Think of this bread as a sturdy, healthy and spicy version of a classic raisin bread
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This bread has been two years in the making, mainly in our heads and more recently in our ovens. We are truly very happy with this recipe. It was inspired by a phrase in Dutch that goes ‘Ouwe jongens krentenbrood’, which translates as ‘sturdy guys current loaf’. This expression originated somewhere in the 80ties of the last century and is attribute to a satirical duo called Van Kooten & De Bie. It has a lovely original meaning that everyone immediately can relate to. It’s seeing a dear old friend after many years, going for a drink together and you just pick up where you left off all those years ago. Comfortable and easy. This loaf will hopefully give you the same feeling when baking and sharing it!
For this recipe we use a combination of raisins and cranberries with added speculaas spices because it is delicious and it is the season for it. Of course you can use only raisins and/or currants and use cinnamon or pumpkin spice as an alternative.
Enjoy!
| Ingredients for the poolish | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | g | wheat (bread) flour | ||
| 100 | g | whole rye flour | ||
| 200 | g | water (room temperature) | ||
| 1.5 | g | instant yeast (1/2 tsp) | ||
| Ingredients for the final dough | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| makes 1 loaf of 1126 grams | ||||
| the poolish from step 1 | ||||
| 300 | g | strong bread flour (at least 12% protein) | ||
| 100 | g | water | ||
| 7.5 | g | (sea) salt | ||
| 5 | g | instant yeast | ||
| 20 | g | olive oil | ||
| 30 | g | Date syrup (or runny honey) | ||
| 50 | g | organic eggs (1 medium egg is about 50-55g) | ||
| 0.3 | g | ground vitamine C (optional*) | ||
| 7 | g | speculaas spices (2 tsps) (or cinnamon or pumpkin spices) | ||
| 200 | g | raisin / cranberry mix dry weight (plus some flour to sprinkle on after soaking and draining)** | ||
Vitamin C in bread baking*
Next to being a well know food supplement, vitamin C, also known as ‘ascorbic acid’ can also used in baking as a bread enhancer. So, What does it do?
Due to the properties of vitamin C, it can be used as a dough (gluten) strengthener during fermentation, helping to improve the structure of the dough.
Some flour types are sold with added vitamin C. The regular wheat and bread flour we use does not contain any vitamin C. So adding a tiny pinch to your dough can help improve your baking result. Professional bakers can buy ‘commercial grade’ ascorbic acid, but home bakers can also use crushed vitamin C tablets (it’s effectively the same stuff). The recommended amount is 0.07%. So this means that for this recipe, with 500 g of flour, you can use a third of a 1000mg vitamin C tablet and you will be very close to the required amount of 0.3 g. Grind the 1/3 piece of tablet to a fine powder and add it to the flour.
DAY 1
For this recipe we are going to make a starter or preferment called a poolish. A poolish is a type of wet sponge usually made with an equal weight of water and flour and a small amount of yeast and NO salt. Making a poolish helps bring more taste and strength to your bread while using less yeast.
Making the poolish
For this recipe we make a poolish of 100 grams bread flour, 100 grams whole rye flour and 200 grams of water with 1.5 grams of instant dry yeast (if you cannot weigh this amount use halve a teaspoon of yeast). We put this poolish in the fridge overnight for 16 hours and will use it in the final dough the next day. So if you want to use it the morning of the following day at 9, you make the poolish at 5 o’clock afternoon the previous day. Of course you can vary with amounts of yeast and time for the poolish to develop. For 18 hours fridge time you take 1.2 grams and for 24 hours take 0.9 grams of instant yeast for example. (See the % table with our pizza dough recipe)
In a bowl stir together the flour and water at room temperature with the yeast. Mix it well until you have a homogeneous slurry of very wet dough, almost like a batter. Cover the bowl, put in the fridge to ferment for 16 hours. It should look airy and have a nice smell. Now it is ready for use in the final dough.
Note: It is always better to use a under-developed poolish, so use it sooner rather than leaving it longer to avoid it from turning into a gluten-damaged slurry!
