The crumb of this enhanced Fruit Bread is extremely soft and supple, with a gorgeous golden-brown crust. It comprises dried fruit (raisins, currants, and/or dried cranberries) and candied lemon and/or orange peel and is delicately flavored with ground cinnamon. This bread is popular around the holidays, but I enjoy it all year. It can be eaten plain or buttered. Served toasted with butter and a piece of sharp cheddar cheese, it’s also delicious.
We’re using unbleached bread flour and unbleached all-purpose flour in this recipe. Bread flour has more protein than all-purpose flour, giving the bread a chewier texture.
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
1(130 grams) bread flour unbleached
1 3/4 (5 grams)
1/4 ounce packet (7 grams) active dry yeast
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar (25 gram)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder (optional)
1 Tsp (4 grams) salt (kosher)
2/3 cup room temperature milk (150 ml/grams)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (55 gram)
1 big (50 gram) room-temperature egg
1 teacup (150 grams) dried fruits (black or golden raisins, currants, dried cranberries, and/or dried cherries)
2 tbsp (25 grams) lemon or orange peel candied
1 big (17 g) room temperature egg yolk was used to make the egg wash.
1 tablespoon milk or cream
Place the flours, yeast, sugar, ground cinnamon, and salt in the bowl of your electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. To blend, stir everything together. Add the milk, butter, and egg after that. Knead the dough for four minutes at low speed. Increase the mixer’s speed to 2nd and knead the dough for another 4 to 6 minutes, or until it’s smooth, elastic, and not too sticky.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and flip it once to coat the top with oil. Allow rising at room temperature (approximately 75 degrees F) (24 degrees C) for about 1 1/2 hours, or until about doubled in size.
In the meantime, fill a dish halfway with warm water and add the dried fruit. Allow for 10 to 15 minutes of resting time, or until the fruit is tender. Drain the water and pat it dry. Place the candied peel on top.
A loaf pan measuring 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3 inches (21.5 x 11.5 x 10 cm) is required. Spray the pan with a nonstick veggie spray or lightly grease it with flavorless oil.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a rectangle after it has doubled in size. Sprinkle the dried fruit and candied peel over the dough’s surface and softly knead until the fruit is fully absorbed. Make a rectangle out of the dough.
Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds, as if it were a letter, starting at the short edge of the rectangle. Check that the dough’s edges are straight and equal. (For a demonstration, see the video.) Flip the dough over so that the seam is now on the bottom. Then gently roll the dough back and forth between your palms until it’s the length of the loaf pan. Place the dough log, seam side down, in your pan. (About half of the dough should be in the pan.) Cover pan with lightly oiled plastic wrap or a nonstick veggie spray and set aside to prove for 1 hour at room temperature, or until dough rises almost to the rim of your loaf pan.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C).
Whisk the egg yolk with the cream in a small dish to make an egg wash.
When the bread is ready to bake, remove the plastic wrap and brush the top of the bread with the egg wash using a pastry brush. Preheat oven to 350°F and bake for 30–35 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn your pan front to back halfway through baking to ensure equal baking. The bread will sound hollow if you tap it on the bottom. Remove from the oven and set aside for a few minutes to cool on a wire rack. (The interior temperature of the bread should be around 195 F (91 C) when using a probe thermometer.)
Remove the bread from the pan and place it on a wire rack, top side up. Allow for thorough cooling before cutting. The bread may be kept at room temperature for 3 to 4 days or frozen if well wrapped.
This recipe makes one loaf.
