Cinnamon Raisin No-Knead Bread French Toast with Yogurt & Carmelized Apples

A homespun breakfast with all the merits of “a good start.” This weekend my neighborhood was once again bustling with brunching — the all-afternon affair elongated by the sluggish buzz of cool cocktails and the sun and sights of street dining. I never did feel especially healthy leaving one of these spring or summer brunches in the end, nor (strangely) very full. But they certainly were nice for a warm spring day like we just had, magnolia trees bursting with perfumed, short-lived blossoms and an arid, bright sunshine not too hot. Ah, well.

Instead I walked to the Farmer’s Market to score a quart of Ronnybrook vanilla yogurt. Those who’ve been to the market in Fort Greene Park may also be aware that — for the past few weekends at least — the resident dairymonger will sell out all but a few plain yogurt drinks by noon. So if you don’t make it a plan to get your natural yogurt, milk, butters and creams bright and early, you lose. I can kind of see why people are nuts about buying this stuff; the Farmer’s Market is certainly not the only place you can find Ronnybrook products. But there is something distinctly appealing about the notion of really fresh dairy products, straight from the farm, rather than from a shelf in a neon-lit, refrigerated grocery aisle. And its taste does warrant that impression.

Natural yogurt is a lot more runny in consistency, and a bit more sour. Which is why I thought it might make for a nice, cool and fresh-tasting alternative to sugary pancake syrup on French toast. A sprinkle of soft apples carmelized in brown sugar and butter in a pan for a few minutes rather than fresh fruit seemed a good compromise.

In celebration of Earth Day, I could contest that everything in this breakfast meal was produced locally: the eggs, apples and yogurt from local farms, and the cinnamon raisin bread homemade (which is I guess as local as it can possibly get). As the recipe is pretty self-explanatory (French toast steps are pictured below), I thought I’d provide a recipe for just the no-knead cinnamon raisin bread.


the bread gets bathed in egg wash

French toasted

and topped

Cinnamon Raisin No-Knead Bread
(makes 1 loaf)

The sugary, crunchy crust you might find on the top of a nice muffin is put to use in this sweeter variety. A cinnamon swirl is easy to produce since you fold the dough in the process (not knead it). Spiked with a little brown sugar, the bread’s interior is cottony-soft and spotted with air bubbles and raisins — two traits not too commonly found together. Perfect warm out of the oven, sliced and slicked with butter. Wildly ideal for peanut butter sandwich-making. And great for French toast, especially once it begins to get a little stale. My kind of bread.

(adapted from Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery’s No-Knead Bread recipe)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins
1 Tb sugar

In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, salt, raisisn and half the brown sugar. Add water and mix with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined (dough will be very stiff and shaggy). Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place for 12-18 or more hours.

Turn dough onto a well-floured surface. Generously dust dough with cinnamon. Fold it over a few times; dust another surface with cinnamon and fold more. Cover dough with a floured cotton cloth and let sit in a warm place for 2 hours or until it almost doubles in size. With well-floured hands, turn dough over a few times to ensure that it doesn’t stick to its surface. Let rest for another 10 minutes before baking.

Heat a heavy cast-iron Dutch oven in an oven at 450 degrees for half an hour. Carefully open lid and drop dough into it. Sprinkle dough’s top with remaining brown sugar and sugar mixture. Replace lid and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove Dutch oven lid and let bake for another 10-15 minutes or until its crust is browned. Remove from oven and let rest on a cooling rack for at least half an hour before serving.

Cost Calculator

3 cups all-purpose flour: $0.50
3/4 cups raisins: $0.35
1/4 tsp yeast: $0.10
Salt, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon: $0.30

Total: $1.25

Health Factor


Three brownie points: it’s just bread. But unlike most packaged brands, it’s bread without preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, or anything else, just flour, yeast, raisins, cinnamon and sugar. The Sun Maid would be envious.

12 Responses

  1. Yvo
    |

    Wow, that looks so delicious. French toast, when I’m in the mood for it, is so awesome. Yummy.

  2. Joan
    |

    So how do I carmelize apples ???

  3. Carla
    |

    Thanks for inspiring me to bake bread!

  4. Phillip Avery
    |

    Well said. I would be happy to read anything else you might contribute on this subject.

  5. Eric
    |

    I know this is an old post, but I’ve got a question about your recipe… your recipe’s baking time is significantly shorter than that of the original NYT no-knead bread recipe. Is this a typo, or an intentional change due to the additional ingredients?

  6. Kelly
    |

    Hi, made this recipe tonight and it’s looks pretty good…except for all the blackened sugar around the edges. Some of the sugar topping fell off the top and burnt in the Dutch oven, creating a pretty perilous situation trying to get the loaf out of the pot. There is simply too much sugar to fit onto the top of the loaf! Just wanted to give others the heads up since I didn’t really expect that to happen.

  7. Katie
    |

    @Kelly: I definitely agree with you! I tried to use the entire 1/4 cup and it made a big mess. I also had a really hard time getting the loaf out–bending and ruining a few spatulas in the process! I’d say that 2 Tbsp of topping is probably plenty: 1 Tbsp each of brown and white.

    @Eric: I think that the additional of brown sugar makes the dough brown faster, and hence the shortened cooking time. I left it in toward the upper end of the suggested bake times and it got much too brown on the bottom and blackened on the edges from the sugar overflow. It was hard to tell while it was baking because of all the sugar bubbling on top. Next time I’ll be much more conservative.

  8. Provillus
    |

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  9. Wild Handyman
    |

    I LOVE cinnamon raisin bread. I have been baking the no knead bread recipe for a while now and experimenting with cinnamon raisin variations. The problem that I keep having is that there is a spot in the middle of the cinnamon raisin loaves (recipe not exactly the same as above) that does not completely cook. I currently have a loaf in the oven in which I am trying lowering the temperature (350 degrees) and extending the cooking time (1 hour) and hopefully that will fully cook all of the loaf.

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  12. Lola
    |

    By any chance where it says water is that supposed to be potato water??? and is there a major difference between a dutch oven and a regular one? because my bread came out stupidly hard. I used regular water, diluted 1/4tsp active dry yeast and cooked it in a regular convection oven.

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