Viennese striesel

Viennese striesel

For the dough

• 7g package active dry yeast
• 60ml cup very warm water
• 120ml cup milk
• 60g sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 30g melted butter
• 360g – 420g strong bread flour
• A tiny pinch each ground cinammon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice
• 1 egg
• 50g seedless raisins
• 50g glacé cherries, chopped
• 2 tbsps candied mixed peel, chopped (e.g. lemon, orange, pineapple…)

For the glaze

• 60g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• handful flaked almonds or chopped walnuts for sprinkling

Warm the water to body temperature and dissolve the yeast in it. In a separate bowl, heat the milk and butter together until melted and combined.

Put the milk and butter in a large mixing bowl (big enough to create the dough in) and add the sugar, salt, spices and about a third of the flour. Mix to combine, then add the yeasty water and mix again. Briefly beat the egg and mix that in too. Now add as much flour as is needed and knead to make a satiny, smooth dough. (I used the 360g minimum straightaway, gave it a good knead for 10 minutes, and left the remaining 80g to sprinkle over when things got a bit sticky.)

When the dough is nicely developed, smooth and not sticky, flatten it out on the worksurface and sprinkle the fruit and peel on top. Knead this fruit in – it may fall out at first, and you may need a little extra of that flour to absorb any stickyness from the peel and cherries. Knead until well dispersed and smooth again.

Shape into a ball, place in lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, about 2 1/4 hours.

When well risen, knock the dough back and divide into 9 pieces (see note below), shape each into a ball and let them recover from the shock, covered loosely with a sheet of clingfilm on the worksurface, for 5 minutes.

Prepare a baking tray lined with parchment. Roll out four of the balls into ropes about 15 inches long, lay them out on the baking tray and plait them (see note below) into a wide, fat base to support the rest of the dough. Now roll out three more dough balls into ropes the same length, plait them, and lay this narrower plait on top of the base. Roll out the remaining two balls, twist them into a rope and position this final layer on top.

Leave to prove again until noticeably bigger and puffier, about 1 1/2 hours. Bake at 175˚C for 45 minutes, covering with foil if it browns too quickly. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

For the glaze, mix the icing sugar and milk together, drizzle over the loaf and sprinkle over the nuts.

Notes

• I learnt to plait with four strands here – what I forgot to do was to hollow out the base so that the triple plait and twisted double plait lie in neat tiers over it. Mine threatened to topple over and was decidedly lopsided after the final proving and baking – all that yeasty swelling magnifies any unevenness so I’d try to be a bit neater next time.
• I actually weighed out my nine portions of dough so that they were even. What would be even cleverer would be to use bigger portions for the base, a medium size for the middle and smaller still for the twist on top. This would require a bit of maths at a rather tense stage though, and I’m not sure I’m up to that when I have flour in my eyebrows and glacé cherries between my toes.