Nothing smells better than freshly baked fruit loaf (or raisin toast, depending on your leanings). For Tivoli Road Bakery’s favoured recipe, head chef Monique Collins adds something extra to the usual medley of sultanas, raisins, dates, currants and spices, with a dose of dried apricots to deepen the baked sweetness.
“The apricots really make it pop,” she says. “They’re sweet and bigger than the rest of the fruits. That’s my favourite bit about it.”
The bakery’s homemade fruit loaf has been on the menu since Collins took over the business three years ago, adapting it from the previous owner’s own popular version. It’s been a staple of the South Yarra establishment ever since, with Collins selling at least a dozen loaves a day throughout the year.
It goes without saying, but the fruit loaf is best served with a generous spread of butter –such as Mainland Buttersoft, which is additive-free and made with just cream and salt, triple-churned so it’s spreadable straight from the fridge.
“[Serving it with] butter is perfect, because it’s so fruity and hearty,” Collins says. “The requests we always get for it are butter and jam. It literally always goes with butter.”
Best of all, it’s not that tricky to make at home. It definitely takes time, as does any baking project using a starter, but it’s well worth it. “It’s a fairly straightforward recipe,” Collins says. “Because it’s a tin loaf, it’s much more user-friendly. It can’t really go anywhere. And if you tip it out of the tin and it doesn’t look done, you can tip it back in and put it back in the oven.” She adds that it will look dark and caramelised on top when it’s finished, to the point of appearing overdone.
The joy of baking the fruit loaf extends the fragrant scents that will fill the room. “When you open the oven, the house smells awesome for hours,” says Collins. The finished product will last up to a week on the bench, so there’s no rush to finish it either. Just pop each new slice in the toaster when you feel like it, whether it’s for a weekend breakfast feast or a quick workday snack.
Tivoli Road Bakery fruit loaf
Yields 8 thick slices
Preparation time: 14 hours, including soaking the fruit and proving the dough
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
Fruit mixture
10g freshly grated ginger
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods, crushed
2 bay leaves
3 cloves
50ml water
50ml orange juice
50g sultanas
50g raisins
40g currants
50g pitted dates, halved
120g dried apricots, halved
Dough
250g baker’s flour
50g whole-wheat flour
50g rye flour
270g water
80g sourdough starter (fed around 4 hours before making the dough)
7g salt
Zest of 2 oranges
Method:
Fruit mixture
Prepare the fruit mix a day – or up to a week – before making the dough, to ensure the flavours combine properly. Add the spices, water and orange juice to a small saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium heat, then take off the burner for 10 minutes to infuse. Meanwhile, combine all the fruit except the apricots in a heatproof container. Strain the liquid over the fruit and set aside. Stir every few hours to ensure the liquid is being soaked up by the fruit.
Dough
Half an hour before mixing the dough, combine flours and water in a bowl and mix thoroughly by hand. This will hydrate the flour. Cover the bowl and set aside.
Once the starter is ripe, squeeze it into the combined flours and mix. Then mix in the salt and zest.
Pick up the dough, pull it up and over itself, push it into the centre of the bowl and repeat, rotating the bowl 90 degrees each time, until the dough appears strong and elastic. This should take about 5 minutes.
Rest your dough for half an hour with a damp cloth over the bowl.
Folding the dough
Once the dough has rested, you’ll need to fold it four times, in 30-minute intervals. Sprinkle the fruit mixture and apricots evenly on top, giving the dough a squeeze as you do so to keep it from overhydrating. As in the previous step, fold by taking a portion of the dough, pulling it up and over itself and pushing it back into the middle of the bowl. Repeat 7 or 8 times until the dough becomes tight and quite firm. Allow to rest for 30 minutes, then fold and rest 3 more times.
Once the folding is complete, the loaf will need a bulk prove, so leave it alone for 2–3 hours to strengthen before shaping it.
Shaping and baking the loaf
When the dough has rested and started to prove, turn it out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, lightly drag the dough towards you in a circular motion until it’s taut and firm. If it’s really sticky, lightly flour your hands. Cover for 15 minutes to relax.
In the meantime, lightly oil a small bread tin (about 18 x 10cm). When the dough has relaxed slightly, flip it over so it’s seam-side up and pat gently to redistribute the air pockets. Form into a rectangular shape, then fold the two top corners over to create a triangle. Roll the dough towards yourself from the top down, using your thumbs to guide the dough in a spiral motion. Do this as tightly as possible to achieve a great oven spring later.
Pop the dough in the prepared tin, seam-side down, and cover for eight or so hours at room temperature, or until the dough reaches the top of the tin.
Preheat the oven as high as it will go. Place a baking tray at the bottom of the oven; you will use this as a steam tray once the loaf is in the oven. Place the loaf on the middle rack and pour a good splash of boiling water into the baking tray at the bottom to create some steam. Bake for 20 minutes, then drop the temperature to 200°C and continue baking for a further 25 minutes, or until the top is dark and caramelised. Avoid opening the oven door early.
When it’s ready, carefully turn the dough out of the tin and leave to cool.
Toast to your desired level of crispness and serve with Mainland Buttersoft spreadable butter.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Mainland Buttersoft.
