Fruit bread with hidden marzipan

Tamara West

A simple fruit bread which I have filled with 11 marzipan balls to represent the 11 faithful disciples (minus Judas). Delicious toasted the next day — if you have any left!

Makes 1 loaf.

Ingredients

½ cup	Sultanas
½ cup	Raisins
½ cup	Dried figs, chopped
330 ml	Apple cider, dry, warmed
3 ½ cups	High grade flour, or strong flour (Main)
¼ tsp	Salt
1 tsp	Ground cinnamon
½ tsp	Mixed spice
½ tsp	Nutmeg, freshly grated
7 g	Active dried yeast
100 g	Marzipan, rolled into 11 small balls (Main)

Directions

1. Soak the dried fruit in the warm cider. Sift the flour, salt and spices into a warm bowl and add yeast.
2. Strain cider from the fruit and add cider to the flour. Set fruit aside. Cover bowl and leave in a warmplace for 5 minutes to allow the yeast to activate. Then mix to form a soft dough.
3. Turn dough out on to a lightly-floured bench top and knead for 15-20 minutes until dough is smooth. Kneading can be done in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook for 5-10 minutes.
4. Very lightly oil the bowl, place in dough, cover with plastic wrap and a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
5. Tip dough back on to bench top and add reserved fruit. Knead briefly until fruit is evenly distributed throughout the dough. Flatten dough a little and place in marzipan balls, spreading them out evenly.
6. Fold dough over to completely enclose marzipan balls, turn over and shape into an oval or round loaf and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover and leave for a further 30 minutes.
7. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200C.
8. Dust the loaf with extra flour and using a sharp knife score the loaf 3 times across the top, place in oven and bake for 35 minutes or until golden. Another test is to tap the base of the bread, it should sound hollow.

Make a change:

- Play around with your spices; small amounts of allspice and cloves are good here too.
- Replace one measure of dried fruit with chopped candied peel or currants.