Spelt advent bread

Ingredients

The ingredients will suffice
for a 17 cm long bread form:

Bread starter:
30 g Nominal wholegrain spelt flour
105 ml warm water
12 g fresh yeast
some sugar (ca. 1 mocha spoon)

Dough:
100 g Nominal wholegrain spelt flour
10 g whole flaxseeds
10 g milled flaxseeds
1.7 g salt
ca. 7 g black treacle
10 g cooking oil
bread starter

35 g hazelnuts
35 g almonds
30 g sunflower seeds

Fruit part:
35 g figs
35 g prunes
35 g dried apricots
65 g raisins
35 g dried cranberries
1 TBSP candied orange peel
2 TBSP rum
1 g ground anise
1 g ground cinnamon
1 g "gingerbread spice"

How to prepare

Many of you have surely visited the German or Austrian advent markets and bought the advent bread. It is a tempting piece of pastry made from bread dough. It is neither completely sweet nor savoury but surely delicious. You can use this recipe to prepare it at home using wholegrain flour.

Prepare the fruit part a couple of hours in advance. Chop the figs, prunes and apricots into smaller pieces mixing them with the washed raisins, cranberries and candied orange peel. Add the rum and ground spices. Mix it all together, cover and let mature.

The preparation itself will begin with the bread starter. Use the ingredients above mixing them all together, and let them rise in a warm, protected place.

In the meantime, prepare the remaining flour, both the whole and milled flaxseeds and salt mixing them all together. Add the black treacle and oil and finish with adding the risen bread starter.

Knead the dough and let it mature in a warm, protected place for about 15-20 minutes. Add the prepared fruit part, nuts and seeds. Mix them into the dough and let it stand for 5 more minutes. Then place the dough into a properly greased form (or covered with baking paper - better option), smoothen the surface and let it rise. Smear with the whipped egg before placing into an oven, and you can decorate it for example with blanched almonds.

Bake in a preheated oven at 170 °C for about 35 minutes. Only slice the bread when properly cooled off.