Christmas Pudding Bread

Christmas has gone again for another year. Our fridges are returning slowly to normal. Did we really need quite such a variety of cheeses? What is that bit of goo in a bowl wrapped in cling film? Are those extra brussell sprouts never going to rot? I suspect there are still a few bits of Christmas pudding lying around too, waiting to be dispatched to the bird table or worse the bin. I hate waste so I thought this was a novel way of using it up. My Christmas pudding was very dark and sticky so it produced a very moist rich bread. Nice toasted and smells wonderful. I think you could also use Christmas cake in this recipe. Why not if it's lying around and you can't face any more.

Ingredients


Christmas pudding (Whatever you have but don't use more than 250 grms/9oz)
250 gms/9oz plain flour
250gms /9oz white bread flour
2 eggs
200 mls/7 fluid oz milk
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 tablespoon dried active yeast.
pinch of salt


Glaze

12.5gms/1/2 oz butter softened
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice.

Method


Mix the flours and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer if you have a dough hook.
Crumble in the Christmas pudding and mix through

Warm the milk and add the honey.
Sprinkle in the yeast and stir.
Leave for five or ten minutes until the yeast is quite frothy.

Beat the eggs.
Make a well in the flour and pour the yeast mixture and the eggs in.
Mix until you have a nice soft dough (not sticky though).
If you feel your dough is too dry add a little water a teaspoon at a time but go carefully. You want to be able to handle the dough easily not have a sticky pile in the bowl.

Knead with a dough hook for about five minutes or by hand for 10 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball.
Turn this in an oiled bowl so that the dough has a light film of oil.
Cover with a tea towel or cling film and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in volume (about an hour).

When the dough has risen, pull it out of the bowl onto a lightly oiled work top with lightly oiled hands. This stops the dough sticking to you and everything else.
Form it into an oblong and divide into two equal pieces.
Form these into two balls and place on a greased and floured baking sheet.
Flatten the balls slightly.

Cover with lightly oiled cling fim and leave to rise again for about half an hour.

Pre-Heat your oven to 200.C/180.C Fan/400.F/Gas 6
When the loaves have risen snip the tops with scissors or slash with a sharp knife a couple of times then place them in the oven and bake for about thirty minutes until golden brown and the bottoms tap hollow.

While they are baking, mix the spice with the softened butter,
As soon as you remove the loaves from the oven smother them with this spicy butter. (I find those silicone pastry brushes great for this job)
Leave on a cooling rack.