Into a well in the flourbeaten eggs and sugar added to make a “sponge”. 
Top of the sponge covered with flour. Now leave to work
Sponge has broken through after about 40 mins
Now add two more egg yolks, grated rindbof a lemon and vanilla essence
Beat together slowly to make a very sticky dough.
Kneaded for ten minutes till a satiny silky dough. Sometimes you think it will never get thete, but it does. Set to rise.
The dough has risen. Now comes the fun bit. This butter has to go into it,squeezed in by hand until there are no streaks.
Just have to get messy
The butter is squeezed in, no streaks, dough set to rise again
The next bit is getting in the chopped candied peel and sultanas. Keeping them sufficiently separate is a bit tricky.
Now it goes into the tin for its final rise. You can buy a tin of course or you can improvise. A stainless steel pan with a foil collar would do. I’m using this. An old kettle
Well buttered baking paper. Drop it in and cut a cross in the top with a very sharp knife. Leave to rise.
Now it has risen, put a knob of butter ( yes more but it’s only once a year 😬) in the middle of the cross and into the oven at 180 for ten minutes
After ten mins, when it has just started to colour, you take it out an brush the top with ... you’ve guessed. A little melted butter. Return to the oven, turn down to 270 and bake 30 mins. Use the skewer test for doneness
Cool for 15 mins. Unmould carefully and rest on its side on a rack
It worked😁. Good job I did 30 mins vigorous exercise while it was rising.
Hope you enjoyed that. The recipe is Linda Collister's from her book, "The Bread Book". Sadly now out of print. If you're interested in baking bread, and you can find a copy, buy it. Or anything by Dan Lepard.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
