This is a case of necessity being the mother of invention .

I had a problem , especially a winter one , in that I wanted to put something with a bit of a wow factor on the breakfast table , particularly in those months when the summer apricots and peaches had departed.

I had made classic French Brioche from time to time but it is impossibly calorific, pumped full of butter and eggs and, even though delicious , difficult to get consistently right .
There is a much lighter brioche in Provence called Pompe á l’Huile which is extremely good but not really breakfast food .

Sile suggested that my mothers Fruity Bread , basically a scone mix with currants added would be a good idea but somehow this seemed a bit too Irish- and anyway (I know this is heresy in an Irishman ) I much prefer breads risen with yeast than those using bicarbonate of soda (or its first cousin baking powder).

So I decided to try a variation of my Mother’s Fruity loaf but base it on a yeast dough – and further more I decided to use far more fruit than she did.

There was a tradition in Ireland that fruit bread and scones had very little fruit indeed, this I remember particularly on any of my (very rare) visits to a convent where the nuns would triumphantly produce their version of the height of decadence ; the Fruit Loaf, which was so careful with the fruit that we used to call it Bicycle Cake on the basis that if you were lucky enough to find one raisin you would then need a bike to find the next one.

But I digress.

With the intention of making this bread as easy to make as possible I decided to make a sort of Fruit Fougasse , the Provençal Fougasse is an Olive Oil flatbread with (often) Olives and Anchovies in the dough which is yeast leavened but not kneaded and so extremely easy to make.
This was not a success , the quantity of fruit I added was too heavy for the yeast to work properly and the resulting flat bread was I think more closely related to Nougat than bread , not the stuff from which memorable breakfasts are made.

Attempt the second was far more successful , I used much the same ingredients as I had for the Fougasse but this time kept the fruit to one side, let the bread have an initial rising fruitless, then I kneaded in the fruit, gave it a second chance to rise and hit, I think, Ambrosia.

This is a hell of a bread, sweet, light, and interesting. The oil keeps it very moist without being at all fatty and the dough (for those of you old enough) is a fairly good imitation of the stuff in Bewley’s Cherry Buns- Great Stuff.

Here is the final recipe.

Pain Fruité

50g Fresh Yeast (or two sachets of dried yeast)
4 teaspoons sugar
250ml Warm Water
4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Salt
Grated Zest of 1 Orange
675g Strong Flour
50g Prunes (stoned and quartered)
50g Dates (stoned and quartered)
50g Dried Apricots (stoned and quartered)
50g Sultanas

Dissolve the yeast into some measured water and add in the sugar.
Put this somewhere warm and when completely liquid, top up to the desired amount of water with more warm water.
Add in the Olive oil , and beat in the eggs.

Grate the orange zest into the flour and add in the salt.
Now add in the yeast mixture and then blend well together with your hand.
Tip it out on a floured top and knead for five minutes.

Wash out the mixing bowl and then put the kneaded dough in this, painted well with Olive oil to stop it forming a skin and cover the bowl with cling film.
Leave this in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
Add in add the chopped fruit and knead these into the dough.
Divide this dough between two well oiled 1 Kg loaf tins, cover with a tea towel and again leave to rise for another hour or so.
Set the oven to 190 C , 375 F, Gas 5 and cook at this temperature for about 40 mts.
Slip the loaf out of the tin and cook for another 10 mts at the same temperature.

Have this for breakfast (or dinner or tea ) with or without butter.
It will freeze beautifully and toast well (but watch the pieces of fruit which can char in the toaster.)