knead for cinnamon

Making bread by hand has to be one of life's greatest therapeutic triumphs. After forming that rough dough, kneading is a great way to relieve stress and personally, it's quite fun. This weekend was one of those days where you just stop and think about what in the heck is going on in this world. There's just some things logic just can't explain and I really hope things work out for my best friend soon. Anyways, more about the food.

I saw Joy the Baker's Cinnamon Raisin Pull-Apart Muffins on Friday and put it on my to-do list for this weekend. Joy's recipes have never disappointed me and I don't see her letting me down anytime soon...or ever! The first red velvet cake I made was from the recipe on her site and all 24 cupcakes I donated to a bake sale sold out...to one person! Of course, I have my own recipe for red velvet cake now but I have to say she's given me a lot of inspiration as well as ideas to grow as a baker. Please please please go visit her site and say hello!

The muffins is a hybrid between monkey bread/cinnamon roll without the icing. The dough is similar to a pizza dough and it's covered in cinnamon sugar before arranging it inside the tin. The raisins give it a great boost of flavor and texture so I definitely recommend putting it in. I will however, use my poorman's brioche dough next time to make this recipe to give it a slight buttery flavor that goes brilliantly with cinnamon. (Heck brioche goes perfectly with almost anything)

Cinnamon Raisin Pull Apart Muffins
Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:
-3 cups bread flour
-2 teaspoons salt
-1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
-1 cup lukewarm water (may need 1 - 2 tablespoons more, get your hand in the dough to feel)
-2 tablespoon olive oil
-1 stick (0.5 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 1.25 cup brown sugar
-0.5 cup granulated sugar
-0.5 teaspoon cornstarch
-1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-handful of raisins

1) Activate the yeast and combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix everything together until a rough dough forms and place onto a lightly floured working surface.
2) Knead by hand. You can't use the KitchenAid. Why? No reason but just do it.
3) Lightly oil a bowl and place dough inside. Spray the top of the dough slightly with oil and place in a warm place for 1 - 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

4) Dump the dough back onto the counter after the primary fermentation and gently/tenderly/lovingly press the air out of the dough. Fold into a boule (ball) shape and let it sit under a plastic wrap for 20 minutes. It'll look like this after:

5) Dump out the dough again and press out the dough with your hands until about 0.75 inches in thickness. Cut the dough into small chunks and the shape of the chunks does not matter.
6) Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the dough pieces and toss on the countertop. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
7) Grease a muffin tin and fill the muffin tin halfway with the dough chunks softly packing them in. Top with a tablespoon of the butter, sugars, cinnamon and raisin mixture and top with more dough chunks packing lightly. Finish with a little more of the sugar mixture and repeat.
8) Bake for 12-15 minutes and cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the tin and eat.

The verdict? Delicious.