When the wonderful Michael Olivier from Crush! Online magazine asked me to do a feature for their March issue I agreed without hesitation. I love Crush! and am so honoured to be one of their contributors. I decided to do a Easter baking feature as I just love having lots of yummy things to eat when guests visit over Easter weekend (6-9 April, 2012).

This bread is just delicious and really easy to make. I use my Kenwood K-Mix to knead the dough which makes it even easier. It’s a delicious bread to serve as part of a breakfast buffet with fresh fruits, yoghurt and home-made granola as it’s sweet and filled with lovely raisins and ground almonds.

I’ll be posting a few recipes over the next week to inspire you to make the most of Easter and some of the recipes you can look forward to are Chocolate Easter nest cupcakes, Coconut cupcakes, Pumpkin & Carrot cake and Chocolate-Amarula Crepe cake.

Makes 1 loaf

250ml (8.45 fluid ounces) milk
10g (0.35 ounces) sachet dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
50g (1.76 ounces) butter, room temperature
500g (17.64 ounces) bread flour
100g (3.53 ounces) raisins
almond mixture
175g (6.17 ounces) caster sugar
100g (3.53 ounces) ground almonds
2 egg yolks
10ml (0.34 fluid ounces) lemon juice
zest of one lemon

1. Warm milk and pour into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast and the 1 tbsp sugar.
2. Add the eggs and butter and mix well.
3. Add the flour and raisins and mix well. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
4. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel. Allow to rise for 1 hour.
5. In the meanwhile, make the almond mixture.
6. In a food processor, combine the ground almonds, caster sugar, egg yolks, lemon juice and zest and pulse until a thick paste forms. Wrap in a sausage shape in cling wrap and refrigerate until firm.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 180°c and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
8. On a floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle and place the chilled ground almond mixture in the middle.
9. Fold the dough over and pinch the sides together.
10. Place the dough onto the baking sheet and place into the oven.
11. Bake for 1 hour until the bread is golden brown and it sounds hollow when tapped.
12. Allow to cool before serving.

Related Posts :

Potato, Pecorino & Rosemary bread

Amarula Chocolate Crepe Cake for Easter

Coconut Cupcakes and Chocolate nest cupcakes ...

Baking my own bread...finally

Tags: Bread, Dutch, Dutch Easter Bread, Dutch Paasbrood, Easter, Easter baking, Easter bread, Easter dates, fruit bread, Fruit loaf