I love finding a food writer that clicks with my style of cooking, those that I can pick up any book or read any recipe of theirs and have an instinctive “yum” reaction.
Nigella Lawson was one, before her publisher insisted she run headlong into pink gastroporn kitschville, never to return to her earlier three-dimensional thoughtful days (and by the way, she was doing Scandi baking a good decade before the current fad). Nigel Slater is great, although his recipes often have a wintry, warming tone that can be too much heat for this Bahamian kitchen. Yotam Ottolenghi is a recent, much loved new entry who has revitalised the way I cook vegetables, as well as corrupting me with fabulous desserts. And Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall, as well as being totally endearing and all round Good Thing, just makes food that I want to eat every single day.
Dan Lepard is another one – got all his books, read his column in the Guardian, surf the forums on his website and have done a sourdough class with him in person. And every time I come across a new recipe, I almost groan as another wholesome bread or gorgeous baked confection goes on my enormous Evernote list of “things to cook before I get so fat I can’t get through the door to shop for groceries”. These love handles are all Lepard’s fault, I think you should know that. And he’s got a new book coming out… Just stop it already!
Here’s another of Dan Lepard’s recipes, combining two of my favourite things ever, dried apricots and wheatgerm. (Yes, I love wheatgerm. What of it?) One note – I know that, if you’re making bread at home vs in a commercial bakery, you can afford to be much more generous when loading loaves up with expensive ingredients like apricots or nuts. But this recipe says 200g dried apricots to 350g flour and I felt this much fruit was just too much of a good thing – some slices were far more apricotty than they were crumby (you can’t really see this from the cross section in the picture, but trust me!). I’d say 100-120g apricots would be about right, still very fruity but more actual bread for my taste. Otherwise, flipping lovely. I’d say that it’s a great alternative to raisin-walnut bread to accompany cheese. Then when it gets staler, try it toasted and buttered for breakfast, a bit like a granola bread. And of course amazing in any sort of bread pudding…
Apricot and wheatgerm bread
Makes 1 loaf. Adapted from Dan Lepard in the Guardian.
Ingredients
- 200ml boiling water
- 50g chopped pitted dates
- 125g yoghurt
- 1.5 tsp dried yeast
- 130-200g chopped dried apricots (see headnote above)
- 2 tbsps wheatgerm
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp honey
- 350g white bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2-3 tbsps sesame seeds
Instructions
- Soak the dates in the boiling water. In a large mixing bowl mix the flour, salt, yeast, apricots, cinammon, wheatgerm and honey. When the dates have cooled a little, blend or sieve them with the yoghurt and mix with the flour into a soft dough. Do Dan’s patented quick knead procedure: leave the dough for 10 minutes, knead for 10 seconds, leave for 10 minutes, knead 10 secs, leave 10 mins, knead 10 secs. Then leave to rise for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 220˚C. Flour a baking sheet. Turn the dough out onto the worktop and flatten into a rectangle. Roll up tightly (as for a loaf tin) and place seam side down on the baking sheet. Brush with water and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Leave to prove until doubled in size.
- Flour, slash and bake for 15 minutes at 220, then turning the oven down to 200 for about 20 minutes more. Make sure the loaf sounds pretty hollow before you take it out, no harm in overbaking and even though this is a dense loaf from all the dried fruit, you really want to make sure the crumb is cooked. (Mine wasn’t so it was a little doughy, but was still yummy toasted).
Preparation time: 1 hour(s)
Cooking time: 35 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 1
Culinary tradition: English
[Proudly submitted to the crusty delights of Yeastspotting]
