Hot Cross Loaf

Grease a 900g loaf tin with butter, then line with baking paper. Lightly flour your work surface. Combine the flours, sugar, mixed spice and orange zest in a large mixing bowl, then add a generous pinch of salt and stir together. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the bowl, using your fingertips to rub it in until the mixture starts to look like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the dried yeast. Next, measure the milk into a measuring jug, then add the egg and beat it into the milk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients mixing bowl, then slowly pour in the egg and milk mixture, mixing with your hands until everything comes together.

Tip the dough on to the floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes by hand (or 10 minutes in a stand mixer) until smooth. Grease the inside of a clean bowl with a little butter, then add the dough, cover with a clean tea towel or some clingfilm and leave in a warm, dry place for about an hour, or until doubled in size. Next, tip the dough on to the floured work surface and gently press it flat. Scatter over the dried fruit and knead into the dough to mix. Cut the dough into six equal pieces, then shape the pieces into balls; place them in the prepared loaf tin and cover loosely with clingfilm, then return them to the warm, dry place for another hour, or until doubled in size.

When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6). For the crosses, sieve the plain flour into a small bowl and stir in just enough cold water to make a smooth, thick, pipeable mixture. Scrape this into a piping bag and pipe a cross on to each round of dough (if you don’t have a piping bag you can use a food bag and snip off one of the bottom corners, or just drizzle the crosses on with a spoon). Put the loaf in the hot oven and bake for about 35 minutes, or until golden on top. Remove from the oven and turn the loaf carefully out of the tin, then leave to cool on a wire rack. It will keep for about two days, or can be sliced and frozen.