Gluten-Free Cinnamon Swirl Bread With Golden Raisins

This is the recipe I experimented with to create my bakery's custom bread flour mix. It took months to develop, each attempt a little better than the one before, and I am super excited to make it official for you! Voila, a gluten-free raisin cinnamon swirl bread recipe, that will take you back to your pre-celiac days!

The talking points for this recipe are:

• No psyllium husks, yet a dough you can shape and roll
• Highly water absorbent gluten-free flours, which make the bread moist
• A long countertop shelf-life with bread that doesn't require toasting
• A regular loaf pan can be used instead of a pullman
• Strong oven spring

I remember raisin cinnamon swirl bread from my childhood... slathered in butter, moist and delicious. This is it! My new favorite bread! If you're craving gluten-free cinnamon rolls instead, check out my recipe too!

Ingredients

Most of these ingredients are kitchen staples, but there's a few we should talk about and clarify.

• You must use Naëlle's gluten-free bread flour mix. This recipe was developed alongside the bread flour and there is no replacement. There are possible substitutions in the DIY mix, for example if you can't tolerate oats, you can use ivory teff.
• Raisins: I've made the recipe with regular raisins, and with yellow raisins. And yellow raisins win by a larger margin. They're just a little sweeter and softer.
• Buttermilk powder: I love this ingredient. It allows me to pre-mix more dry ingredients and just add warm water. You can omit buttermilk powder and replace the water with buttermilk (milk curdled with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice).

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

The dough is pretty simple to make. The only tricky part of this recipe is shaping the gluten-free raisin cinnamon swirl bread, but I've included a video for you! Let's go over the steps.

1. Add all the dough ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. With the paddle attachment, mix the ingredients on medium speed for 6 minutes.
3. When the dough is like a thick sticky batter, transfer to an airtight container and let it rest in the fridge for 4-24 hours. This lets the flours absorb moisture, and the butter to harden, which makes the dough easier to handle.
4. Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface to about 1 inch thick (roughly 7x12 inch), and spread butter, cinnamon sugar and salt. Roll into a tight log and fit into a prepared baking tray. There is a video of this step below.
5. Let the dough rise, about 50% in size, and brush the top lightly with milk.
6. Score the dough, and let's bake!

Let's talk more in detail about step 4! That's the intimidating step if you've never made swirl bread before. This dough is a little sticky, so you'll see me use my bench scraper to "unstick" the dough without breaking it. Take a look!

The next thing I want to show you is the proofing stage. Here's the dough just rolled, fully proofed, and baked. I hope this gives you an idea of the rise you can expect!

Hint: if we count the liquid portions of the eggs, this gluten-free dough is 106% hydrated. A common problem with highly hydrated doughs is a gummy bottom. I always let my breads fully cool in a turned off oven for about 5 hours before cutting into it. This allows more water to evaporate, and I have no problems with gummy bottoms! If you want to learn more about the reasons for such high dough hydration, check out my gluten-free bread baking tips.

Substitutions

The allergens in this recipe are: eggs, milk. You cannot make it egg-free, sorry. There are 3 eggs in the recipe and they are responsible both for binding and rising. You can check out my gluten-free vegan sourdough bread for an egg-free bread.

• Dairy-free - milk is in two places: butter, and buttermilk powder. You can replace butter with vegan butter, and you can omit the buttermilk powder and substitute the water for a vegan buttermilk instead (this could be rice milk curdled with a teaspoon of acid like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar).

Variations

You can swirl pretty much anything you want in this gluten-free dough!

• Chocolate: use nutella!
• Savory: use sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and your favorite soft cheese.

Equipment

You'll need:

• a loaf pan (I found that a regular loaf pan will allow for more swirls than a pullman pan, since it is wider)
• a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
• a bench scraper
• a rolling pin and mat

Storage

Not only is this gluten-free raisin cinnamon swirl bread shelf-stable, it also stays moist for THREE days! I've had this loaf wrapped in plastic for three days on the counter, and I didn't need to toast the bread to enjoy it. On the fourth day, I had to toast it since it started losing some of its moisture and softness.

If you're the only gluten-free eaten in your home, you can pre-slice the loaf (once cooled) and store individual slices wrapped in plastic in an airtight container in the freezer. Thaw to room temperature to enjoy, and toast! I always eat mine with butter!

