Spiced fruit loaf

Low-calorie breakfast recipe for 4 - 8 people, takes only 20 mins; recipe has flour, yeast, caster sugar, milk, egg, unsalted butter, oil, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, dried apricot, fig, date, sultana, glace cherry and orange.

Spiced fruit loaf

Spiced fruit loaf

Recipe by Chef Soomro Course: Low-calorie breakfast
Servings

4 - 8

servings
Prep time

30 mins

Ingredients

  • Egg: 1 egg, beaten
  • Milk: 150ml warm milk
  • Oil: oil, for greasing
  • Orange: juice 1 orange
  • Caster Sugar: 50g caster sugar
  • Unsalted Butter: 50g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
  • Ground Cinnamon: 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • Sultana: 50g sultana
  • Flour: 450g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
  • Dried Apricot: 50g dried apricot, chopped
  • Fig: 50g dried fig, chopped
  • Yeast: 2 x 7g sachets easy-blend yeast
  • Ground Ginger: 1 tsp ground ginger
  • Date: 50g pitted date, chopped
  • Glace Cherry: 50g glace cherry, chopped

Directions

  1. Soak the dried fruits in the orange juice for about 30 mins, then sieve, reserving the juice.
  2. Put the flour, yeast, caster sugar and 1 tsp salt into a large mixing bowl with the spices and soaked fruit and mix well. Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm milk, reserved orange juice, the beaten egg and the melted butter. Mix everything together to form a dough - start with a wooden spoon and finish with your hands. If the dough is too dry, add a little more warm water; if it's too wet, add more flour.
  3. Knead in the bowl or on a floured surface until the dough becomes smooth and springy. Transfer to a clean, lightly greased bowl and cover loosely with a clean, damp tea towel. Leave in a warm place to rise until roughly doubled in size - this will take about 1 hr depending on how warm the room is.
  4. Knock the dough back by kneading for a few secs. Dust 2 x 2lb loaf tins with flour. Halve the dough. Use a little flour to help you shape each half into a smooth oval, then pop them into the tins. Cover both loosely with a clean, damp tea towel and leave to prove in a warm place for about 20 mins. Meanwhile, heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
  5. Bake for 20 mins, then cool in the tins before turning out and slicing.