A Quick Cinnamon Fruit Bread, Made With Sourdough Discard.

This warm cinnamon fruit bread is lightly spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with a mix of different dried fruits. Enjoy fresh out of the oven or lightly toasted with a little butter. It is a simple bread that is made within the day making a great option for busy home makers.

This post includes affiliate link I earn a small commission from at no cost to you, see my full disclaimer.

Dried fruit options

The wonderful part of this cinnamon fruit bread is that you can easily tailor it to your own taste, depending on the fruit you choose to use. For example, you might enjoy something more traditional, or perhaps you’d like to experiment with different flavors. To give you some inspiration, here I have listed a few of my favourite options:

• Sultanas, these are a classic plump raisin.
• Thompson raisins, these are a darker variety of raisin.
• Golden raisins, I really like this variety of raisin.
• Currants, for a tart dried fruit these are a great choice.
• Cranberries, another tart fruit choice and also readily available if most places
• Dates, add extra sweetness with diced dates
• Apricots, keep the chopped apricots a little chunkier for a different twist.
• Cherries, not technically a dried fruit but cherries make a great addition to this bread.

What you need to make this Fruit Cinnamon Bread

Tools

• Stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. This is preferable because it is quite a sticky dough alternatively you could use electric beaters with the dough hooks or do stretch and folds by hand.
• Kitchen scale
• Measuring spoons
• Small bowl or jug
• Loaf tins, need two for this recipe and lined with parchment paper.

Ingredients

All purpose flour. Try to use a good quality flour it will make a difference to your end results and how it makes you feel.

Sourdough discard. This means that the culture doesn’t need to be active and bubbly. You can use it right out of the fridge or before it is fed again.

Active dried yeast. Because this is only a discard recipe it will need additional help from a dried yeast. Fast action or traditional works well in this recipe with no additional steps needed for either.

Runny honey. This is a great option for sweetener instead of using the traditional sugar.

Olive oil, either virgin or extra virgin will be fine, you can also use avocado oil in its place if you prefer.

Egg and milk these ingredients will enrich the bread dough. Any milk will work fine for the recipe.

Salt, when I began making bread it always appeared a lot of salt was needed, it felt wrong but over the years I have learned that it is required for taste.

Dried Fruit, use a selection of your choice. the bread that is feature in the images has a mixture of Thompson raisins, golden raisins, currants and cranberries.

Cinnamon and Brandy, added to the fruit and left to sit before added to the dough.

Water, this is actually a key ingredients in bread so use good water. If your tap water isn’t good like mine then you may need to filter it first. I do recommend this because I have found that it does affect how my bread turns out.

How to make Cinnamon fruit Bread

Begin by warming the milk, it needs to be warm not hot so watch it carefully.

Into a small bowl add the dried fruit, brandy and cinnamon. Mix them together well so that the fruit is well coated and place it to the side and let it sit for a while.

Add the water, sourdough discard, yeast, honey, olive oil, and warm milk to the mixing bowl. Mix well until the honey and discard are fully blended, which helps them combine more easily with the flour later.

Let this stand for around 5 minutes and then add in the egg. Mix it just enough to bread the egg up a little.

Kneading

Add the flour and salt to the mixture, now using the stand mixer with the dough hook bring the ingredients together to for a very rough looking dough ball.

Turn off the mixer and leave it to stand for around twenty minutes. This allows the flour to absorb the moisture and this in turn will make the kneading a lot easier. Flour prefers to be treated in this gentler way.

Turn the mixer back on and knead the dough for around twenty to thirty minutes. Yes it will take this long it is a sticky dough and may look like it isn’t going to come together but don’t worry it will just be patient.

Just as the dough is starting to come together add the dried fruit mixture and continue to knead the dough until this is fully incorporated.

Proofing

Once the dough has come together in to a lovely shiny dough ball and you are able to do the window pane test. Either oil the bowl it is in or place it into a different oiled tub or bowl and cover it with plastic this could be a bag or cling wrap. Place a towel of that and put it in a warm spot to rise.

Let the dough rise for around three and half hours or until the dough has doubled in size. The temperature of your room will affect how quickly this will happen. Do not worry if it takes longer to double it will just give it time or find a warmer place.

Shape and Bake

Tip the risen dough out onto a work surface and divide it into two parts. If it is sticky a good tip is to oil your hands rather than flouring the surface.

Shape the dough balls into loaf shapes and place them into the two lined loaf tins. The tins are lined because this bread does have a habit of sticking to the tins really badly, I learned that the hard way.

Loosely cover the tins with the plastic and tea towel again, let the loaves rise for around one and a half hours. Or until they have doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 420F, 215C once it has reached temperature bake the loaves for around thirty minutes. Remove the tins from the oven and carefully remove the bread placing them onto a cutting board, leave them to cool completely if you can before enjoying them.

Timing Schedule to Make Cinnamon Fruit Bread

This is just a rough timing guide for making this cinnamon raisin bread. It will give you an idea or how long it will take to make, obviously this can be tailored to your own time schedule.

• 9am. Make rough dough ball and rest
• 9:30. Knead
• 9:50. First proof
• 1:20. Shape in to loaves and second proof
• 2:50. Bake
• 3:20 Cool and enjoy

Frequently Asked Questions For Cinnamon Fruit Bread

What is sourdough discard? This is usually the waste you would throw away before feeding your starter. It wont be as bubbly and active but can still be used in a number of ways. See my post on sourdough discard and its uses to find out more. I also have a number of sourdough discard recipes right here on my blog.

Which dried yeast should I use? There are a number of dried yeast options out there I typically use either quick action or traditional. I have used both for this recipe and treat them the same and the recipe turns out every time.

Do I need to use brandy in this recipe? No, you can choose to omit the brandy but I do find it adds a wonderful flavour to the bread. You could also try using a spiced rum that might be another great option.

My dough isn’t rising? This could be a couple of things. One your yeast is old and isn’t working although I have used old yeast before and it has been fine so it probably wont be the yeast but you never know. The more likely case is that your room is quite cool and so the dough is taking a lot longer to rise. Try placing the dough in a sunny window or close to a heat source see if that helps.