Leftover Mincemeat?........ Fast, Festive Fruit Bread

Christmas at home is all about tradition, from the baking of our cake, the choosing of the perfect pyramid shaped tree, to the duck spring roll and mini pizza canapes, washed down with Kir Royal's as we open our gifts. Now I'm all for tradition, but sometimes tradition can go just a bit too far for my liking!

Christmas traditionalist cooks would maintain that one must make ones own mincemeat, well that's all very well Delia, but between you and me, I can't be bothered with all the faffing about sorting through fruits and cutting up apples, bottling it up and patiently waiting for it to mature which usually takes to the following Christmas! especially as I go through gallons of the stuff in the run up to the big day.
So why not buy it? There are so many excellent mincemeat's on the market, does one really want the bother of making ones own anymore? I think not! The only issue you might have with shop bought mincemeat is that you might find yourself left with some at the bottom of the jar and this festive offering gets rid of those last couple of tablespoons nicely.

If you are a fan of the Irish traditional Halloween barmbrack, then you are gonna love this! Don't be disappointed though when you cant find the ring or a coin, because there won't be any in it...it's not a christmas cracker!



So for this Fast Festive Fruit Bread you will need.....

450 g strong white bread flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 7g sachet of fast acting dried yeast
100 g butter plus a little extra for your tin
at least 3 heaped tablespoons of mince meat, 5 if you have it
100 g glace cherries cut in halves or quarters (if you like extra cherries like me but not essential)
approx 200mls hand hot water

How to.......

• butter your baking tin really well
• sieve the flour, salt and mixed spice into your mixing bowl
• add the butter in small pieces, and rub into the flour
• scatter in the yeast and mix well
• using the dough hook on your mixer, add the mincemeat and slowly mix until it is well divided in the flour
• slowly continue mixing while adding the water until it comes together as a very slack dough....the dough will be quite moist but don't worry, we won't be kneading it.
• scrape down your bowl and transfer the dough to your baking tin
• cover with cling film or another upturned bowl and leave to rise for an hour or so
• when it has double in size, bake in a pre-heated oven 180oC until nicely browned and gives a hollow sound when tapped
• turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool fully before slicing....if you can contain yourself that is!

The flavour of this bread is delicious, you can eat it for breakfast or tea, sliced with butter or a slather of lemon curd or raspberry jam on top, but what I love to do is toast it, spread on a little butter and scatter of cinnamon sugar, divine!

Using fast acting yeast means you only need to give this bread one rise, none of that knocking back required.

You can of course bake this in a standard loaf tin, but just for fun I decided to bake it in a brioche tin. Festive fun or what!