Apricot & Marzipan Twist

Paul Hollywood's almond and apricot 'couronne' is crammed with fruit and nuts and is a great alternative to stollen

• Cooking Time Cook 30 mins
• Skill Level Moderately easy
• Servings Serves 12

Nutrition per serving

• Kcalories

  418

• Protein

  6g

• Carbs

  64g

• Fat

  17g

• Saturates

  7g

• Fibre

  2g

• Sugar

  46g

• Salt

  0.49g

Ingredients

• For the dough
• 250g strong white bread flour
• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 150ml whole milk
• 10g fast-action dried yeast
• 1 large egg, beaten
• For the filling
• 120g dried apricots, chopped
• 150ml orange juice
• 90g unsalted butter
• 70g light muscovado sugar
• 35g plain flour
• 60g raisins
• 65g chopped walnuts
• grated zest 1 orange
• 200g marzipan
• To finish
• 50g apricot jam
• 200g icing sugar, mixed with enough water to make a runny icing

Directions

1. The night before, put apricots and orange juice in a bowl and set aside.
2. To make the dough, put flour, 1 tsp salt, butter, milk, yeast and egg in a bowl, and mix together to form a dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 6 mins.
3. Transfer dough to a mixing bowl. Cover, then set aside to rise in a warm place for 1 hr.
4. Meanwhile, drain the apricots. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and muscovado sugar until fluffy. Mix in the apricots, flour, raisins, walnuts and orange zest.
5. Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it out to a rectangle, about 25 x 33cm. Evenly spread over the apricot mix, then roll out the marzipan and lay it on top. Roll up the rectangle tightly so it looks like a Swiss roll. Roll slightly, then cut lengthways along the roll, leaving 1 end joined. Twist 2 lengths together, then shape into a ring on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Set aside to rise for 1 hr.
6. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Bake the twist for 30 mins until risen and dark golden. Towards the end of the baking time, gently warm the apricot jam in a small pan. Brush the freshly baked loaf with the warm jam to glaze it, then set it aside to cool. Once cooled, drizzle the twist heavily with the runny icing.

Categories: All Christmas