Before you start with day 2 of the recipe, you might also want to consult our tips for bread scoring with confidence and tips for handling wet dough and for dough kneading.
DAY 2
Making the final dough
Scoop the poolish of day 1 in the mixing bowl of your standing mixer. Add the flour, salt, yeast, olive oil, date syrup, the egg, speculaas spices and the optional vitamin C and most of the water. Let everything come together by first mixing slowly and gradually add the rest of the water. Then turn up the speed let the mixer knead the dough until well developed (see pictures). With a KitchenAid type mixer, the kneading takes 9 to 10 minutes, by hand it will take about 15 to 20 minutes of good kneading. The dough should be shiny and also sticky. In the beginning the dough sticks to the side and bottom of the bowl, by the end of the kneading process it will only stick to the bottom.
Take the pre-soaked and drained raisins and cranberries on which you have sprinkled some flour to absorb excess moisture. Add them to the dough and mix until they are incorporated into the dough. This should take 1 minute.
Shape dough into a rough ball, transfer to a bowl, greased with some oil, cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Now turn out the dough onto your work surface and give it a stretch and fold. Do one or two full letter fold set (one set = right over left, left over right, bottom over top, top over bottom) and stop when the dough starts to resist. If you are not familiar with it, See picture gallery and also check out how this technique works in this video first.
Stretching and folding helps you get a feel for the dough and together with some rest it is great for its development. If you dough is still very cooperative, give it a few more stretches until it truly starts to resist. After the stretching and folding shape the dough into a ball, cover and leave to rest for another 30 minutes.
Now it’s time to shape. It’s something for which everybody develops his or her own favorite technique over time. We like a round shape for this bread and cut it in quarters and slice those when the bread is ready. For inspiration or instruction you can consult a good bread book or watch the short video on our website.
You can sprinkle the top of the bread with some semolina, plus some pumpkin seeds or oats, to give it a more rustic look. This also makes the top of the loaf less sticky to any cover.
Transfer the shaped dough to a baking sheet, cover and leave to proof for 1.5 to 2 hours. Ideally the temperature of your dough when proofing this bread should be around 25-26ºC / 77ºF. When you think it has risen enough, use your finger to carefully make a very small dent in the dough. If the dent remains, the bread is ready to bake, if the indentation disappears, the dough needs a bit more time. Take 15 minutes and check again.
Preheat your oven to 210ºC / 410ºF conventional setting at the final stages of the proofing. At what point depends on how long it takes for your oven to heat up. Make sure it is well heated and stable before you put in the loaf. You can check out our tips on how to make the most of your oven for the best baking results here.
If you want you can slash the top of the loaf. Now place the bread in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 40 minutes. Check regularly to see how fast the loaf is browning. If you think the crust has the desired color, you can temper your oven to 170ºC / 340ºF for the rest of the baking time. Leave to cool on a rack.
Eat while fresh of course! You can also store the (sliced) loaf in the freezer and give the slices a quick pick me up in a toaster or defrost at room temperature or use the microwave (best very short at high wattage)to get a slightly warm and fluffy slice. Delicious eaten just plain, also with fresh butter or cheese.
Pam Fields says
Thank you for sharing this recipe. Over the past couple of years, I have baked it many times. Today as the fresh loaves came out of the oven and the house smelled so wonderful, I had to comment on how much a I love this bread (it is my favorite to bake and eat). I always make two loaves from this recipe, so that I can share one with friends.
Weekend Bakers says
Dear Pam,
Your comment brings me so much joy. To think a recipe I love so much myself is baked, loved and shared by you. Wonderful.
Wishing you many happy baking hours with this and other favorite recipes,
Marieke
Glad says
Sounds delicious but couldn’t find a ‘Print Recipe’ button.
Weekend Bakers says
You can use the print button provided by your browser. This can mostly be found in the upper right corner of your screen under the three (‘hamburger’) horizontal lines. Any pictures, comments and stuff will be suppressed from printing too.
Hope this works for you!
Glad says
Just seeing your answer now. Thank you so much. I’ve already made this bread countless times and it’s everyone’s fav. It’s my 2nd fav, next to my sourdough….lol. I alternate.
