375g plain flour
7g sachet dried yeast
50g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice or mixed spice
1 egg, lightly beaten
25g soft butter
200ml warm milk
Fruit
50g sultanas
50g currants
50g mixed peel
Milk and Egg wash
Place the flour and spices in a bow and give them a mix. Following Ol' Blue Eyes' rules put the salt, yeast and sugar each 1/3 of the way round the edge of the bowl. Make a well in the centre and put in the egg and butter. Start to mix the ingredients whilst slowly pouring in the milk keeping some back - you might not need it all. Keep mixing until you have a ball of dough, how you do this is up to you. I like to use dough hooks on a hand mixer for a few minutes and then tip the mix onto a floured worktop and knead by hand for about five minutes.
Place the dough in a greased/oiled bowl and cover and leave to rise till doubled.
Place the risen dough back on the floured worktop and just knock it back with your fingers. Spread the fruit onto the dough sheet. Roll into a ball and knead until the fruit is evenly mixed in. Divide into three even portions and stretch and roll these out into 40cm long ropes. Plait them as you would with hair. Put the plait on a floured baking sheet, tuck the ends in cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes then brush over the egg and milk wash and sprinkle with sugar
Pre-heat the oven to 200C and bake the bread for 10 mins. Turn the heat down to 180C and bake for a further 20 minutes or until golden and the loaf sounds hollow.
When I put it on the baking tray it was quite a comfortable fit, but as you can see from the photos it grew longer than the tray.