Irish Barmbrack Bread

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1. 1Step 1: Combine black tea with whisky in a medium bowl. Add all of the dried fruit and soak for 6 hours, or, overnight. Drain and squeeze liquid from soaked fruit and either discard liquid, or, save it for another use (it's delicious!) Set soaked fruit aside while you make the dough.
2. 2Step 2: Warm milk until quite warm but not hot and whisk with yeast in a small bowl. Place bowl in a warm spot to allow yeast to bloom. Once bloomed (takes about 10 minutes) whisk egg into the yeast/milk mixture. Set aside.
3. 3Step 3: Whisk flour, superfine sugar, salt and spice together. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, add flour mixture plus butter and beat to incorporate the butter. Add reserved yeast/egg/milk mixture to the dry ingredients and continue beating until dough gathers up.
4. 4Step 4: Remove ball of dough from bowl and place on floured work surface. Using your hands, smush the drained soused fruit into the dough ball and knead. Add a little more flour to work surface as needed until you have worked the dough into a smooth ball with the fruit studded throughout. Shape into a log. Grease the sides and bottom of the loaf pan with butter. Press dough into loaf pan and level. Loosely cover pan with greased plastic wrap. Place a clean kitchen towel over the top. Set loaf pan in a warm place. Allow dough to rise for about 2 hours or until nicely domed above the top over the loaf pan. With oven rack in center position, preheat oven to 350 F. Bake bread for 45 to 50 minutes until bread is deeply brown and sounds hollow when sharply tapped. Remove bread to a cooling rack to cool slightly. Slice and serve while warm, or, toast the bread the next day and serve spread with Irish butter.