August recipe: Plum bread

Most recipes for plum bread use dried fruit, usually raisins.  However, fresh plums work very well in plum cake, so I thought I would try fresh plums in plum bread.  Here’s the recipe.

Plum bread

0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) sugar

1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) dried baking yeast

12 oz (approx 350 g) strong white bread flour

1 oz (approx 25 g) light brown soft sugar

0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) salt

Milk to mix

6 oz (approx 150 g) fresh plums, after removing the stones

Put about 25 ml of boiling water and 25 ml of cold water into a cup.  Stir in the half-teaspoon of sugar.  Sprinkle the dried yeast on top.  

Leave for 10-15 minutes for the yeast to froth up.

Mix the flour, light brown soft sugar and salt in a bowl.  Make a hollow in the centre.  Pour the yeast liquid into the hollow and mix well.  Gradually add milk until the mixture forms a soft dough.

Knead the dough for a minute or two.

Put the dough back in the bowl and leave for 45-60 min to rise.

Grease a baking sheet.

Remove the stones from the plums and chop roughly.  I usually halve the plums, then cut each half into quarters.

Knead the dough again for a minute or two.  Roll out the dough on a floured work surface to a rectangle about 7 inches (approximately 18 cm) wide and about twice as long.

Spread the chopped plums over two-thirds of the rectangle of dough. Fold the other one-third of the dough up over the plums.  Then fold again over the remaining third, so you end up with alternating layers of dough and plums.  Press the edges together along each side so the plums are fully enclosed.

Roll the layered dough again to make a square about 7-8 inches (approximately 18-20 cm) square.

Put the square of layered dough on the greased baking sheet. Mark into 3 x 3 squares.  Leave for another 45-60 minutes to rise again.

Bake for 25-30 min in a hot oven (approx 250 C) until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Cool on a wire rack.

When cool, cut along the marks to make 9 squares of plum bread.