D. Cook wrote:

>I've tried the cinnamon raisin bread recipe from "Classic Sourdoughs"
>twice now, and had problems both times. The first time I thought it
>wasn't rising because the crust got too hard, so I took precautions
>this time and made sure the loaves rose in a nice humid environment and
>the crust never toughened - still no dice.
>
>Wake up the starter - whoosh! It's fully active and doubled in less
>than 6 hours.
>
>Do the first proof - whoosh! It doubled in less than two hours.
>
>Do the second proof - whoosh! It also doubled in less than two hours.
>
>Added in the ingredients - basically, flour, salt, sugar, milk,
>raisins, and cinnamon - pfft, nothing happened at _all_ after over 4.5
>hours.
>
>Does cinnamon kill yeast??
>

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.

Hope this helps,
Mike