Stuffed Fruit Bread Recipe

Having a sweet tooth does not always have to mean cakes and cookies - a sweet bread can satisfy that sweet tooth just as much.

My stuffed fruit bread recipe is made with wholemeal spelt flour and mixed dried fruits so contains plenty of fibre.

Cut this sweet stuffed fruit bread into slice and enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.

My fruit bread contains no eggs, milk or butter but it does contain gluten.

It smells fabulous whilst cooking and looks amazing to slice into when you serve it.

With a brushing of light icing on top of the bread for an extra bit of sweetness this bread is a real treat to bake.

Ingredients for stuffed fruit bread recipe

1lb/16oz Brown spelt flour
100g White spelt flour
1 - 7g Sachet yeast
2 tsp Sugar
3/4 tsp Salt
3 oz Dates (chopped)
3 oz Sultanas
1 oz Currants
3 oz Dried unsulphured apricots
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Tbsp Candied peel
5 Tbsp Light brown muscovado sugar
2 Tbsp Ground almonds
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
2 Tbsp Rice bran oil

Picture of dried fruits and candied peel.

How to make Stuffed Fruit Bread

Place the brown and white flours, yeast, 2 teaspoons of sugar and the salt into a large mixing bowl and stir together.

Add the 2 tablespoons of oil and keep adding enough warm water until the flour mixture turns into a dough.

Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or use a kneading hook.

In a bowl place the sultanas, currants, apricots, candied peel, 1/2 tsp vanilla and dates and pour over freshly boiled water - just fill up to the edges of the fruit.

Leave to soak for 3-5 minutes.

Drain the water away and mix the 1 tsp vanilla, ground almonds and 5 tablespoons of sugar into the fruit.

Roll the dough out into a large rectangle.

In the centre of the flat dough pour the dried fruit mixture and shape it into a long rectangle inside the dough.

You may need to slice a little dough off the top and bottom ends if it is too long.

Take a knife and slice the sides of the dough in a diagnol direction that faces upwards.

Make sure the slices do not reach the dried fruit or else some of the fruit juices will leak out of the bread during cooking.

Fold the bottom end up.

Starting from the left side wrap each sliced layer over one another.

When you reach the top end of the bread fold the end peice first towards the fruit then over lap the 2 last slices.

Dab your fingers in some water to help the dough stick.

Place the bread onto a greased and floured oven tray. If you think it may be easier you can place the bread dough onto the tray after rolling out so you do not have to move it.

Lightly cover with plastic wrap/bags and leave in a warm place to rise. You want to dough to have doubled in size - this should only take about 20-30 minutes.

Remove plastic and bake in a hot oven at gas mark 7 for 30 minutes or until golden.

Leave to cool for approximetly 10 minutes then finish cooling on a wire rack.

Once you place the bread onto the cooling rack make a runny icing mixture with powdered sugar and cold water. Brush this mixture all over the bread.

You want the bread to still feel warm when you do this.