David Gaskill says
This is an excellent recipe, came out perfectly on the first try. I’m not really surprised because your recipes are the most reliable I’ve seen since I first tried your croissant recipe about 4 years ago. This is my reference site now.
Celina Tan says
Love this site and am baking so many of your breads. Tried this cranberry raisin, loved the taste but encountered a few issues.
The crumb doesn’t have large holes like yours but many small holes. How do I achieve a more airy crumb. Loaf is still soft though.
When I score the tops, it doesn’t open up and expand as much. After baking it still looks like slashes albeit it a touch bigger but doesn’t open up and flatten like those in your pictures.
Hope you(or anyone else) can shed some light on this.
@celinas_celina
Jerry Holtaway says
I’m curious about the idea of placing the poolish in the refrigerator for 16 hours. I’ve never heard of that. Is there any benefit to doing it this way (versus leaving it at a good room temperature for that long?)
RobL says
Have made this twice, now. Added 150g chopped Oregon Walnuts.
Lightly toasted, slathered with salted butter, and a cup of good strong coffee to go with.
O, M, G.
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Marlene Gris says
As a new bread baker I was delighted to find you. Your delicious Rustic loaf bakes up beautifully every time I bake it.
So, I tried your Old Friend’s Raisin bread recipe. It too was a hit. My only problem was incorporating the raisins/cranberries which I soaked in Chai tea overnight, drained them well, tipped them out onto a clean tea towel, pressed down on them gently to remove more moisture and sprinkled with flour. My Kitchen Aid mixer would not allow the fruit to be incorporated into the dough. It did make the dough a bit sloppy even after all of that prep. Out on my floured counter I tried to manually get that fruit into the dough. I managed most of it but left behind quite a bit because they just would not stay put. What am I doing wrong? The bread was still amazing even without all of the fruit.
Jeanette T says
Marlene, since Marieke & Ed are taking a break from replying to comments I’ll offer you my suggestion but let me tell you what I do. I drain my raisins/cranberries a couple of hours before assembling my final dough I because use that liquid as my water. I sprinkle some flour on a large plate then tip the dried, damp fruit onto that flour and add more flour if needed after tossing it around a bit. They should be a bit damp. Then I mix the fruit in as instructed. Since that didn’t work for you I would suggest that you add the fruit using the stretch & fold (S&F) method. Add 1/4 of the fruit, fold the dough over, add another fourth, do a S&F and repeat until all is incorporated. See if that helps.
I too get lots of requests for this bread and it is personal favorite. So many of Weekendbakery recipes are my favorites. Take care. I’m happy to help
Jeanette T in AL, USA
Marlene Gris says
Thank you for your great suggestions. I will soon be putting them into practice with my next loaf of Weekend Bakery Raisin bread.
Marlene
Maryanne says
I ended up with an enormous, light, and fluffy loaf which I am enjoying with coffee this morning. I modified by adding (accidently) too much yeast and turning my oven to 225 degrees.
Everything on your site has worked for me! Thank you so much.
Weekend Bakers says
Sorry for the late reply Maryanne, but so glad you had such success with this recipe too. We so love this loaf ourselves!
Happy baking from Holland!
Marieke & Ed
Alex says
I’ve made a few recipes from your website (sourdough and not) and the breads/flatbreads always turn out amazing. This one was no exception! I decided to make the speculaas spice mix and I think I may use it any time a recipe calls for “pumpkin spices” – that mixture simply smells heavenly. I soaked the raisins and cranberries in homemade mead and some water. As for the bread, it came out very well! I used maple syrup in place of date syrup/honey as it’s what I had on hand. I decided to make it in a dutch oven, though I think it turned out a bit too high for my liking – completely my fault, of course. The loaf is a lot softer than I expected, but tastes and smells great.
Thank you for sharing these recipes – this website is my number one any time I’m looking to make a new bread (or an old favourite) 🙂
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Alex,
Great to get your feedback on the recipe and thank you for sharing your experience and substitute suggestions. The crust is soft(er) with this type of bread, also because of ingredients like egg. Looking at the amount of flour, you do get a whopper of a loaf with this recipe. We think it will work really well to just bake it like we suggest without the Dutch oven next time.
