Currant - Raisin Loaf

Ingredients:

1. 1 oz fresh yeast
2. 2 Tablespoons flour
3. 2 Tablespoons sugar
4. 4 Tablespoons lukewarm water
5. 2 Tablespoons butter
6. 1 ½ teaspoons salt
7. ¼ cup boiling water
8. ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
9. 1 ½ cups lukewarm water
10. 2 egg yolks beaten
11. Egg white and ½ teaspoon milk (non-sweetened) for brushing top of loaves
12. 7 cups sifted flour
13. 1 ½ to 2 cups mixed fruits (currants, raisins, sultanas, mixed peel, glace fruit)

Method:

Prepare yeast with ingredients 1-4. Put all the ingredients in a small basin and mix till smooth. Leave in a warm place to rise (the plate rack of a gas stove is a good place).

Put in a large enamel saucepan the condensed milk, butter, salt & boiling water. Stir well.  Then add the lukewarm water. Stir in the beaten egg yolks.

Put into large porcelain bowl 6 cups of flour, make a well in the center, pour in all the yeast preparation and the milk preparation a little at a time, mixing the flour gradually into the liquid. When all the liquid has been used up and the mixture is smooth, place on floured board and knead, adding as much flour as is necessary to make a soft elastic dough. (At this stage dough should not stick to fingers).

Return dough to bowl, pressing it down with fingers on which a little butter has been rubbed. Cover bowl with a clean cloth and leave it in a warm place to rise until mixture has doubled its bulk.

Turn dough on to floured board again and knead, mixing in the fruit. Then cut into three equal parts, putting each into a greased tin and patting it down so that dough has an even surface and reaches half way up.

Return this to warm place to allow dough to rise again until mixture has doubled its bulk.

Brush tops of loaves with white of egg beaten slightly with a few drops of milk. Bake in hot oven for 40 minutes.

When loaves are done, turn them onto a cooling tray.
(size of loaf tins 7” x 3” x 3”)