Easter Fruit Loaf
Make this fruit and nut filled yeast bread to serve for Easter breakfast or brunch. The raisins, candied lemon peel, almonds, and touch of cardamom combine to make a delicious bread that can be served plain or toasted and spread with butter or cream cheese.
Recipe type: Dessert | Yeast Bread | Fruit Bread
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Recipe Notes
Pan: One Large Baking Sheet Pan Prep: Greased Oven Temp: 375° Yield: 1 Loaf Storage: Covered, Room Temperature
Help: Candied Lemon Peel
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accurate, and well worth the investment. I use my Thermapen Thermometer for checking room temperature ingredients, tempering chocolate, baking bread, making pastry creams, sugar syrup, caramel, and candy, cooking meats and fish, and deep frying. Thermapen Thermometer available here.
Help: Candied Lemon Peel
TheBakingPan Recommends: The BEST instant read thermometer I’ve used for cooking and baking; the ThermoWorks Splash-Proof Super-Fast Thermapen Thermometer is incredibly fast,
accurate, and well worth the investment. I use my Thermapen Thermometer for checking room temperature ingredients, tempering chocolate, baking bread, making pastry creams, sugar syrup, caramel, and candy, cooking meats and fish, and deep frying. Thermapen Thermometer available here.Ingredients
Dough:
- ½ cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees) (preferably whole milk)
- ¼ cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
- 1½ packages active dry yeast (2¼ teaspoons plus 1⅛ teaspoons)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for work surface
- ¾ cup almonds, coarsely chopped
- ⅓ cup Candied Lemon Peel, chopped into small pieces
- ¾ cup raisins
- ¾ cup golden raisins
Instructions
Dough:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine warm milk, warm water, and yeast; stir and let sit until yeast is dissolved, about 10 minutes. Add sugar, melted butter, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice, cardamom, and salt; stir to mix. Add 2 cups flour; stir until well mixed. Stir in remaining flour to form a soft dough. Add almonds, candied lemon peel, raisins, and golden raisins; stir to mix. Tip: the dough is thick and stiff; you may need to knead the fruit and nuts into the dough with your hands.
- Turn dough onto a lightly floured pastry mat or pastry board; knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
- Place dough in a well greased bowl; turn dough over once to grease the top. Cover bowl with a small kitchen towel and let dough rise is a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.
- Prepare one large baking sheet; light grease with shortening.
- Punch dough down. On a lightly floured pastry mat or pastry board, roll the dough into a 15 inch by 9 inch rectangle. Fold one long side of the dough over to the middle, and then fold the other side over to form a long loaf shape.
- Cover and let loaf rise is a warm place until doubled in size, about one hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Bake: Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until loaf is a light golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from oven. Place pan on a wire cooling rack to cool.
Recipe Adapted from Best of Baking by Annette Wolter and Christian Teubner