Pane Di Pasqua

Ingredients

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk.
2. Put the flour, sugar, butter, olive oil, salt and extract in the bowl, and make a well in the middle.
3. Pour in the milk and yeast and mix together a little, then add in one egg. When the ingredients have come together, tip out onto a clean work surface to begin kneading.
4. After about 2-3 minutes the dough will start to come together and keep its shape, picking up all the stickier bits of dough left on your work surface.
5. Knead for 5-6 minutes, the dough will be smooth and still a little tacky.
6. Lightly oil the bowl, and place the dough inside. Cover with a linen tea towel or some cling film and leave to rest for 30 mins. This dough will not rise much.
7. While the dough is resting, prepare the cake tin by brushing on melted butter and tipping a little flour into the tin and swirling round
8. After the dough is rested, knead in the fruit, making sure it is spread out evenly throughout the dough
9. Divide the dough into three and roll each out into a long strand. The easiest way to ensure your strands are long enough to plait is to make sure they fit round the outside of your cake tin and the ends just meet.
10. Make a simple three strand plait. Pick up your plait gently and lay around the edge of the tin.
11. Gently tease open a section of the plait a little and place one of the eggs into this gap. Be careful as at this stage the eggs are still raw. Repeat with the remaining two eggs, spacing them equally apart.
12. Cover the tin and leave for 30 minutes in a warm spot
13. In the meantime, turn your oven on to 200°C fan / 220°C conventional / 425°F
14. After 30 minutes (again, the bread will not have risen much) place in the oven
15. Whisk up the additional egg briefly and use it to brush the tops of the bread plait - but do not paint the eggs.
16. Bake for 10 minutes and turn the oven down to 180°C fan / 200°C conventional / 400° F
17. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes more until it's a lovely golden brown. If the bread looks like it's browning too quickly, you can cover the top with foil.