I randomly found this idea on an American blog, and on impulse decided to make it. On further research it seems to be a popular and well known idea in the US, but it was new to me, and it is delicious. I have adapted it a bit for non-US flour, and I also found the recipe didn’t make nearly enough of the cinnamon butter filling, so I’ve modified it to suit. For once I did not use French flour, because I’ve just been to the UK and brought back a bag of very strong Canadian white flour, and some stoneground wholemeal from Shipton-under-Wychwood in the Cotswolds (couldn’t resist as I used to live near there). This combination produced an excellent result — the crumb is very tender and light, and it’s still good three days later.
You can make this either by hand or in a stand mixer with a dough hook. I consider it a two-day affair: on day 1, make and prove the dough, shape it, and then put it in the fridge overnight to prove, before baking in the morning.
Enjoy it spread with butter — you can also toast it with care, and I think it’s a very good candidate for bread and butter pudding.
Dough
50 g active starter
400 g water at room temperature
425 g strong bread flour
75 g wholewheat flour
10 g salt
120 g sultanas or raisins
2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
Cinnamon butter
90 g soft unsalted butter
80 g soft brown sugar
9 g ground cinnamon
8 g plain flour
For the dough, put the starter and water in a bowl and give them a quick whisk to combine. Then add all the flour and the salt, and mix to combine (by hand or with a dough hook). It will be quite wet — don’t worry about this. Cover the bowl and leave to stand for half an hour. While that’s happening, put the sultanas in a small bowl and pour over just enough boiling water to cover, then stir in the vanilla extract.
When ready, drain the sultanas, squeeze out as much liquid as you can, and pat dry with kitchen paper or a tea towel. Tip the raisins over the top of the dough and then do a round of stretch and folds which will start to incorporate the sultanas. Leave to stand, covered, for half an hour. Do a further three stretch and folds at half hour intervals; by the last one, the sultanas should be well distributed. Cover and leave to prove undisturbed at room temperature. Depending on the temperature of your room, this may take many hours — just be patient. I left mine for 8 hours in a room that was 20C. The dough needs to increase in size by about half, have plenty of visible bubbles, and be slightly domed on top. You can do a windowpane test to check — the dough should not tear.
When it’s proved, loosen the edges of the dough with a bowl scraper and tip it gently out onto a lightly floured surface. Preshape by just doing another round of stretch and folds, then flipping the dough over and covering it with the bowl. Leave for half an hour, and prepare your banneton. I strongly advise lining it with a well-floured tea towel as this dough is sticky and may leak. You also need to make the cinnamon butter at this point: mix all the ingredients into a paste by hand or in a food processor/mixer. If it seems stiff, you might need to warm it up for a few seconds in the microwave, but be careful not to melt it.
Shaping: flip the dough the other way up and then very gently spread it out into a rectangle about 25×30 cm. Make sure there are no thin patches for the filling to break through. Spread half the filling thinly and carefully all over the surface, leaving a border of 3 cm around the edges. Then fold the left third of the rectangle towards the centre and spread this new surface with half of the remaining filling. Finally, fold the right third over this and spread the remaining filling.
For the final shaping, take the end of the dough nearest you and roll it up firmly so that you have a roll of dough like a Swiss roll. Tuck the ends neatly under and make sure they are sealed to prevent leakage. Now you have a bâtard shape, which is what I did. If you want a boule, use your hands and a dough scraper to rotate it and tauten the surface. Flip it into the banneton seam-side up. If necessary, dampen your hands with a little water and “knit” the seam together to avoid leakage. Cover and put in the fridge overnight to prove.
The next morning, the dough should be well risen. Pop the banneton in the freezer for half an hour to aid scoring, while you preheat an appropriately sized casserole in the oven at 250C. When ready to bake, put a piece of baking paper on top of the banneton and flip over carefully to release the loaf right side up. Use the baking paper to transfer to the hot casserole, score as desired, put the lid on, and put it in the oven, reducing the temperature to 220C as you do so. Bake covered for 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 200C and bake uncovered for about a further 20 minutes — but check after 10 minutes or so. If the top is burning, cover with foil.
Because of the filling, the texture of the interior is quite wobbly and it’s difficult to know when it’s done. I recommend using a temperature probe in a couple of places — the internal temperature needs to be at least 97C. Once done, cool on a rack for at least an hour, preferably two, before slicing. It should have a nice swirl of filling throughout — mine didn’t because I didn’t have enough filling! This will be corrected next time 🙂