SPICY FRUIT LOAVES, YEAST-RISEN AND VEGAN

We have my mother in law staying with us at the moment, and, given that she's very fond of my Chelsea buns, I thought I'd make her some tonight. 

I knocked up the dough, and, while we were talking about the merits of Chelseas versus other fruit breads - hot cross buns, bara brith, etc, she suddenly decided she'd rather have a fruit loaf.

No problem - as my blog title suggests, every bread is connected to other breads - after several hours proving, I shaped two loaves and put them to prove before baking. I had just over 1000g of dough, so I made one large (600g) and one small (400g):

Shaped and put to prove

Hour and a half later, ready to bake

Baked for about 40 minutes at 175C

Won't be cutting into them tonight, since I'm liquid fasting today - and if I sliced into one, it might be too much for my iron resolve.

Here's the crumb - and you're probably saying, where's the fruit? Well I can assure you there is a lot of fruit in there - 200g sultanas which were soaked for about 36 hours. The soaking removed all the colour from the fruit, so it blends in with the spiced bread.

I intended  to post a  recipe, as well, but it's probably not necessary, given the link above. Instead, here are the ingredients I used on this occasion:

400g strong white bread flour
2 dessertspoons Billingtons Natural molasses sugar (very dark)
2 teaspoons mixed spice
2 teaspoons cinnamon
200g sultanas (soaked in water for over 36 hours)
200ml lukewarm water (the soaking water, of course)
20g fresh yeast

Normally, I would use 250g of water, but the sultanas were very wet indeed, so I didn't need so much.

I have to say how impressed I am with the moistness of these loaves - and the keeping qualities. I'm having to revise my choice of favourite fruit bread - which used to be Chelseas!