Here’s a strong nutty bread, lightly enriched with honey and fruit. It sits comfortably between savoury and sweet, so it’s good with meats and cheese as well as jams and marmalade or just good old butter.

Makes: one medium loaf (about 10 – 12 slices)

Level: Fairly easy

Time: Initial “hands on” – 25 – 30 minutes then 1 – 3 hours first prove. Second “hands on” about 15 minutes then 60 – 90 minutes second prove. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes.

Need: I use a stand mixer, but it can be made without. Otherwise normal bowls, a scraper maybe and a baking tray. A large pizza stone is worth using if you have one, but not essential.

Ingredients

350g/12oz white spelt flour
150g/5½oz strong white flour
30g/1oz caster sugar
10g/¼oz fast-action dried yeast
10g/¼oz fine sea salt
30ml/1fl oz light olive oil
30ml/1fl oz runny honey
about 300ml/10fl oz lukewarm water
100g/3½oz dried cranberries
125g/4½oz dried apricots, chopped
Extra flour, for dusting

Method

1. Put the flours, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) and mix thoroughly. Stir in the yeast then make a well in the centre of the mixture.

2. Blend together the oil, honey & lukewarm water in a jug or small bowl. Pour into the dry mix then mix well, either by hand or with the dough hook in your stand mixer on a slow speed. Mix until the ingredients come together in a soft, but not sticky, dough. Add a little more flour or water if necessary.

3. Knead until smooth, pliable & stretchy but firm enough to keep its shape. (About 8 minutes in a stand mixer, longer by hand.)

4. Put the ball of dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise until doubled in size. (1–3 hours, depending on room temperature)

5. Punch down the risen dough then tip it out onto a lightly floured worktop. Roll it out and spread over the cranberries and apricots. Gather it together and form into a ball.

6. Place the dough ball onto a parchment covered baking tray. Dust lightly with spelt flour*. Place inside a proving bag and seal the mouth. Leave to prove again. until doubled in size. (60 – 90 minutes)

* NB At this stage you could cut slashes in the dough with a sharp blade or you could do it later, before baking. Fruit laden doughs sometimes split during the second prove, so I refer to cut early to avoid this.

7. Towards the end of the proving time, heat the oven to 230°C/210°C fan/450°F/Gas 8. Put a baking sheet or pizza stone into the oven to heat up and put a roasting tin on the bottom of the oven.

8. Sprinkle the loaf with a little more flour, then slash the top fairly deeply with a sharp knife if you haven’t already done so. Lift the loaf and baking sheet into the oven and onto the pizza stone. Pour a large mug of cold water into the roasting tin to produce a good burst of steam. Quickly close the door.

9. Bake the loaf for 15 min, then rotate it* and reduce the oven temperature to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6. Bake for a further 17–20 min, or until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap the base.

* NB When you rotate the loaf check to see how dark it is and be prepared to cover with foil.

10. Transfer the bread to a wire rack and leave to cool completely before slicing.

I wish you every success with your bread making. I hope you have a go at this one and enjoy making and eating a lovely loaf. If you want to see more of my bread recipes click this link. Also, please have a look at my site for lots of other recipes, sweet and savoury.