Speculaas spices are such a favorite with us, that is why we also use it in this bread. Originally it is used in the speculaas cookies and pies around the Sinterklaas period in December but we Dutch like the taste all year round!
This one is also very good:
www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ilk-honey/
Enjoy your baking and sharing!
Marieke & Ed
Susan says
I baked this old friends bread today for the first time and it turned out almost perfect. Should the bread sound hollow on bottom when done? Mine flattened out a little even though the finger test left indention. I had started to bake it on parchment paper and it seemed to not allow the bottom to brown. Then I placed the loaf on the grate alone to finish and that saved it. I added orange liquor to soak the raisins & cranberries. I liked that. So this loaf does not need to be slashed on top? I also had problems weighing ingredients because my scale does not measure 1.5 grams. Only 1 or 2 grams. I have not found a food scale to weigh half grams. Do you have advice for this?
Thank you for sharing the recipe and all the helpful videos. I’m learning a lot.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Susan,
Thank you for your wonderful feedback. We actually never use the hollow sound method for testing if the bread is done. It is not very accurate. It is best to just see after cooling if the bread is to your liking, make a note of the times and temperatures you used for your next bakes. The better way would be to measure the core temperature with a digital thermometer, but with a bread filled with fruit it can again not be accurate.
The slight flattening is not a problem, but it can be a result of the flour you use and can be helped by using stronger flour and also the vitamin C we suggest in the recipe.
This bread can be slashed if you want, it is not needed. If you bake a few rounds, just vary a few things, slashing or not, place in the oven, starting temperature and tempering if needed. This way you will make the recipe completely your own, which you already have done in part of course. Love the orange liquor too. As for the 1.5 grams of yeast, you can take 1/2 a teaspoon which is really close to this amount.
Wishing you lots of happy and healthy baking joy!
Ed & Marieke
WKB
CLL says
Can I use figs in this recipe? If so, would you suggest all fig or a mix with raisins and/or cranberries.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello CLL,
Yes, of course, we think that would work well. It is a personal choice / preference if you want to do a mix, but we would think the combination a great option.
Enjoy your baking and sharing with friends,
Ed & Marieke
WKB
Boris says
I tried to make your bread tonight.
Followed the recipe, no substitutions.
The only difference is that I baked it a dutch oven. Came out very good in terms of flavor. The crust came out ok but after 5 mins became soft as moisture started seeping through it.Also i noticed the crumb is not chewy enough for my taste, too fluffy.
Any comments on this?
Thank you a lot for the recipe!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Boris,
We would advice you to bake the bread just a little longer. As for the fluffiness, this is a bit that type of loaf. Lots of people love this quality, some don’t, but there is room to experiment with the amount of whole wheat and rye flour, also in the final dough and also with the method. But we would suggest that you would probably be happier to make a combination with some ingredients of the old friends bread and this recipe for instance www.weekendbakery.com/posts…vain-loaf/ which we guess would have the chew you are looking for.
Enjoy your baking!
Ana says
Hello,
I’ d really like to try this recipe, it sounds delicious.
I only have one question? Could I use active yeast instead of instant yeast?
And if so, is the amount of active yeast needed 3times the amount of instant yeast!
Thank you!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Ana,
No, 3 times is the amount for fresh yeast. You should multiply by 1.2 for active dry yeast, so 1.2 x as much as instant yeast. So for this recipe that would mean 1.8 grams for the poolish and 6 grams for the final dough.
Hope it will be a success!
Ana says
Hello,
Thank you for your answer! Luckily, I found instant yeast at the supermarket and yesterday I made the raisin bread. The result was absolutely delicious! Thank you for these great recipes!
Weekend Bakers says
Wonderful! Glad with your feedback about the recipe.
Enjoy more baking and sharing!
Marieke
Charles Greenlaw says
Tried your Old Friends Raisin Bread recipe recently. My wife is eager for me to make more!
