Texas Brown Raisin Bread Recipe

By Shelley Pogue

I am used to having this bread around the Easter holiday. Along with the deviled eggs, and ham, bacon fat green beans, and pies of all types. I guess this was around for all of the people who didn't like to eat all of the sweet desserts, and wanted something sweet, but not too sweet. This recipe can be used all year round for breakfast with a little slab of real butter, or a slice of American cheese will go just fine as well. This is a fairly simple recipe to make and it will make about 3-4 loaves depending on the type of pan you use.
Ingredients you will need:
3 Cups of raisins
1 Cup of brown sugar
1/2 Cup of butter
2 Eggs
1 3/4 Cups of buttermilk
2 1/2 Cups of whole wheat flour
2 1/2 Cups of all purpose flour
4 Teaspoons of baking powder
1 Tablespoon of good vanilla bean paste
1 1/2 Teaspoon of salt
1 Tablespoon of orange zest
1 Cup of brown sugar applesauce
You will need 3-4 baking pans, and 2 large mixing bowls, and non stick spray, and wire cooling racks. You should preheat your over to 350 at this time. If you have a gas oven you may need to lower the temperature 10-15 degrees or even more if it cooks really hot. You don't want to burn your delicious raisin bread.
In a large mixing bowl you will combine the sugar, soft room temperature butter, eggs, raisins, applesauce, orange zest, vanilla bean paste, and buttermilk. You will mix well and set aside for a few minutes while getting your other ingredients ready.
In the 2ND mixing bowl you will sift all other dry ingredients flour, salt and baking soda together. you will add about 1/3 to the first mixing bowl of wet ingredients and mix until incorporated. You will do this 2 more times until all of the dry is mixed with the wet ingredients. You will just need to be careful not to over mix this dough or it will not rise, or be fluffy as the end product.
In your baking pans you spray the non-stick spray, and then you will divide the batter evenly between 3-4 pans. If you want a thicker bread you can use 3 pans, the bread will rise out of the top for a more rustic appearance, but the bread will be more dense. You will have to pay closer attention to the doneness with large toothpicks or skewers, by checking the centers to make sure there is no wet dough coming out on the toothpick after you insert, and pull it out. If you are using 4 pans you will still have to keep an eye on them, but just not as much, and you will still have to do the toothpick test for doneness.
You will bake around 10-15 minutes and then rotate around in the oven for a more even cooking. You will want to check in another 10 minutes to see how the bread is coming along. You do not want to overcook! When your bread is done you will remove the loaves from the oven, and the loaf pans, and set them on wire racks until cooled. If you have a bread slicer that works the best, or make sure that you are using a serrated knife. Slice, and serve with butter, or whatever you desire. Enjoy!

Chef Shelley Pogue, a Cum Laude, Le Cordon Blue graduate and Executive Research and Development Chef, for Vertical Sales and Marketing, San Ramon, CA. Shelley is also the desserts editor for BellaOnline.com

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