Cranberry & Cinnamon Loaf

I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago that I was going to start making more bread for breakfast rather than buying cereal and that is excatly what I've been doing. I've made a couple of different 'breakfasty' breads and this is the first one. I'll be posting others as I get round to writing them up.

Cinnamon and cranberry is such a classic combination so why not have it in bread or even toast form for breakfast or at any time of day for a tasty snack. This is a nice easy bread recipe made using my preferred combination of half white and half wholemeal flour, you could of course use all white if you prefer.

Ingredients - makes 1 loaf in a 2lb tin

250g strong white bread flour
250g strong wholemeal bread flour
170g dried cranberries
25g soft light brown sugar
2tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp dried active yeast or 7g fast action yeast
1.5tsp salt
300ml lukewarm water

1. Reactivate dried yeast if using following pack instructions or skip this step if using fast action
2. Mix the flours, sugar, cinnamon, salt and cranberries in a large bowl, make sure the cranberries aren't stuck together so you get an even distribution. Add the water and yeast and combine everything into a dough. As always you may need a little more water depending on your flour. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes until smooth and elastic then put into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Take care kneading the dough as the cranberries have a tendency to jump out and you don't want to lose any of them! Leave to rise for an hour or until doubled in size.
3. Knock back the dough and knead lightly for a minute or 2 then shape into a loaf then put into the tin and cover with lightly oiled film and leave to rise again until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. 
4. Preheat the oven to 220c and then remove the clingfilm and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden and risen and the base is hollow when tapped. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool. Serve either plain or toasted and spread with lashings of butter.

I've entered this into Javelin Warriors Made With Love Mondays. and also into Bake Your Own Bread hosted by Heather from GirliChef, Michelle from Delectable Musings & Connie from My Discovery of Bread