Angelo's Restaurant Raisin Bread

Angelo's Raisin Toast

In Ann Arbor, we have plenty of iconic restaurants, but the only one I know that had a song written about it is Angelo's over by the U of M Hospital.   Dick Siegel,  Ann Arbor's legendary troubador, even wrote a song about the place.  

Given that I just ran into Dick Siegel when I was running errands earlier today, I figure it is time that I shared the recipe for Angelo's most famous offering - the raisin bread.  The recipe was included in both editions of
Ann Arbor's Cookin', a fundraising cookbook for the Ronald McDonald House at U of M Hospital.   The recipe made a huge quantity (4 loaves of bread) and cake yeast, which is difficult to find, so I fixed it.   To make it even easier, I kneaded it in a food processor.  The original recipe called for hand kneading for 20 minutes, and rising 20 minutes for each rise, and baking it for 5 20 minute increments.   None of that made much sense to me.  Also, it didn't say to use a bread pan, but the toast at the restaurant is square so I put the dough in a bread pan. Here's how I made it and it is just as good as the original, if not better!

Angelo's Raisin Bread

1 1/2 lb all purpose flour
1 egg
1 T Crisco
1 T salt
2 T instant yeast
4 T sugar
1 1/2 c cool water
3 c raisins

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, add flour, egg, shortening salt, yeast and sugar and pulse a few times to mix up the ingredients.   With the processor running, add the water in the feed tube and process for 60 seconds or until the dough forms a cohesive ball.    Remove the dough and knead in the raisins by hand until evenly distributed.   Form the dough into a ball and put in a bowl that has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray, and cover with a non stick cooking spray coated piece of plastic wrap.

Heat a mug of water in the microwave for 2 minutes, and push the mug to the back of the microwave.  Put the bowl in the microwave (shut off) and shut the door and let the dough rise until double, about 2 hours.  Turn the dough out onto a flour covered countertop, and punch the dough down.   Cut the dough in half and form 2 loaves and put them into 2 bread pans coated in non stick spray.  Cover with the plastic wrap.  Heat up the water mug again and put the pans in the shut off microwave to rise again, until the dough is about an inch taller than the top of the pan.  (another couple of hours)

Preheat oven to 350F, and bake bread 40 minutes until the top is brown.  Rotate halfway through the bake time.    Makes excellent french toast!