Hi Savvys,

Since the beginning of social distancing and working from home, which started in March, I’ve kept myself very busy and rekindled my love for baking.  I used to bake all of the time but haven’t had this much fun creating recipes in a long time.  A huge trend with social distancing is baking bread!  This is definitely a habit that I will continue into the future.

When my sister sent me the recipe for Le Creuset’s No Knead French Oven Bread, it was so easy to make that I’ve been making it every other week.  I also have a few loaves in the freezer just in case!  Using this recipe as a base, I turned it into my favourite: Raisin Bread!  This Raisin Bread is delicious toasted with some vegan butter and jam.  Try it out for yourself!

Now set forth and be savvy!

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp instant yeast
• 1 ½ cup warm water
• ½ cup raisins

Directions

1. In a large bowl combine flour, cinnamon, yeast and salt. Add water and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover the bowl with a large plate or towel. Let the dough rest over night at room temperature.
2. The next morning, remove the dough from the bowl and lightly sprinkle the bowl with some flour. Place the dough back into the bowl and spring a little more flour on top and fold it over on itself once or twice. Place plate or towel back on top of the bowl/dough and let rest 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your fingers, gently and quickly shape the dough into a ball. Generously coat the bottom of the bowl with flour, put dough seam side down at the bottom of the blow and dust the top with more flour. Cover with a plate or towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it’s ready, the dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. Place a Dutch oven into your oven and preheat to 450°F.  Once the oven is heated, carefully remove the pot from the oven. Turn the dough over onto your hand and place onto a piece of parchment paper, with the seam side up. Place the parchment and dough into the Dutch oven, shaking the pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
5. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.