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Now that I have finally perfected my homemade bread recipe, I’ll be posting some uses for it other than just plain ol’ bread. This cinnamon craisin swirl variation of the recipe is my mom’s favorite. She loves to have a piece or two of this bread toasted with some homemade Greek yogurt in the morning for an E breakfast. My dad even likes it (and he’s not on THM).
This bread is extremely simple to make-all you do is add some re-hydrated unsweetened dried cranberries (or fresh cranberries), cinnamon, and sweetener to the top of the bread dough in the pan, stir it in with a fork, then smooth the top of your bread with a wet hand.  Or if you’re like my mom and want everything mixed evenly throughout the batter, just mix it right in with the dough in the mixer.
Since raisins are so high in sugar, this bread recipe uses unsweetened dried cranberries or just fresh cranberries. They add a perfect tart zing that pairs nicely with some extra sweetener and spice.
This recipe uses my cold-fermented homemade bread recipe as a base. Cold fermentation breaks down the carbs to a more easily digestible state that is kinder to your blood sugar! Trim Healthy Mamas (click here to learn more about the plan), this makes regular ol’ wheat flour plan approved!
You can pin this recipe from my Breads and Muffins board here.
You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- 1 recipe Homemade Bread Dough
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1½ cups unsweetened dried cranberries or fresh cranberries (thawed if frozen; cut in half or coarsely chopped)
- 7-8 doonks THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder (or use a larger amount of a granulated sweetener such as THM Super Sweet Blend, Truvia, or erythritol if just swirling the additions into the top by hand)
- 2-3 tsp. cinnamon
- If using dried cranberries, soak the cranberries in some hot water to re-hydrate them (just cover the cranberries with hot water and let them set for 5-10 minutes). If using fresh cranberries, cut them in half or coarsely chop them in a food processor.
- Make your homemade bread dough, adding the vanilla extract.
- Put your bread dough into three greased bread pans (I just spray the pans with nonstick cooking spray). Drain the cranberries well and divide them over the tops of the loaves. Sprinkle each loaf with your granulated sweetener of choice and sprinkle with cinnamon. Using a fork, swirl the extra ingredients into the bread dough.
- (Alternate method: this is what I do) Add the vanilla flavoring, cranberries, pure stevia extract powder, and cinnamon right into the bread dough using your mixer. Divide the dough among three greased bread pans.
- Wet your hand and use it to pat the tops of the loaves smooth. If using my homemade bread recipe, bake the loaves at 325 degrees F for 50 minutes or longer (you may need a longer baking time if using fresh cranberries). If you have doubts about whether or not the bread is done, cut a loaf in half. If it's gummy inside, bake for another 5 minutes and check again, doing this until it's done. When the bread is done baking, turn it out of the pans onto a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting.
My Easy Homemade Bread recipe
Suggested Products:
- Bosch Mixer
- Truvia
- THM Super Sweet Blend can be purchased from the Trim Healthy Mama online store.
This bread looks great, but I don’t see the nutrition label for this recipe. How many carbs and sugars in it ?? Thanks,Angie
Hi Angie! I don’t currently have nutrition info available for this bread, and I’m not sure how I would calculate it exactly taking into account the effect of the cold fermentation on the carbs in the flour. I’m sorry!
I can’t buy cranberries here in Guatemala except for the sweetened Craisins. Do you think I could get rid of the sugar enough by soaking the cranberries in water for a while and then rinsing them a couple of times?
I’ve done that before. 🙂 I don’t know if it’s acceptable for THM or not, but it’s more acceptable to my budget, especially when I find the Craisins at a discount grocery store. 😛
This is not fermented like the original bread recipe?
Yes, it is, actually. You make the dough for the regular Homemade Bread recipe, then just add these additional ingredients. 🙂
I have sour dough starter i use, mixing my dough the night before for english muffins. Could i use that some how for this?
If you have a sourdough starter, I would find a recipe that specifically uses a starter. 🙂 The main rising agent in this bread is baking powder and a unique combination of oatmeal and wheat flour. Once you find a good sourdough bread recipe, you can easily add the cinnamon/sweetener/vanilla/unsweetened dried cranberries to make the cinnamon craisin swirl bread.
I just baked a batch of this for the family and could not believe the results. I didn’t have cranberries, so I used chopped apples–delicious. My non-THM siblings kept talking about how good it was, and how “normal” it looked and tasted! Even my dad, who has missed “real bread” since we started THM, took a piece of it to work with him. It looks like we have another Briana recipe to add to our Trim Healthy arsenal!
Awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
Oh my goodness, this looks so good!
Yum! This looks fantastic!
This swirl bread looks and sounds seriously delicious, love how good for you the recipe is too. Thanks for the recipe.. it’s one that I have saved to recreate!
Could you use frozen but thawed cranberries? Or would I have to dehydrate and then rehydrate?
I think thawed cranberries would probably work, but I’d make sure they were drained well so they don’t make the bread mushy.