Cinnamon raisin no-knead bread is a tasty chewy loaf made with little effort in your dutch oven pot or other covered bread baking dish. This crusty rustic loaf is full of chewy flavorful raisins and cinnamon with a hint of sweet brown sugar. Slather on your favorite butter, jam, or cinnamon sugar sprinkle.
I love all of the carby homemade bread I’ve been experimenting with this year, I do! Give me a nice crusty loaf, a stick of (vegan) butter, and a pot of jam – and I’m in bread-eating heaven! What I don’t always enjoy doing, however, is making the bread. You know – the kneading, rising, punching down, and doing again…and again… and that’s before we even get to the baking part!
No-knead bread or peasant bread is perfect for me because it’s only a matter of mixing, shaping, and a little rising before baking.
This no-knead cinnamon bread is an easy, basic, quick (enough) loaf of bread to make. This recipe is not an artisan rise-all-day and night recipe, but rather one that you can easily complete in a couple of hours from start to finish.
What is no-knead bread?
No-knead bread, sometimes known as peasant bread or artisan bread, is a method of bread making and baking that requires no kneading, rising, punching down, and doing the whole thing again, but rather lots of time (up to 24 hours) to rise the bread and allow the gluten to form. Lovely pockets of air are formed in the crusty lofty loaf of bread.
This no-knead bread recipe is NOT that recipe! Please understand before making this loaf that this is the “quick” method – or two-hour method for making a loaf of dutch oven cinnamon raisin bread the no-knead way.
It will not be as lofty or crusty as the longer method load would be, but it’s still chewy and delicious and you won’t need to wait around for a whole day to enjoy your bread!
(If you do decide you want to do the longer method, understand that you will use less yeast than this recipe calls for. Stand by for that recipe coming soon.)
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Ingredients needed for no-knead cinnamon bread
- active dry yeast – Make sure your yeast is fresh!
- Very warm/hot water – You want your water to be warmer than room temperature so that the yeast will rise, but not super hot or the yeast will die. My hot sink water runs between 115-120° which is just about perfect for this recipe. If you are new to bread making, use a thermometer and check to make sure.
- 4 cups all-purpose flour – If you are using a measuring cup then there is a right way and a wrong way to measure flour for bread. Please read the blog post below so that you don’t use too much flour which will produce a heavy loaf of bread.
- ground cinnamon
- brown sugar
- salt
- raisins – You can use either dark or golden raisins. I usually just use what I have on hand.
- You will need a dutch oven pot with a lid or another type of covered bread-baking dish.
- You’ll also need parchment paper to line your dutch oven pot or baking bowl.
How to make cinnamon raisin no-knead bread in a dutch oven pot
The exact ingredients with measurements can be found in the recipe card below along with more concise abbreviated instructions. Read on for more details, tips, and tricks so that you will feel confident making this recipe.
step one: The Yeast
First, measure out your very warm/hot water. If you are new to yeast bread baking you might not be aware of how hot the water needs to be. It should be much hotter than room temperature but not so hot that it kills the yeast. If you have a candy or liquid thermometer then check to see if the water is 120 degrees hot. This will be the perfect temperature for the yeast.
Add the yeast to the water and let it sit for five minutes to make sure it starts to get foamy. If it does not then throw it out and do not use the yeast mixture in the bread. Either your water was at the wrong temperature or the yeast was expired.
Step two: The flour
Make sure you are measuring the flour correctly. This recipe calls for the measuring cup method, not the (more accurate) weighing method.
It’s important that you don’t just scoop the measuring cup into the bag of flour to measure. If you do it this way then you will probably scoop too much flour into your measuring cup, compacting it while you are measuring. This will lead to a heavy loaf. You don’t want a heavy loaf…
Instead, gently spoon the flour into the measuring cup without pressing it and compacting it down. Level the flour by using the flat end of the knife and swiping the excess flour off, again, without pressing it down.
Once the yeast is foamy, pour the yeast/water mixture into a large bowl add the flour and mix with the yeasty water solution. You can stir with a sturdy spoon till mixed.
Steps three and four: add the other ingredients
Add the brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon, then begin to work the mixture into a sticky but firm ball of dough. I usually work it with my hands…but it’s not kneading!
