Dried figs for fruit bread - Persian/Iranian/'wild' figs

The experiment has begun.

First thing I found was that those figs need much longer to soften if using room temp water. This seems obvious but, after 15 mins in tepid water, they really weren't getting anywhere so I drained the water, heated it and then re-added it. Much better.

The second thing I noticed was that the larger ones are softer - or at least soften easier and quicker than the smaller ones. When I bought them, there was a choice between 'medium' and 'large' size. Honestly, I couldn't see a whole lot of difference and I reasoned that smaller was likely better for my purposes anyway.

Once softened a little, I tore the softer ones in half and cut the firmer ones and put them back in the water.

So, three tips when using these:

1. Choose larger ones, if possible.
2. Cut them into slices/pieces as desired before soaking.
3. Soak them in hot water.

Here is my mix. Along with the figs, I decided to use white mulberries (same family as figs,) and some Iranian sultanas - all soaked. Also included is a small amount of chopped walnuts, soaked for about 30 mins.

fruit_001.JPG

What I did was:

• Soak the sultanas and mulberries overnight in room temp water (sealed). (1:2 ratio of fruit:water, subtracting the water used from total recipe water.)
• Soak the figs in near-boiling water the next moring using the remaining recipe water.
• Once cooled (~30 mins) I broke/cut the figs and, re-weighing, replaced the water lost on the cutting board or through carelessness.
• At that point, I added the chopped walnuts to the sultana/mulberry mix.
• After half an hour, I added both mixes together and then squeezed, drained and strained the liquid, adding any 'bits', like fig seeds, back to the fruit mix.
• Calculated the hydration that that amount of water would provide for the 'fermentolyse' and add some additional water to get to 60% so there would be enough water. This brought the total recipe water up from 85% to ~95%. I think I am going to have some issues here . . .

And here is the mix, spread out over the stretched dough and then after folding back up. I messed up here as I spread it far too thin so there isn't enough dough to hold the moist fruit in and buffer against that moisture.

fruit_002.JPG

I think that the next time I do this I won't soften the sultanas or the mulberries - the figs are a bit too dry and chewy to make for great eating as they are so need some softening but the sultanas and mulberries are fine as they are so soaking them only served to bind up more moisture that then leaches into the dough.

Here you can see the dough parcelled back up - looked okay . . .

fruit_003a.JPG

. . . until I turned it over!

fruit_004.JPG

The too-thin dough is unable to contain that extra moisture and was just too fragile (despite very much passing a window-pane test).

But what's the worst that can happen? I intentionally used a lowish amount of starter so it could ferment moderately undisturbed for a long time and the low winter temps here will extend that. I'll shape it late tonight and proof overnight in the fridge in a banneton or, failing that, just pop it into a loaf pan.

From the start, my aim was a dense, moist, intensely fruity bread so I should certainly get that! Whether it is enjoyable is another matter, of course but most failures still make decent toast and fruit toast does happen to be one of my favourite things!

 Eat your failures and all that.

I am dusting generously with flour as I go and it's coming back together. I'm not really 'developing' the dough anymore so much as just checking it every so often and, when the liquid has made it too wet and the fruit is starting to poke through, I am giving it a good dust and tucking it back together.

Yes, it's messing with the forming gas and yes it's making the bread heavier but, again, I do want a denser loaf with a closer crumb and I have a lot of moisture to work with here. At the driest, I'm probably back down to ~87% so I still have rather a lot of leeway, especially with the length of the bulk I expect.

Bread tin it was. Over night retard, couple of hours coming back to temp today and a long moderate bake, covered for most of the time. Cooked it for a while even after my thermometer read 97c as, first, I am not sure I trust it 100% and, second, the loaf still felt a bit too wet (bound to happen anyway).

It's not pretty but it is probably the best smelling thing I have ever baked and I could smell it through the house throughout the bake and well beyond.

fruit_loaf_001.JPG

. . .fast forward two and half hours - filled with that smell! - and it was finally close enough to cool enough to cut.

My first reaction: "where's my fruit!?"

fruit_loaf_002.JPG

But, of course, then I remembered that, having gone with the blonder figs, I deliberately chose yellow sultanas over the three varieties of darker sultanas I have in the cupboard and white mulberries instead of black as I thought the idea of a pale mix might be interesting.

The fruit is there, but the combination of the soaking, the repeated mixing (due to excess liquid) and the longer slower cooking has caused much of it to become incorporated into the bread and the colour of the fruit really blends in to the colour of the dough with the added spelt and rye.

I cut my fruit bread slices quite thick so every slice tastes fruity but some slices, by chance, show more fruit than others, like so:

fruit_loaf_003.JPG

It is visually unimpressive but a large part of me very much enjoys the amusement of so fruity tasting a bread looking so plain!

So, now that all is said and done, and the proof coming in the eating, here is what I have found, beyond what I learned earlier in the process:

• Softer figs (like the standard brown Turkish ones) would have worked better as they really wouldn't have needed soaking, so long as the dough was sufficiently hydrated.
• Soaking the figs and then tearing them broke them down so they don't show up well. The taste is there and consistent bite-after-bite (and slice after slice!) but cutting the figs to the desired size before soaking would have preserved them, making for more noticeable and visually-interesting fig pieces.
• Sultanas just don't need soaking (again, assuming decent hydration).
• The mullberries don't stand out and could be skipped. I love them for snacking but they are lost here.

I wanted dense and it is. My addition of both spelt and rye were aimed at steering it that way. Perhaps slightly too much so but that's just several factors lining up and, so far as my tastes and expectations go, it's all still within the window of what I was looking for, which was a dense, rich, moist fruit bread with good depth of flavour from the flours, sourdough and fruit. Rather than a sourdough bread with fruit in it, I wanted a fruit bread.

The crust is amazing - a good crunch that contrasts with the texture in a good way, and there is a taste of caramalisation through the whole loaf.

I'd not do it the same way next time but then I love experimenting so, even if none of the problems had occured, I would likely still change it up!

If I go to the store before I bake again, I'll get some brown figs with the idea of matching them up with the piarom dates and Afghani sultanas I already have, both of which have caramel notes (to me at least) and should really come through. And, I did notice that the cashews were just amazingly fresh and plump and the handful of roasted ones I bought were some of the best I've ever had . . .