Fruit and Spice Bread

There are a lot of similar spiced fruit bread recipes that come out this time of year.  This was a new one for me to try.

To make a smaller, individual loaf, I halved the original recipe, which would have been shaped into a ring after being twisted, and adjusted the baking times.  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup warm water
2¹/₄ teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon sugar 

1/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 + 1/8 teaspoon aniseed, chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1³/₄ cups all-purpose flour 

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup old-fashioned oats 

1/2 cup mixed diced dried fruit (I used apricots, tart cherries, and golden raisins)

 

Proof yeast in 1/4 cup water with the sugar. In mixing bowl, add yeast mixture, remaining 1/4 cup water, buttermilk, honey, cinnamon, salt, aniseed, and allspice; stir to combine. Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and oats and beat 3 minutes. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. Continue beating until dough cleans sides of bowl. Turn out dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding up to 1/4 cup all-purpose flour if very sticky, about 10 minutes. Place dough in oiled bowl and turn to coat. Allow to rise at room temperature until tripled in volume, about 6 hours. 

 

Punch down dough and turn out onto work surface. Add dried fruit and knead until thoroughly combined. Divide dough in half; roll each half into a 15-inch-long rope. Place ropes side by side and twist together loosely to form one even loaf. Place on cookie sheet and cover with kitchen towel; let rise in warm area until almost doubled in volume, about 1 hour 45 minutes. 

 

Preheat oven to 400F. Transfer bread to oven, then immediately reduce temperature to 350F and bake 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 325F and continue baking until bread sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 15 minutes. Transfer bread to rack and cool.  

 

The directions to allow the dough to rise for 6 hours until tripled in volume were a surprise.  It's not an enriched dough--there is no egg or butter, and not an unusually large amount of sugar (honey)--so the directions are not typical for what is a fairly standard dough recipe.  I had scheduling issues with preparing this bread, so I decided to take advantage of the long rise time and start it in the refrigerator around 2:00 in the afternoon.  I didn't remove it until the following morning, and it was barely doubled.  I left it on the counter, but it continued to rise very slowly, perhaps because the room was quite cool.  Finally, losing patience, I took it out to the warm car and left it there until I couldn't wait any longer.  It still wasn't tripled, but I was concerned about letting it go any longer.  By now, it had been 24 hours.  I punched it down, kneaded in the fruit, shaped it, and left it to rise; this time it took far less time to nearly double, but I didn't get any oven spring. (I should also mention I used fast-acting yeast, which throws another curve ball into the process.) 

Since it lacked any sort of decoration, I gave it a butter rub after it had cooled to give a little shine.

Conclusion:  The bread was dense and chewy, similar to a bagel--I'm not sure if that is the intended texture or if it didn't rise properly.  It wasn't especially spicy; the most noticeable flavor was anise, which I didn't especially care for.  I normally like anise, but this came across a little medicinal.  (Maybe I need to buy new anise seed.  It tastes more herbal than candy-like.)  It wasn't particularly "festive" tasting, but was a nice variation on raisin bread.  It might also benefit from some walnuts.

Recipe:  "Fruit and Spice Bread" via Bon Appétit, September 1992