Hutzelbrot, Black Forest Fruit Bread

Submitted by Annacia

"This is so good! and it's perfect for the holidays. I had to use the Zaar converter for the amounts and it worked well. The bread turned out beautitully. With its spices and lots of dried fruit it is yummy and moist and keeps quite some time when you wrap it in tin-foil. This is the original recipe but I needed to add a bit of the water the fruit was cooked in. You might not need to. There was no fat ask for *grin*."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Yields: 3 loaves

ingredients

• 250 g dried pears
• 250 g dried plums
• 125 g dried figs
• 30 g dates (or a mix of both equaling 30g total) or 30 g raisins (or a mix of both equaling 30g total)
• 125 g walnuts, chopped
• 250 g flour
• 25 g fresh yeast
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground aniseed
• 1 teaspoon ground ground cloves
• 1 pinch allspice

directions

1. Soak pears in warm water for 3 hrs, cut into strips, then boil in the same water for 20 mins until soft. Drain and keep the cooking water.
2. - Put the flour into a large bowl
3. - Dissolve the yeast in 2 tbsp of the cooking water, then add to the flour
4. - mix all ingredients and knead well. Then shape into 3 loaves.
5. - Leave to prove for 2 hours.
6. - Bake in a preheated oven at 175° C (350° F) (gas mark 3) for 1 hour.