Whenever my niece is home for the holidays, I try to get some quality time in by scheduling a sleep over with her.  This usually consists of pizza, movies, playing games, colouring in and in the morning, a special breakfast.

I saw this recipe in this month’s delicious magazine, and knew it was going to be perfect for this weekend treat – as regular readers will know, I try to steer clear of gluten and especially bread…mostly because I love it so much!  And as you can see from the picture above…what’s not to love?

Given that i’ve been baking pretty well constantly since I had to stand on a chair to reach the kitchen table, it’s somewhat baffling that my experience with bread making is practically nil.  I think I thought if I ever started, i’d never stop…and after baking this little beauty, you can believe my interest has been well and truly piqued.

Super easy to make, this Twisted ANZAC Loaf has a lovely brioche-like texture…I don’t know whether this was sheer luck on my part, or the flour I used – fine Italian “OO” flour, which is apparently the same as strong flour, or bread and pizza flour.  Anyway – i’d highly recommend getting this type rather than just resorting to your standard shelf variety, because the texture was just magnificent.

As for the gluten free variety…please stay tuned!

Twisted ANZAC Bread

Adapted ever so slightly from delicious magazine, April 2016

Ingredients

• 3 tsp dried yeast
• 3/4 cup (185ml) milk, warmed
• 1 1/2 tbs caster sugar
• 3 cups (450g) bread & pizza flour (strong or “OO” flour)
• 2 egg yolks
• 150g unsalted butter, melted & cooled
• Finely grated zest of an orange
• 100g macadamias, toasted, chopped
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup instant oats
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (90g) golden syrup, plus extra to drizzle

Method

1. Place yeast, milk and 1 tsp caster sugar in a bowl and whisk with a fork to combine.  Set aside for 5 mins or until frothy.
2. Place the flour, yolks, yeast mixture, 125g melted butter, 1 tsp salt and remaining sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Knead on medium low speed for 10 minutes, or until smooth (alternatively, knewad by hand on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic).
3. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and set aside for 1-1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.
4. Go back to bed for a cup of tea and a snooze… 😉
5. Preheat the oven to 180C.  Combine orange zest and remaining 25g melted butter in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine macadamias, oats, mixed spice and cinnamon.
6. Lightly flour a large pice of baking paper and place on a work surface.  Knock back dough and roll out on the floured paper to a 25cm x 45cm rectangle.
7. Brush butter mixture over the dough, leaving a 1cm border.  Scatter over 3/4 of the macadamia mixture, and then drizzle with the golden syrup.
8. Working from the long edge, roll the dough into a log, pressing down to seal.  Cut dough lenghtwise to create two logs with a large exposed edge.
9. Turn the halves cut-side out to expose the macadamia mixture, then twist the two logs together and pinch ends to seal.
10. Using the baking paper, transfer the loaf to a baking sheet.  Scatter with remaining macadamia mixture.  Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven to 170C and bake for a further 35-40 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly.
11. Serve bread in slices, and drizzled with extra golden syrup.

Notes

• I used the second lowest setting on my Kitchen Aid to knead the dough, and even though it seemed very slow, it worked perfectly.
• About the instruction to roll out the dough on the baking paper…if you can figure out a way to stop that paper sliding all over your work surface as you attempt to roll out the dough, please let me know because it defeated me.  I tried putting it onto a cutting board, a tea towel, and a regular kitchen counter (my work surface is stainless steel) and all I ended up doing was chasing that lump of dough around the kitchen.  Eventually I gave up and rolled it out on the work surface the traditional way, and just transferred it to the baking tray (lined with paper) after twisting the two halves together (but before sprinkling with the remaining macadamia mix).
• I didn’t have any golden syrup, so I used a combination of honey and date molasses..this is why it looks so dark in the pic above.  It was a very tasty substitute!
• Because my oven is so crap, it took me much longer to cook (nearly an hour), and I actually sliced the whole thing down the middle and separated it, to cook for the last 10 minutes.  I was paranoid about it being doughy, but I needn’t have been – the texture was just right all the way through.