Jack's Favorite Vanilla Raisin Bread

By Addie

This bread is WONDERFUL! Jack said "This is IT, the PERFECT bread! DON'T USE ANY OTHER RECIPE FROM NOW ON! And I won't. He rated it a 15 on a scale of 1-10! He says it's like eating dessert! .

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup raisins soaked in 3 tbsp vanilla extract for at least 1 hour
• 1 1/8 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 3 cups flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 tbsp butter or margarine
• 1 pkg yeast

Preparation

Step 1

Put all ingredients including the vanilla in machine and turn on DOUGH CYCLE.

(I added the raisins toward the end of the dough cycle so they wouldn't get all chopped up - my bread machine tends to pulverize raisins. However, by then the dough was so springy that they were hard to incorporate, so maybe next time I'll add them a little sooner.)

When DOUGH CYCLE ends, I removed the dough, gently punched it down and let it rest 10-15 minutes. Then I rolled it out into a big square and sprinkled 3 Tablespoons of cinnamon/sugar all over it, right to the edge. Finally I rolled it up tightly, formed it into a loaf of bread and placed it in a greased 9" bread pan. I let it rise, covered, for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

I baked it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then covered it loosely with a tent of heavy duty foil to prevent it from over-browning (because of the high sugar content. Then I baked it for 25 more minutes.

After I removed it from the pan and cooled it on a wire rack, I refrigerated it in a plastic bag. This made slicing it neatly for toast easier.

Finally, I recommend toasting it on a lower setting, because breads made with sugar toast faster and can burn if we don't watch it.