Christmas Day brunch, can be as simple as home made fruit bread. I packed this delightful recipe with fruits of the pacific , papaya, pineapple, apricots and flavoured the just sweet bread with a mix of grated citrus rinds. Between assistant Annette and I we cooked this recipe at least 4 times to achieve the end result of a moist loaf that will keep and taste delicious toasted.

Ingredients

• ½ cup chopped dried nectarines
• ½ cup chopped dried papaya
• ½ cup chopped dried pineapple
• ½ cup fresh orange juice
• 1 cup warm milk
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 25 grams softened butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• grated rind one orange, lemon and lime
• 3½ cups flour
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 2 tblsp Surebake yeast

Method

1. Toss the chopped dried fruit with the orange juice and allow to marinate for 15 minutes.
2. Put the ingredients into the basin of a bread machine in order, fruit and juice, milk, sugar, butter, salt, vanilla essence, citrus rinds, flour, spice and yeast. Set to dough setting and begin.
3. When the dough is ready, turn out onto a floured board and deflate gently. Divide in half. Roll each half out to a rectangle about 2cm thick and then roll up tightly. Either place in a greased loaf tin or on a greased baking tray. Place seam side down. Cover with a clean cloth and leave in the warm kitchen to rise until double in bulk. This may take up to 1½ hours.
4. Bake at 200ºC for 35 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped from underneath. Cool on a cake rack. Keep well wrapped once cold. Serve sliced and toasted.

To Make By Hand

1. Prepare the dried fruit. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk and stir to blend and allow to stand for 15 minutes until it begins to froth.
2. Sift the flour, sugar, salt and mixed spice into a bowl or on to a table and make a large well in the centre.
3. Place the softened butter into the centre of the flour well with the vanilla essence, citrus rinds, and frothy milk. On the table stir to incorporate the flour from the edges until you have the dough as a mass. If making in a bowl, use your hand or a wooden spoon to gradually stir to incorporate the flour into the liquid ingredients.
4. Knead on a lightly floured board until the dough becomes soft and pliable. This will take at least 10 minutes by hand. Turn the dough over in a greased bowl, cover with greased plastic film and then leave for 1½ hours or until double in bulk. This is best at room temperature. Continue from point 2 above.