Fold in the raisins so that they are distributed throughout the dough. Sometimes I use golden raisins, and sometimes dark raisins. It doesn’t really matter.
Steps five and Six: rest and rise
Cover the dough ball with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let sit for one hour before uncovering it. The dough will have just about doubled in size.
During the resting and rising time preheat your oven to 450°. Before heating your oven, make sure that the oven racks are in the correct position and that you have enough head space to place the dutch oven pot on the rack.
Final steps: Baking and cooling your cinnamon raisin bread
Lightly dust a flat dry surface and gently work the dough into a round loaf. Remember that this isn’t really kneading, just shaping.
Add a large sheet of parchment paper to the Dutch oven or whichever covered baking dish you are using and place your dough inside.
Cover with the lid and bake at 450°f for 30 minutes. A lot of recipes will tell you to preheat the dutch oven before baking your no-knead bread recipes. I have read that if your dutch oven pot is ceramic coated, you could wrap the coating…so I don’t. And it’s fine!
At 30 minutes, remove the lid and if your crust is not yet a lovely golden brown, then continue baking for another 5-10 minutes.
Allow for cooling before slicing…if you have the patience to wait! I don’t and in my kitchen, I usually end up smashing the hot loaf with the knife because I’m impatient!
Yummy toppings for your freshly baked loaf of no-knead cinnamon raisin bread:
- (vegan) butter is always appropriate!
- Whipped Maple Cinnamon Butter
- Peach Butter with Pinepple and Ameretto
- Pear Butter
For more tasty homemade bread recipes from Veggie Fun Kitchen try:
- Easy Christmas Red and Green Bread with Bake and Serve Dough
- Orange Cranberry Yeast Bread Made in the Bread Maker
- Olive Oil Herb Bread Made in the Bread Maker
- (Bread Machine) Cinnamon Raisin Bread
- (Bread Machine) Wheat Bread with Agave and Molasses
- Easy Monkey Bread
- Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread
- Beer Bread with Garlic and Herbs
The printable recipe card
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Cinnamon Raisin No-Knead Bread, the Two Hour Method
Equipment
- dutch oven pan with lid
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 ½ cups water 120°
- 4 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup raisins
Instructions
- Add yeast to hot water and let sit for 5 minutes. It will start to get a little foamy.
- Once the yeast is foamy, pour the yeast/water mixture into a large bowl add the flour and mix. See notes about measuring the flour.
- Add the brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon, then begin to work the mixture into a sticky but firm ball of dough. I usually work it with my hands…but it's not kneading!
- Fold in the raisins so that they are distributed throughout the dough.
- Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour. The dough will about double in size.
- During the rise time, reheat the oven to 450°.
- Lightly dust a flat dry surface and gently work the dough into a round loaf. Again, this isn't kneading.
- Add a large sheet of parchment paper to the Dutch oven and place your dough inside.
- Cover with the lid and bake at 450°f for 30 minutes.
- At 30 minutes, remove the lid and cook for another 5-10 minutes until the crust is golden brown if necessary.
- Let cool before slicing.
I can read.
It says VEGAN BUTTER.
Hot water temp is 130°.
And boiling water is 212°F or 100°C.
I love the idea of no knead bread but never wanted to wait for a whole day to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I understand it won’t be the same as if it did a 22 hour rise but holy moly it was really good. My family really enjoyed it!
The bread looked so amazing and the recipe was super easy. It really impressed my family when they found out it was homemade and not from a bakery! They devoured it because it tasted great too.
No effort is wasted with this cinnamon raisin no knead bread! It turned out so chewy, flavorful and satisfying! Must-try!
This was so easy to make and came out perfectly.
This bread is so good! I was surprised at how much I like a yeast bread that only takes an hour to rise before baking. And I like that the Dutch oven doesn’t have to be preheated before placing the bread & parchment paper in it. (One less potential oven burn! 😆). My doneness target was an internal temperature of 195 – 198 degrees F. It makes a delicious chicken salad sandwich. I will definitely make this again!
Thank you so much for letting me know! And I agree about the dutch oven. I’m never sure if it’s safe anyway with many pans that have coatings on them. I’m so glad it worked out for you:)