Braided Fruit Loaf

I love bread, have I mentioned this before? The trouble is the bread here is sweet and well, awful! The altitude messes with the rising process and it seems the bread will either taste yeasty or they'll have loaded it with sugar so that you can't taste the yeast. As a result I bought myself a bread maker for those times that I want a fix of what bread is meant to be like. However, as this is a bucket list item and it infuriated me (when I didn't have a bread maker) when a recipe called for proofing the loaf in a bread maker, I have made this loaf from scratch. The sun was playing hide and seek this morning so I had some trouble getting things to work, but nothing that sitting the dough in front of a hot oven can't fix.

I love bread...

Braided Fruit Loaf
Serves: 2 loaves (or 1 with a 6 strand plait)
Prep Time: 2 1/2 hours (includes proofing x2) Cook Time: 45mins

120g butter
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup caster sugar (we can't get this here so I throw normal sugar in the blender for 10 seconds)

2 2/3 cups flour
1tbs dried yeast
3 eggs (beaten)
1 cup dried apricots (chopped)
1tbs flaked almonds

1. Melt butter with milk and sugar in a saucepan on low, stir until sugar is disolved. Cool until lukewarm.

Getting ready

2. Place flour and yeast in a bowl and mix together. Add the eggs (keep 1 tbsp to brush) then the milk mixture, beat for 10 minutes until dough is soft and elastic.
3. Place on a floured surface, shape dough into a rectangle, scatter 1/3 of the apricots then fole the dough over. Repeat until all the apricots have been used. Knead for 2 mins.

Adding the apricots

4. Make a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place for 1hr (or until doubled)

Plaiting, easy when you know how!

5. Punch down dough and divide into 6 pieces. Roll each into a long strand. Press the tops together and form the loaf by creating a 6 strand plait. (Alternatively make 2, 3 strand plaits). Place the dough onto a baking tray, double lined with baking paper, cover again and leave to proof once more.

Ready for baking

6. Preheat the oven to 180C, brush the loaf with the reserved egg and sprinkle flaked almonds on top. Bake for 40-45mins until lightly golden. I was worried about this bread not being cooked so I checked online and discovered an internal temp of 190/200F is right for a loaf so I went with that.

All done

7. Cool on a wire rack.

This smelt great, it hasn't had the taste test yet as it's being served this afternoon, but if appearance counts for anything, then it's a winner. I'm hoping if this looks good enough, when my meringue is a flop, no one will notice.