Holiday Fruit Bread

Photo: flickr user turtlemom4bacon

Ingredients

1 lrg egg

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Milk for glaze

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut ¼" pieces

1 cup golden raisins

3/4 cup chopped dates

1/2 cup chopped prunes

1 cup ruby port - (to 1 ½)

Fine yellow cornmeal for dusting

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar plus

extra for sprinkling

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preparation

In shallow bowl, combine raisins, dates, prunes and enough port to just cover. Let stand 30 to 60 minutes. Lightly oil large baking sheet and dust with cornmeal; set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, mix flour, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves. Cut butter into dry ingredients with a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingers until mixture resembles fine crumbs; set aside. In small bowl, whisk egg then whisk in buttermilk, vanilla and lemon peel.

Drain fruit; discard port. Add fruit to flour mixture and toss well. Make a well in flour mixture, add buttermilk mixture and stir briskly with wooden spoon just until dough pulls together in a mass. Let stand 3 minutes.

Lightly dust work surface and hands with flour. Turn dough out onto surface and divide in half. Knead each half 30 seconds then pat into 1-inch-thick circles. Brush off any flour on dough, then fold each circle in half (but not perfectly, the top should be set back from bottom by about 1 inch.) Lightly brush loaves with milk and sprinkle generously with sugar (about 1/2 tablespoon). Transfer loaves to baking sheet.

Bake 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking until loaves are golden brown and crusty, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer loaves to wire rack and cool completely before slicing. To store, wrap cooled loaves in foil and refrigerate.

This recipe yields 2 loaves.

Comments: These lovely loaves are shaped like stollen, the traditional German holiday bread. But it's a quick bread, not a yeasted one as stollen is, so you can make it in just a fraction of the time. If you'd rather not use the port to soak the fruit, simply use apple, orange or apricot juice.

Yield: 2 loaves