How to make Dried Fruit & Pine Nut Tea Bread

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1. Put the flour, yeast, salt and 25g (1oz) sugar in a large bowl and mix together. Stir in the olive oil and the luke warm water; mix together adding more luke warm water if needed to form a soft but not sticky dough.
2. Turn out the dough onto a well floured surface and knead for approximately 10 minutes until the dough is quite smooth. Add the cherries and raisins and knead for a further 2-3 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, place in a bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour until risen.
3. Meanwhile, put the pine nuts, remaining Billington’s golden caster sugar and cinnamon into a food processor and whiz to crumbs. After an hour, remove the dough from the bowl and knead again for 2-3 minutes to knock out the air bubbles and roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to a 25cm (10in) round.
4. Spread the pine nut mixture on top of the dough and press down well. Roll up the dough to given a long oval shape, enclosing the filling. Put onto a lightly greased baking sheet, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes
5. Preheat the oven to 220°C, fan 200°C, gas 7. Put in the oven then immediately reduce the oven temperature to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the bread is dark brown and sounds hollow when the base is tapped. Allow to cool on a rack then cut into slices. Delicious with butter.

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