it’s best to let it sit in a consistent and controlled climate. I prefer using my oven with the light on (oven settings are off). This creates a consistent temperature while the oven light develops a small amount of warmth to encourage the dough to rise.
- Freeze it: Let the bread cool and store in a freezer-friendly bag (press all the air out) and freeze for 1-2 months. Let thaw at room temperature and reheat in the oven at 350F until warm.
- Tips if preheating dutch oven: this recipe doesn’t call for preheating your dutch oven, but if choose to do this I recommend doing a double layer of parchment paper to ensure the bottom of the bread doesn’t get too brown.
- Easy cinnamon honey butter recipe: Make delicious and slightly sweet honey butter to spread on your homemade bread. You’ll need 1 tsp honey, a pinch of cinnamon, 3 tbsp room temperature butter – mix together in a small bowl and spread on your bread when done. SO good.
Baking with Yeast
Active dry yeast: You’ll need to take different steps when baking bread with different yeasts. If you have active dry yeast on hand, you will need to activate it in water before adding flour (this step is included in the instructions).
Instant yeast: If you have instant yeast, you can skip dissolving it in water and stir it into your dry ingredients before adding water. Instant yeast has super small granules compared to active dry yeast so it does not need to be activated in water first.
If you love this cinnamon bread, you might also be a fan of our cranberry walnut bread! Equally as delicious and just as easy to make.
Cinnamon Raisin Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup raisins
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Make the dough: In an electric mixer add warm water, sugar, and yeast. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes for yeast to activate tip: sugar feeds yeast so I include it in this process. Add raisins, cinnamon, flour, and salt. Use bread mixing attachment and mix together until dough forms. If dough is too wet or dry, add water/flour 1 Tbsp at a time until right consistency.
- Let it rise: Toss dough on lightly floured surface, place in lightly greased bowl. Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit in a warm area for 3+ hours. Dough should be doubled in size. Tip: I like placing my dough in the oven with the light on (oven is off). This helps create a consistent climate for the dough while the light creates a small amount of warmth to help it rise.
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- Transfer dough: Place dough on lightly floured surface and form into ball again (keep lightly flouring your hands to prevent sticking). Lay dough on parchment paper, lightly dust paper to prevent sticking, and lift edges of paper to transfer dough into dutch oven.
- Bake: Cover with lid and bake for 30 minutes, uncover and bake for 5-10 more minutes until golden brown.
- Let it cool: Remove and let bread cool for 20 minutes before slicing.
Love love love
I suggest everyone try this… you will never buy a commercial raisin bread again. I eat a slice every day. 😋
Love to hear that, Melissa!! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
My first bread ever! It was so simple and Oh how delicious. If I want to try different flavours is there something I need to consider or I can just add anything to the dough. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve tried this recipe twice today and I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. It is SO wet and sticky and doesn’t hold any shape. The second time I made it I ended up adding more than a cup of flour just to be able to sort of shape it. I did use instant yeast but I followed the note and added it directly to the dry ingredients.