Honey Fig Greek Bread
Just back from a visit to Greece, Linda demonstrates how to make Greek Honey and Fig bread. Here is the actual recipe derived from The Book of Bread by Judith and Evan Jones:
Greek Fig and Honey bread
1 cup boiling water
7 ounces of dried figs (I used Turkish figs)
1 T active dry yeast
2 heaping generous T of honey
1/2 cup warm water
1 egg
1 1/2 T chopped lemon zest
1 tsp coarse salt
3 to 4 cups of all purpose flour
-Pour boiling water over figs and let them sit for about 30 minutes. Remove the figs but save the water. Cut out the hard stems and cut each fig into about six pieces - from my finished bread, I think the figs would be better cut each into about nine pieces like large raisins.
-Dissolve the yeast and honey in the warm water. Stir in the egg and whisk well. Add the fig water, lemon peel, salt and about one cup of white flour. Gradually add the flour 1/2 cup at a time until you have a good not-sticky dough.
-Knead the dough, adding flour as needed until it feels right. Pat the dough out into a rectangle and spread the chopped figs evenly over it. Roll it up like a jelly roll and knead a little more - about three minutes.
-Put dough into a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled...at least an hour.
-Shape the dough into a round - I made it into two rounds
-Allow the dough to rise on parchment paper until doubled - around 45 minutes.
-Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F
I baked mine in a cloche and a Dutch oven (I had two loaves) Two were done in about 30 minutes. Baked as a single loaf, the baking might be about 50 minutes.
-Cool on a rack before cutting.