hes.

Spiced Plum & Marzipan Braid Servings: 1 loaf

Dough:
50g (scant 1/4 cup) unsalted butter
130ml (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp) full fat milk
300g (2 + 1/2 cups) strong white bread flour
7g (2 tsp) fast action yeast
1/2 tsp salt
50g (1/4 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Filling:
about 300g (10.5 oz) plums
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
3 cloves
2 allspice berries
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
200g (7 oz) marzipan
1 egg, beaten, to glaze
demerara or pearl sugar for sprinkling
To make the dough, gently heat the butter and milk together in a small pan until the
butter is just melted, set aside to cool until lukewarm. Place the bread flour in a
large bowl, add the yeast to one side and the salt and sugar to the other. Crack in
the egg and add the cooled milk mixture and vanilla extract, mix it all together until
it forms a shaggy dough then turn out onto an un-floured surface and knead for 510 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough will be sticky at first but resist the
temptation to add extra flour, it will become smooth after a minute or two of
kneading (you may need to scrape it off the surface with a dough scraper). Of
course you can knead it in a stand mixer if you have one.
Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover, and set aside to rise in a warm
place until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours. Once risen, you can place the dough in
the fridge overnight and continue the bake in the morning if you wish.
While the dough is rising make the compote. Chop the plums into quarters if they
are small, or eights if they are large, remove the stones and place the chopped
plums in a small pan with the spices, a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of water.
Bring up to a simmer and cook until the plums have broken down into a puree. Mix
the cornflour with about a teaspoon of cold water, add to the plum mixture and cook
for another minute or so until thickened. Remove from the heat, taste, add another
tablespoon of sugar if needed and set aside until cool. The compote can be made
the day before baking and stored in the fridge.

If you refrigerated the dough overnight, take it out of the fridge and leave it for
about half an hour to come up to room temperature. Roll the dough out on a lightly
floured surface into an approximately 1015 inch rectangle. Transfer the rectangle
onto a piece of baking parchment and place on a baking tray. Roll the marzipan out
into a sausage then flatten it, it should measure about 122.5 inches, place the
marzipan along the centre of the rectangle of dough, there should be about an extra
1.5 inches of dough at either end.
Spread the cooled plum compote (remove the spices first) on top of the marzipan,
you may not need to use all of it. Cut the dough surrounding the filling into diagonal
strips about 1 1/2 inches wide making sure to leave a border of uncut dough around
the filling, there should be the same number of strips on either side. Fold both ends
up, then cross the cut strips of dough over the filling, alternating sides so that it
looks like its been braided.

Loosely cover the dough with cling film and leave it to rise in a warm place until it is
puffy and springs back slowly when you press it gently with a finger about 30-45
minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. When the dough is
ready to bake, gently brush it all over with beaten egg and sprinkle with demerara
sugar.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden and cooked through, cover with tin foil after 15
minutes or so to stop it from turning too dark. Gently slide the baked loaf on to a
wire rack (it is delicate when warm) and leave to cool before slicing.