In article
<mailman.8.1110310579.218.rec.food.sourdough@mail. otherwhen.com>, Mike
Avery > wrote:

> There's a number of possibilities here. Why don't you try three rises
> without adding sugar or cinnamon? Many people have trouble getting two
> rises out of their sourdough culture, much less three.
>
> When we were doing sourdough cinnamon raisin bread at the bakery, we put
> the raisins in the dough, but layered the cinnamon sugar in the dough.
> Basically, we rolled each loaf out so it was about 6" wide and about 18
> to 24" long. Then we buttered the bread with melted, but no more than
> warm, butter. Onto that, we sprinkled a cinnamon/brown sugar mixture.
> We did not cover the last 6" or so of the bread. Then we rolled the
> bread down, very tightly. Once it was rolled, we pinched the seams shut
> and let the bread rise about 8 hours at room temperature. The rest of
> our breads were in the walk-in so they wouldn't over rise. The raisin
> was still rising.

Thanks for your responses, all. Interesting that cinnamon's bad for
yeast. This recipe calls for 2 cups of starter initially, adding in
another 2 cups of flour during 2 proofing stages, then the final flour,
cinnamon, etc. There wasn't that much sugar in the dough - 1
tablespoon per loaf, so I don't think that was the problem. In
addition to the cinnamon in the dough, the recipe also says to roll the
dough flat, add cinnamon sugar, and roll up into a loaf. I think I
will try this recipe again without all the cinnamon in the dough (1/4
cup for 2 loaves; it turned the dough completely brown!) and see what
transpires.

The third rise would not have been a problem without the additional
ingredients - I deflated the second rise and during the 5 minutes that
I mixed the milk, raisins, salt, sugar, and cinnamon, the dough itself
was already puffing up again.