How to get dried fruit evenly distributed?

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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I've recently made two versions of Bara Brith (a yeasted fruit bread/tea loaf). Most recipes for yeasted fruit bread suggest adding the dried fruit after the first rising, which is what I did. This is really not very easy and I'm not happy with the result.

Does anyone (@medtran49?) know how to do this? I've tried generally 'kneading it in' and on the second occasion, rolling out the dough, enveloping the fruit then rolling it out again and folding over.

Here are the results:

First version - not too bad but this was a carefully chosen photo of the most fruity section! Its still rather devoid of fruit in the middle of the slices.

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Second version (using rolling, folding) - worse result I think:

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I just looked back at the ED recipe I gave you @morning glory and she said:

Work the fruit mixture into the dough, using your hands. As always with fruit bread, try to ensure that the fruit and sugar are well and evenly distributed.

I had the same problem making a raisin bread - not only is it hard work but the even distribution of the fruit etc is very difficult to achieve.

So I second the cry for help/advice/tips ….
 
Wandering Bob said:
I just looked back at the ED recipe I gave you @morning glory and she said:

Work the fruit mixture into the dough, using your hands. As always with fruit bread, try to ensure that the fruit and sugar are well and evenly distributed.

I had the same problem making a raisin bread - not only is it hard work but the even distribution of the fruit etc is very difficult to achieve.

So I second the cry for help/advice/tips ….
Click to expand...


'Using your hands' is really rather vague, that's the problem. With fruit cakes you add the fruit into the mix, flouring a bit to ensure the fruit sticks and doesn't sink to the bottom of the dough. With yeasted dough, I suppose the fruit is added later as it might interfere with rising?

Must look up my Hot Cross bun recipe...
 
I've never made a yeasted bread with fruit. I can't imagine why you wouldn't add it in at the beginning. I know adding garlic before the second rise as it supposedly retards yeast action, but dried fruit?

You wrote previously that you don't use the flattening and folding to form loaves. Maybe you are supposed to scatter the fruit over the flattened dough and fold to form the loaf sort of like you do cinnamon rolls?
 
medtran49 said:
I can't imagine why you wouldn't add it in at the beginning
Click to expand...

I haven't yet found a recipe where this is suggested - but that's no reason not to try, I guess. Having been frustrated with my attempt to make raisin bread when adding the fruit after the first proving, I tried adding it at the beginning. What happened @medtran49 is that the dough is so much harder to work. Maybe a top-class baker like @morning glory could get a decent malleable dough with the fruit, but I'm not sure I could.

I don't think @morning glory is using quite enough fruit to make an authentic bara brith (but both of her attempts look fantastic). If she did add more fruit, then I think the dough would become really unworkable (if fruit was added at the beginning) or badly distributed (if fruit was added after the first proving).

All of which may go a long way towards explaining why most bara briths are made with self-raising flour. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try something different though. Let's keep on pushing the baking boundaries. If @morning glory can get this to where she's happy, then I'd like to take it one stage further by incorporating a small amount of buckwheat flour to the mix - I'm totally sold on the flavour of the bread I make with 8% sarrasin, I love it with caraway too - and I don't think anyone else has ever tried that combination. Adding sarrasin could make an extraordinary 'rustic bara brith' - I may be wrong, it might be awful - but we'd be the first on the planet to try it. Onwards and upwards...
 
medtran49 said:
You wrote previously that you don't use the flattening and folding to form loaves. Maybe you are supposed to scatter the fruit over the flattened dough and fold to form the loaf sort of like you do cinnamon rolls?
Click to expand...

Thank you for replying. I did use the flattening and folding technique for the second loaf but it was still not very successful. I agree - I don't understand why the fruit can't be added at the start. I thought maybe the 'weight' of the fruit somehow might retard the rising. Or maybe adding the fruit at the first stage means you can't knead it properly to stretch the gluten? Anyway - I think next time I'll try adding the fruit at the beginning and see what happens.
 
Wandering Bob said:
I don't think @morning glory is using quite enough fruit to make an authentic bara brith (
Click to expand...

I almost doubled the amount of fruit in the second attempt - 200g of fruit to 250g of flour. But I think the fruit clumped together rather than getting distributed.

Wandering Bob said:
All of which may go a long way towards explaining why most bara briths are made with self-raising flour.
Click to expand...

I thought they used to be made as a yeasted bread originally. Making it as a cake mix will get a very different result, I think - it will become a fruit cake rather than a bread.

I'm sure a little buckwheat would work very well, by the way.
 
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