Walnut Fig Bread

Grilled Cheese and Pear on Walnut Fig Bread

I do love the no-knead style bread.  It is not that I am overly lazy (I really am), but it is more that the style fits into a busy lifestyle so well.  I have to pre-plan the day before, but it doesn’t require a bunch of time babysitting a loaf of bread.  And honestly, it feels a little magical.  Mix a bunch of basic ingredients together–flour, water, salt, yeast–and maybe add a few goodies in, and then just ignore it for a full day.  Don’t even look at it.  Then move the dough around, let it sit a bit longer and bake a beautiful loaf of bread.  Magic wand not included.

This week’s loaf of no-knead bread is for walnut lovers in particular. When I first made it I was surprised that a mere 1/2 cup of walnuts permeated the flavor of the bread, but with the long sit in the relatively wet dough, it does make sense. If you don’t like walnuts, which I totally get, feel free to sub another nut, but for figs, I just liked the complementary flavors.  In fairness, maybe my walnut lovers comment is a bit off.  Walnuts are lower on my favorites list, but I think the bread was still fabulous. I served this the first time with an orange compound butter that was great,  but I also think this bread thinly sliced and lightly toasted on a cheese board would be amazing. or on a sandwich (grilled cheese and pear above!).  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

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Walnut Fig Bread

Ingredients

  • 3 1/3 cups bread flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 Tablespoon salt I use Morton kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts mine were not pre-toasted
  • 1/2 cup chopped dried figs.  I chopped my fig chunks pretty small--about the size of a raisin or smaller.
  • 1-2 Tablespoons honey
  • 1/4 heaping teaspoon yeast
  • 2 cups water warm is best, but not above 110 degrees F
  • Flour, or rice flour (what I have been using as of late) for dusting

Instructions

  1. First, take the 2 cups of water and add the honey, stirring to dissolve it. Next, mix the flours, salt, and yeast together in a large bowl. Then stir in the walnuts and dried figs, stirring so that the additions are nicely coated in flour. Once it is thoroughly mixed, pour in the water and honey mixture and stir until a dough forms and the flour is fully incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap, or a non-airtight lid and let sit for 18-24 hours.* (see note below).

  2. At this point, your dough looks very very wet and is full of good yeast created bubbles. You want to GENEROUSLY flour a board and dump the bread on it, or flour your hands and scoop the dough up. Place it on the board, or keep in your floured hands and fold the dough over on itself a few times and make into a ball-ish shape. The dough is very wet, so it will not be a tight ball, but it should be rounded. I found the fig pieces sort of wanted to pop out when I did this, but I just tucked them back in.

  3. Next, you can put the dough on a large piece of parchment (no flour needed), a pizza peel dusted with flour, or a bread rising basket with flour. Whatever you choose, just make sure it is well floured, with the exception of the parchment–that doesn’t need to be floured, as you will simply lower it into your steaming hot dutch oven. Your dough now needs to rise until it is about double in size–but you don’t need to be too exact here. I find 1-2 hours is about right. I can usually make it closer to 1 hour if I let it rise near my preheating oven.

  4. Preheat your oven to 450 for at least 45 minutes to an hour with your covered dutch oven* inside so it is scorching hot. Oh so carefully, take your dutch oven out, and remove the lid. Next is the trick. Either lower the parchment paper like a sling with the dough directly into the dutch oven or use your hands or pizza peel to get your dough into the dutch oven. Here is the thing, it is going to look weird, off center, etc. You won’t get it centered, or it will hit part of the side and stick, etc. Just scooch it down as best you can with a wooden spoon or spatula. It will look great when done. Promise. If you are rising in a bread basket for an effect of floured rings, you will want to flip it upside down out of the basket onto a parchment sheet, or your hands and carefully lower into your pan so that the floured rings are facing up.

  5. Score your bread if you can, as it will help your bread rise better. You can buy a fancy tool, you can use a sharp floured knife, or you can use scissors to snip a cross into the top. Then into the hot oven with the lid on and bake for about 30 minutes before removing the lid and returning it to bake for about another 10-15 minutes. You are looking for a beautiful golden loaf and when you tip it out of the dutch oven and thump the bottom, it should sound hollow. I often use my instant digital thermometer to check for doneness. You are looking for bread to be between 205-210 degrees F.

  6. This bread needs to rest about 10 minutes, but 20 is better. The crust is amazing and crackly and crunchy, and the interior is beautiful and full of chewy air holes and walnuts and figs. It is a little sweet, definitely walnut-y and totally delicious.

Recipe Notes

*As with most no-knead bread, you give will need a large and heavy duty dutch oven.  I don’t tend to use a Le Creuset, but instead got a simple lodge cast iron one that looks like it would be equally at home on the prairie over a campfire 150 years ago.  Lots of other people have cloche bread bakers, which is great if you have one.  I just haven’t ever purchased one as the dutch oven works so well for me.