This one was ok. We have lost our grandmother's raisin bread recipe, and I wanted something a lot like it - a white dough that you let rise before baking. This was the closest I could find. It did pretty well; getting all the softened yeast off the bottom of the bowl, to dump it into the dough mixture, is tricky. It might be better to dump the rest onto the yeast, since missing some yeast can be a big problem. If you can plan the time, this is a nice and simple treat...but, it's not my favorite.

I made this recipe for a fondue party and received a lot of compliments. It held up well for dipping. The only changes I made was to use approximately 5 cups of bread flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour (instead of 6 cups of all-purpose flour) and I only used about 1 1/2 cups of golden raisins (instead of 2 cups of regular raisins).

i added 1/2 cup dried cranberries and 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, and soaked the fruit first. i came back into the kitchen after 30 minutes because i could smell burning! when i took the bread out of the oven it was burnt on the outside and still uncooked on the inside. it smelled very good though. next time i will reduce the temperature when cooking. looked good too though!