There really is nothing more welcoming than the scent of a sweet loaf freshly baked from the oven – it’s a sort of “I love you” in a smell. With this (relatively) speedy version of a brioche type loaf, you can achieve that in a fraction of the time you would wait for a traditional brioche dough to prove and rest. This one is laced with a raspberry filling and topped with white chocolate, but you could do endless variations – swap out the raspberry for blueberry, strawberry or blackberry, or for a darker twist spike it with a chocolate, coffee or nut butter filling. (Note that the wetness of the filling you choose will slightly affect the baking time – wetter fillings such as this raspberry one will increase baking time while a drier filling will need less).
Ingredients
for the dough
Whole milk, lukewarm, 70ml
Water, lukewarm, 50ml
Salt, 1/2 teaspoon
Caster sugar, 50g
Dried activated yeast, 1 packet (2.5 teaspoons)
Plain flour, 350g plus extra for kneading
Unsalted butter, melted, 50g
Eggs, 2, beaten
Vanilla extract, 2 teaspoons
for the filling
Fresh raspberries, 200g
Caster sugar, 30g
Rind of 1/2 lemon
Unsalted butter, 20g
Icicng sugar, 2 tablespoons
for the topping
White chocolate, 150g
Icing sugar, 1 tablespoon
Butter, 2 teaspoons
Method
In a jug, mix the milk, water, salt, one teaspoon of the sugar and the yeast. Set aside for 20 minutes or until it is frothy on top.
In a large bowl, mix the flour and the rest of the sugar. When the yeast mix is ready, add in the eggs, vanilla and melted butter and combine. Gradually add this into the flour to form a dough – it will be fairly sticky at this point.
Flour well a surface and tip out the dough. Knead for around 5 minutes until it becomes smooth and pliable. Place into a clean bowl and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place for about 45 minutes until it has roughly doubled in size.
While it is proving, make the filling. Place all ingredients into a pan and gently heat until the raspberries are broken down a little. Simmer for 5 minutes then let sit in the pan.
When the dough is risen, knock it back to get the air out. Turn it out onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangle about 40cm x 30cm. Spread over the filling, leaving a gap around the edges. Now roll up the dough into a sausage (width-ways). Cut lengthways through the sausage to expose the rolled layers of dough. Lay one piece into the prepared loaf tin, then lay the other on top and twist them around once, then seal the edges by pressing them down and squashing them together. Leave the twisted dough for another 30 minutes. While waiting, pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
Place the loaf in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped and no dough sticks to a skewer when inserted through the middle.
Let cool on a rack.
For the topping, melt the chocolate and butter together then mix in the icing sugar. Pour liberally over the top of the cooled loaf. Top with extra raspberry filling, fresh or freeze dried raspberries.
