Fruit bread help please!
I've made several attempts to make fruit bread and have yet to achieve results which I find satisfying. I'd appreciate some ideas please.
I've made the dough by hand and in a bread machine, in both cases the bread came out to "dry". But I don't think the solution is just to add more water! Perhaps I'd better explain what I'm aiming for and what I mean by "dry".
In Holland when I buy fruit bread it's soft, if you press it with your finger it stays pressed. When I was (much, much) younger I used to be a bread delivery boy, the bakery made dough cake (note: it was not a cake consistency) which was also pretty close to what I'm trying to achieve. The bread I've made so far is bread, it's a normal (and delicious) bread with fruit in it. In that sense it's been a success, but I'm looking for the "magic ingredient" or "magic technique" which will give a moist, soft consistency.
The recipe I've used is pretty straightforward: bread flour, egg, milk powder, salt, sugar, and water - in fact exactly what you'd expect if you were making bread! So what am I missing?
Keith