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1. Measure out 1 cup of raisins and put them in a small bowl. Pour the rum over the raisins, stir, cover the bowl and set aside. The rum will soak into the raisins.
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2. In a large bowl measure out the 2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Set aside. Also, in a separate cup measure out the water and add the vanilla to the water. Set that aside as well.
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3. In a small sauce pan add the milk and butter over medium-low heat. Heat just until the butter melts. Remove from heat. Add the water/vanilla mixture to the milk mixture and let the mixture cool to 100-110 F using a thermometer. (If you go to my old recipe, you will notice that I finally upgraded from my dingy meat thermometer!)
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4. Once the mixture is at the right temperature, pour the liquid into the flour, salt, sugar and yeast mixture. Mix to combine. Add the eggs and the last 3/4 cup of flour and mix. The dough will slowly come together.
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5. Butter all around the inside of a large bowl. Plop the dough into the greased bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a dishtowel. Set the bowl aside in a warm, shaded place for one hour. The yeast will be all happy and warm and fed and start working to grow the dough. It should almost double in size, not quite. But it will definitely look bigger than what you put in there to begin with. If it doesn't, you can give it more time...or the yeast could just be old and didn't activate. If that's the case, you may need to start over.
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6. When it's ready, lightly flour your work surface and knead your dough 10 times, by folding it into itself.
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7. Then, roll your dough out flat using a rolling pin. Mix together the raisin/rum, 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of softened butter and cinnamon and spread it evenly over the flat dough.
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8. Starting at the bottom, roll the dough up so that in the end you just have one long log.
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9. Cut it into 9-10 slices and place the slices into a greased/buttered, 9x9 pan.
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10. Cover this with plastic and a dish towel for 45 minutes to let it proof again. Preheat your oven to 350 F.
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11. After the last proof, remove the plastic and towel and bake for 27-30 minutes until dark golden brown and bubbly.
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Enjoy!