FAQ

Related

Looking for other recipes to bake with Naëlle's gluten-free bread flour?

Gluten-Free Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread

This gluten-free raisin cinnamon swirl bread recipe yields a dough that will roll up beautifully to give you gorgeous swirls AND will stay moist for several days without needing to be toasted. It's a fantastic breakfast bread that kiddos will love!

5 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bread, gluten-free

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Refrigeration: 4 hours hours

Total Time: 5 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 16 slices

Calories: 187.1kcal

Author: Naelle @ GlutenFreeDIYers

Cost: 8

Equipment

• 1 Stand Mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
• 1 rolling pin
• 1 rolling mat
• 1 bench scraper
• 1 loaf pan standard size

Ingredients

  

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Dough Ingredients

• 350 grams Naëlle's gluten-free bread flour please click through, you must use this blend!
• 50 grams sugar
• 6 grams yeast instant, 2 teaspoon
• 10 grams baking powder 2 teaspoon
• 6 grams salt 1 teaspoon
• 30 grams buttermilk powder you may omit and replace all the water with buttermilk
• 56 grams butter room temperature
• 3 eggs
• 252 grams water
• 80 grams raisins golden yellow

Filling Ingredients

• 20 grams any gluten-free 1:1 flour for shaping, use as little as possible
• 80 grams brown sugar
• 16 grams cinnamon 2 tablespoon
• 1.5 grams salt ¼ teaspoon
• 25 grams butter melted
• 15 grams milk 1 tablespoon

Instructions

Preparing the Dough

• Place all the dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, and combine.
• Add the butter, eggs, water and raisins.
• Mix the dough on medium speed for 6 minutes, until the dough looks like thick frosting.
• Transfer the dough to an airtight container and refrigerate between 4-24 hours.

Shaping the Dough

• Prepare a loaf pan: grease, and line the bottom with parchment paper to prevent sticking.
• In a bowl, mix brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
• Turn the cold refrigerated dough on a lightly gluten-free floured surface.
• Roll the dough onto roughly a 7x12 inches rectangle, flipping the dough to prevent sticking, and adding gluten-free flour as needed (use as little as possible). Please check the video in the instruction portion of this post for a demonstration.
• Once the rectangle is shaped, brush melted butter liberally on top.
• Spread the cinnamon-sugar mixture with your hands on top of the dough.
• Using the bench scraper as needed to prevent sticking, start rolling the dough as tightly as possible from the 7-inch side.
• The dough is a bit sticky, the bench scraper will help unstick the dough when rolling, without tearing.
• Once the roll is complete, transfer to the prepared loaf pan, seam down.

Proofing and Baking

• Cover with plastic and let rise in a warm environment. The dough will not double, it will grow about 50%. Rise is a function of yeast activity, not time, so you'll have to keep an eye on it. Sometimes it takes me 40 minutes, sometimes 90 minutes if the house is cold!
• Preheat the oven to 400 °F (204 °C)
• Gently brush milk for extra moisture on the top of the dough.
• Score the loaf.
• Add a glass dish filled with ice to the bottom rack of the oven to create steam.
• Place the loaf pan in the middle of the preheated oven and bake as follows: 20 minutes at 400 °F (204 °C) and an additional 25 minutes, covered with foiled to prevent too much browning, at 375 °F (191 °C)
• The bread is ready when the internal temperature has reached 195 °F (91 °C)
• Turn the oven off and keep the door opened a few minutes to reduce the temperature. Take the bread out of the loaf pan and let it cool on the oven rack for 5 hours, with the oven door closed. If you're worried about cinnamon-sugar dripping, you can place a baking tray underneath. This step is crucial to avoid gummy bottoms by continuing to evaporate extra water as the bread cools.
• Don't cut the bread until it's fully cooled (that's to avoid gumminess). Enjoy untoasted with some butter. Yum!

Nutrition

Calories: 187.1kcal | Carbohydrates: 30.8g | Protein: 4.1g | Fat: 5.9g | Saturated Fat: 3.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1.7g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 330.5mg | Potassium: 199.9mg | Fiber: 2.7g | Sugar: 9.4g | Vitamin A: 178.8IU | Vitamin C: 0.7mg | Calcium: 91.9mg | Iron: 1.1mg