Try Something New...: Date & Walnut Loaf

Ok....I'm here to show you my Date & Walnut Loaf I was talking about previously.

As I said, I stupidly forgot to put the yeast in the breadmaker first time around when making this dough. So I put the whole lot back into the breadmaker ALONG with the yeast this time, and voila! It turned out fine in the end!
Don't we all just love happy endings.
Well, the only thing that was noticibly different, was that the dates had been safely mashed up into the dough....so the dough ended up being on the tanned side.

Here's how to make it (without the mistakes)

Date & Walnut Loaf with Cinnamon Swirl
This Bread turned out really soft and light. I couldn't slicing the bread as soon as it was out the oven. Delicious spread with butter. Mmmmm!

Ingredients:
125ml/ 1/2 cup semi-skimmed or whole milk
125ml/ 1/2 cup water
1 large egg yolk
3 tbsp melted butter
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
450g/16oz/ 3 cups strong white bread flour
1/4 tsp instant or fast-acting yeast

Additional ingredients for Date & Walnut:
2 tsp ground mixed spice or allspice
50g/2 oz/ 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
75g/ 3oz/ 5/8 cup chopped dates.

Cinnamon Swirl:
2 tbsp Butter (softened)
2 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Cinnamon

If your lucky enough to have a breadmaker like I am, then you can follow along like so:

First add the Water, Milk, Butter, Sugar, Salt and Egg Yolk. (If making Date and Walnut, add the Mixed Spice or Allspice now.)
Next, Add your flour, and then your Yeast. (Yes, remember the yeast!!)
Set Breadmaker Program to either to Basic White Program if you intend to bake in the breadmaker.
Follow your breadmakers instructions as to when to add the additional dates and walnuts.
Usually it will beep.The leave the breadmaker to do its job and rise and finally bake your bread.

Or, if your like me, you can set it to the 'Dough' setting, which simply does the mixing and rising for you, yet allows you to remove the dough before baking so you can shape it and cook it in a conventional oven the way you like. If you are going for this method, continue the rest of the steps below.

Remove the bucket from the machine.
(Now turn on your oven so it warms up for a few minutes during the next steps)

Remove dough from bucket onto a floured surface. Knead very gently twice or thrice.

Pat the dough flat down so it becomes a long rectangle. (Add more flour to work surface if necessary to prevent sticking)

Spread the butter over the dough, then sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon evenly over butter. Roll up and squish the dough if necessary to fit bread tin.

Flour or lightly grease bread tin before placing the dough inside.

Now, TURN OFF the oven. (The oven should be a nice warm temperature for the dough to rise quickly.)

Cover Dough with greased Clingfilm then place in warm oven to rise for 30 min.