I made a few small changes: I only used cranberries in the dough and I baked it in a Dutch oven instead of freeform. Worked out well, though I might try baking on a baking sheet next time.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Charles, for your feedback. So great you made the recipe too, and good to know it worked out well in the Dutch oven.
Baking brings such joy and comfort for many in these uncertain times and we find it is a great skill to have. We hope you will be able to enjoy your baking and provide wonderful bread for your family many more times.
All the best from Holland,
Marieke & Ed
Weekend Bakers
Joseph Falcone Sr. says
Thanks for this GREAT recipe. It turned out wonderful.
I will bake this again.
Weekend Bakers says
Dear Mr Falcone,
It makes us very happy you tried our new recipe and you liked the result.
Wishing you a wonderful baking weekend and many excellent bakes!
Ed& Marieke
Weekend Bakers
Irene says
Thanks for such a lovely recipe! Actually just to let you know, I forgot to add the cinnamon powder but the bread is as good. For the poolish, I miscalculated the time so instead of following your said time, this is what I did. I let the poolish ferment in room temperature (24-25C), then once it’s doubled in size which was a few hours later, I put it in the fridge until the next day. And for baking, I used a baking stone and metal tray on bottom, created steam as you said. For the first 10 min I baked at 230C, then afterwards I turned down to 170C and switched to fan forced mode. The crust is thin and not hard. Very nice bread! Love it!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Irene,
Thank you for sharing. Sounds like you found your own method on the fly. Great that it worked out so well and thank you so much for trying and liking our recipe!
For other bakers, always make sure your poolish is still active and bubbly and has not risen and collapse / retracted leaving a rim in the bowl where the dough used to be, because then it is over its peak and will only weaken your end dough.
René Kneyber says
I made this pre-Christmas, them baked two breads for Christmas. My family loved it and took what was left home. Absolute winner! Thank you so much. Hope to see you guys one day on HHB 😉
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you René for your wonderful feedback, so happy to read your positive comment for the raisin bread!
Hope you have an excellent 2020 with lots of baking and sharing,
Ed&Marieke
PS: Very impressed by what people can still achieve show excellent baking under pressure and with camera’s and so on! Don’t know if we would be able to do our best baking…
Jeanette T says
I made this incredible bread and took it to a family Christmas party. Folks went crazy over it. So, it’s a favorite for me and many others. The taste, the texture and it stays moist for days. I found my date syrup at World Market but Sprouts have it too.
I didn’t have pumpernickel flour so I used KAF medium rye. I soaked my dry fruit in an Earl Grey tea and used all of that juice in the recipe, which produced 108g. I used 1 large egg, the vitamin C and pie spice.
It was cooked in a clay baker 30 minutes covered, 10 minutes uncovered then 7 minutes covered to get 195° internal temperature. This recipe is now moved to the front of my recipe book. Thanks Ed and Marieke.
Weekend Bakers says
Hallo Jeanette,
Thank you so much, it all sounds so wonderful. Very busy at the moment with preparations but just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate your baking enthusiasm and your sharing of experience and knowledge too!
Have a very Merry Christmas with everyone that is dear to you,
Ed& Marieke
Ellen van Schaik says
Dag Ed & Marieke,
Dit lijkt me een heel lekker recept.
Vraagje: Hoeveel is het droge gewicht van de rozijnen en de cranberries?
Bedankt voor dit mooie recept en hele fijne dagen toegewenst.
Ellen
Weekend Bakers says
Hallo Ellen,
Dankjewel. Je hebt gelijk, we hebben het duidelijker gemaakt. Het gaat om 200 gram droog gewicht. We weken het fruit, laten het goed uitlekken en voor het toevoegen aan het deeg bestuiven we de vochtige rozijnen en cranberry’s met wat bloem, dat zorgt ook voor makkelijkere opname in het deeg. Wij hebben ‘lovende recensies’. We hopen dat het brood je ook zal bevallen natuurlijk.
Hele fijne dagen en geniet van het bakken!
Ed & Marieke
Weekend Bakers