Sweet Spring Bread

Recipe by Cook's Hideout

Sweet Spring Bread -- perfect sweet bread to make in Spring. It is studded with dry fruit and is soft and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

• (1.25l) fish stock (dough:)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cups Wholewheat Flour ((or use 4 cups of All purpose ))
• 2 tsp yeast (Instant)
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 2 1 eggs Egg yolk (large +  (reserve the white for glaze).)
• ¼ tsp Orange Oil (or Fiori di Sicilia)
• 1 cup Dried fruit (Mixed (I used chopped dried apricots, cherries and raisins))
• ¼ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsps unsalted butter

Method

1. Melt the butter along with milk in a small saucepan. Let the mixture cool to lukewarm.
2. Combine the milk mixture with the remaining dough ingredients, except the dried fruit, and mix and knead to form a soft dough.
3. Knead in the fruit.
4. Cover and let the dough rise, for 1½hours, or until it becomes puffy and nearly doubles in volume.
5. Deflate the dough. Divide it in half and shape each half into a 8" log. Place the logs in 2 greased 8½"x4½" loaf pans.
6. Let rise, covered, for about 1½hours, till crowned about 1" over the rims of the pans. Just before the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
7. Beat the reserved egg white and brush over the tops of the loaves (in my case, I brushed the m with soy milk).
8. Mix the topping ingredients until crumbly and sprinkle on top.
9. Bake the bread for 25~30 minutes or lightly browned.
10. Remove from the oven, turn out of the pans and cool completely on a rack.
11. ** I used 2tbsp egg replacer whisked in 6tbsp water for the 2 eggs and 1tbsp Soy milk for the white used for the glaze.

View the recipe instructions at Cook's Hideout