Andrew Whitley's Christmas bread

While other nations have their stollen and panettone, when it comes to Christmas, in Britain we tend to put our dried fruits and spices into cakes, puddings and mince pies.

In English Bread and Yeast Cookery, however, Elizabeth David mentioned a Christmas bread recipe from Cumbria, which inspired Andrew to write this modern version. Yeast has a hard time when dough is enriched with butter and sugar, and using a pre-ferment helps get that rise.

Ingredients

Makes: 1 large or 2 small loaves

For the pre-ferment
175g white bread flour
5g fresh yeast
125g water, at about 25°C

For the fruit and nut soaker
100g crystallized ginger, chopped
100g raisins or sultanas
100g dried cranberries
50g pitted dates, chopped
50g dried figs, quartered
100g almonds or Brazil nuts, chopped
50g / 3⅓ tbsp rum, brandy or fruit juice

For the dough
220g white bread flour
100g  butter, plus extra for greasing
70g dark brown sugar
100g lightly-beaten egg, (about 2 eggs)

Method

Mix the pre-ferment ingredients together thoroughly, cover and leave in the refrigerator for about 12 hours overnight. Meanwhile, mix the soaker ingredients together in a bowl, substituting similar fruits, nuts and liquid if you wish, according to taste, allergies or simply what you have to hand. Leave this mixture at room temperature for about 12 hours, stirring occasionally.

Mix the dough ingredients into the pre-ferment and knead until the sticky mixture becomes a soft, smooth and glossy dough. Cover and leave at room temperature for 2–3 hours. At this point you can give it a fold and leave it for another hour or so, but this isn’t essential.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it into a rectangle about 20x25cm. Spread the fruit and nut soaker over almost all the surface. Roll the dough up carefully, turn it through 90 degrees and gently roll it up again, taking care not to force the fruit through the surface. The aim is even distribution, but it is better to leave the dough a bit lumpy than to work it so much that you end up with a mess.

Grease the baking tin (or tins) with butter, shape the dough to fit and place it in the tin(s). Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until the dough doesn’t spring back instantly when gently pressed. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas 4.

Bake a large loaf for 45–60 minutes, smaller ones for about 30–40 minutes, until the top is a deep golden brown.

Baker’s Tip

For an extra glossy crust, you can brush the top of the dough with a little beaten egg before baking or with melted butter afterward. For a festive flourish, dust the top with icing/confectioners’ sugar when it has cooled.

About the baker

In 1976, Andrew Whitley left London and headed to Cumbria, where he created the wood-fired, organic Village Bakery Melmerby. A visit to Russia in the early 1990s led to him becoming an advocate of genuine sourdough bread. Andrew moved on in 2002 to found Bread Matters, publishing the award-winning book of the same name in 2006. In 2008 he joined forces with the charity Sustain to launch the Real Bread Campaign and later published the book Do: Sourdough. In 2012, Andrew and Veronica Burke co-founded Scotland the Bread.

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Taken from Slow Dough: Real Bread by Chris Young, published by Nourish Books. Hardback, £20. Commissioned photography Victoria Harley.

Reproduction prohibited without written agreement of the copyright holder.

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