Cinnamon Raisin (Nut) Bread

Directions

1. For toatmaster place ingredients in order listed ( otherwise follow your manufactures instructions ) except raisins, nuts and cinnamon ! Select sweet bread program. light crust ( I use medium and its fine ). Add in cinnamon, nuts and raisns at the beep ( that would be approx.the last 10 min of the last kneading cycle ). Note: we dont always add in the nuts and just increase the raisins.
2. First of all, my machine (a 2 lb Black & Decker) almost stalled because the dough was so stiff with the listed amount of liquid. I added more till the amount of liquid totaled 1 1/2 c.. Even so, the loaf came out with a gnarly top. My instruction book says this is a sign of insufficient liquid. How does one account for the different amounts of liquid required
3. Second, the bread did not rise as much as my most successful breads do, and the texture is fairly doughy. Suppose next time I make this, I use 1 1/2 c. plus 1 TBSP liquid; would getting the dough stiffness right also help the amount of rise and texture
4. Incidently, I hadn't previously thought of adding the cinnimon with the raisins and nuts, and I found which doing it later leaves nice swirling patterns in the finished bread - kind of attractive.
5. Dont bother to add in a dough conditioner since the lemon juice conditions the dough. I experimented and did add in extra powdered dough conditioner and the bread came out too soft and didnt cut well.The Toastmaster breadmaker uses 1 tsp lemon juice in all their bread recipes.You may want to try this with any of your abm recipes. Their bread booklet suggests lemon juice or possibly vinegar ( both acidic ) that helps in the structure of the loaf of bread. And their comment about cinnamon: dont add in more than instructed since cinnamon ( as well as garlic ) inhibits the growth of yeast. Thought Id pass it on to those who didnt know