Sweet Bread with Cherries, Nuts and Chocolate
Makes 1 Loaf
Ingredients
500g Bakers’ Flour
Salt, if not using a bread mix
10g caster sugar
2 teaspoons dry yeast
100g choc bits
100g nuts – I used almonds, chopped, but any nut is ok
125g dried cherries – I used the Bing Cherries you can buy in Coles where you serve yourself dried fruit and nuts.
425ml COLD water
Preparation
Place the flour, salt (if using) and sugar into a bowl, mix well.
Sprinkle the yeast over and mix well again.
Add the chocolate, nuts and cherries, stirring well.
Pour the water in and combine everything well. The mix will be heavy, and very sticky.
I did this in a bowl, but there is no reason you couldn’t do it in the thermomix. Just take care not to mix too much and squish the cherries, nuts and choc bits. I think a short time of kneading would be fine, but the mixture doesn’t need kneading, just mixing.
Cover the bowl with Glad wrap or a well-fitting lid and allow to rise for 8-12 hours. NO MORE THAN 12 HOURS THOUGH. As it is fairly cool at the moment I left it on the kitchen bench. If you felt the need to refrigerate it, don’t forget to let it return to room temperature for about an hour.
The next day fold the dough onto itself a couple of times and place into a bread tin (greased if you usually grease it) and allow it to rise for 1½-2 hours.
Bake at 220*C for about 35 minutes.
This has been based loosely on a recipe from a Great British Bake Off recipe.
