Pantry baking can include loads of dried fruit, especially when you’ve just written a book about fruit cake and you still have too much of it on hand. This bread has so many apricots and dates that it’s basically self-jamming… which is good because that’s the one thing we didn’t stock up on.
I made this up as I went and barely wrote down what I did, but if you want to try to follow along here’s the “recipe”.
250 grams dried fruit (I used apricots and dates)
boiling water
500 grams flour (I used a mix of bread flour, semolina, and a mystery flour I found in the back of my pantry)
75 grams sourdough starter (fed and ready)*
10 grams salt
50 grams lightly toasted hazelnuts
*If you don’t have a sourdough starter try using 3/4 tsp instant yeast (Mix it in with the flour. It should work. I think.)
Chop the fruit and place it in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand 30 or 40 minutes or overnight or however long you want. Strain the fruit out of the water and set aside. Add enough cold water to the infused water to bring it up to 390 grams. Use less if you’re not used to working with very wet dough.
Combine the flour(s) and water in a large bowl and stir until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and rest for 45 minutes. Add the starter and use your hands to pull/stretch the dough up from the sides and over the top of the dough until all the starter is incorporated. Add the salt and keep stretching/folding until combined. Shape into a ball as best you can and place in an oiled bowl to rise 45 minutes. Use two hands to grab the dough at 9 and 3 o’clock and pull up, stretching the dough and letting other two ends fall underneath. Lower the ball and rotate the bowl 90 degrees. Grab the the dough at 9 and 3 o’clock again and stretch the dough up and then lower it onto itself again. It’ll look a bit square now. Cover and rise 45 minutes. Repeat the folds 3 more times with 45 minute rests between each. Let the dough bulk rise until about doubled or put it in the fridge and cold ferment overnight.
Flip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and stretch into a circle about as big as you can get it. Maybe 18 inches? I didn’t measure. Scatter the soaked fruit and nuts evenly over the dough, then roll up like a jelly roll into a log. Roll the log into a coil and then shape into a ball. The dough might tear because there’s probably too much fruit in it, sorry. Do the best you can. Cut the dough into two pieces and let it bench rest for 20 minutes.
Shape the dough into balls or batards or whatever you want. It’s soft and sticky, just do the best you can. Place the dough in really well floured bannetons or colanders with floured linen napkins or whatever you can find without leaving your house FOR GOD’S SAKE STAY HOME. If you have rice flour dust with that I hear it helps the sticking but I don’t have any and I’m not going to go get it. Let the dough rise until it’s doubled or at least full of air and gently springs back. Preheat the oven with a pizza stone in the upper third position to 500 degrees. Set a sheet pan you don’t care about on a lower shelf.
Flip the dough out onto a floured peel and score with a sharp knife or a razor blade. Slide one loaf into the oven towards the back of the stone. Repeat with the other loaf and try to get it towards the front. Carefully dump about 1 cup of ice cubes onto the sheet pan and close the door. Bake for 20 minutes until the bread is beginning to brown. Lower the oven to 450 and bake another 10 minutes. Carefully remove the sheet pan full of water if it hasn’t already evaporated and bake another 10 minutes until the bread is almost burnt. Check if the bread is done by tapping on it to see if it sounds hollow. When it’s finished, turn the oven off and crack the door open. Let the bread sit in the oven for 10 minutes to finish developing the crust. Cool completely before serving. Is it serving if you aren’t allowed to have guests?
