Usually, respecting the tastes of my family, I avoid to make bread with supplements, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to make a bread with almonds and figs and apricot glaze.
Because it is my first attempt to Bake with Bread Bible Alpha Bakers I very carefully paged through The Bread Bible trying to understand which steps I‘m going to complete while baking, this bread wasn’t looked too much difficult, but really attractive. I loved the idea of a bread full of sliced almonds and figs and wanted to make this boule.
 |
The figs a bit worried me, because dried figs I ever see in Israel much lighter in colour and very dry than have to be used in the recipe. So I selected in organic shop one kind of figs not from local supplier and they worked great.
Only one thing confused me in recipe - the description of almonds. I had to turn to the vocabulary to finally understand the difference between silvered and sliced. As the result I had not noticed that it have to be also unbleached almonds and I bought silvered but bleached for top also.
Now I can define:
Unbleached and silvered have to be used in the bread because they are make a crumb texture and really much easier to coarse.
Sliced almonds have to be on top and will make a loaf most beautiful from outside. Furthermore they remain crispy for a long time and this is especially important for wet weather. Main almonds remained crispy only 3 hours after baking.
This bread is made with a winning combination of bread and whole wheat flours - winning combination, providing more flavorful crumb than cannot be obtained if use only all-purpose flour.
The figs perfectly coupled with the almonds. The apricot glaze just add just a lovely shine and touch of sweetness.
 |
| Rolling step |
 |
| Applying apricot glaze |
For me the best is to eat it
without any further additions as it gone from oven while almonds still crispy. It is excellent combined with soft white and
blue cheeses. And classic combination of bread and butter can be completed with drops of remaining apricot
glaze
|
