Fig and Walnut Bread

This fig and walnut bread is so delicious toasted and buttered for breakfast. It also makes incredible grilled cheese sandwiches. 

This bread is loaded with chopped dried mission figlets and ground toasted walnuts.

This bread was kind of an experiment to see how ground nuts would affect the texture of my four hour country loaf. I am really happy with the results!

What I loved about this bread is that the toasted walnuts add such a rich flavor to each slice without being overwhelming. You could even grind the walnuts to a finer texture, and I'm pretty sure the nut hater in your house would love this bread.

You could make this loaf with just the walnuts, but I had a bag of Blue Ribbon Orchard Mission Figlets and decided to chop them up for this bread. They are so sweet and moist. If you're not a fan of figs, you could add any dried fruit, including apricots, prunes, cherries, or raisins.

This month, the Bread Bakers, hosted by Cindy's Recipes and Writings, are baking breads with nut flours, chopped nuts, or nut oils. I decided to toast some walnuts, and then give them a whirl in the food processor, creating a mixture of finely ground toasted walnuts as well as larger walnut pieces.

This bread freezes well too. Just wrap it in foil, then plastic wrap, and then freeze. When it's time to thaw it, remove the plastic wrap, and let it thaw at room temperature.

This recipe is is pretty easy as long as you are comfortable with a sticky dough. Give it a try! You can do it! If you have any questions, post them in the comments and I promise I will try to help. For updates, be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram. I heart bread bakers!

After the recipe, be sure to visit the links from Bread Bakers members for more breads using nut flours and ground nuts.

Fig and Walnut Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 170 grams walnut pieces
• 450 grams bread flour
• 50 grams whole wheat flour
• 380 grams 90 to 95 degrees F water.
• 10.5 grams fine sea salt
• 4 grams instant yeast
• 125 grams dried figs, coarsely chopped
• Rice flour for dusting

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spread the walnut pieces on a baking sheet and toast the walnuts for about 7 minutes. Let the walnuts cool. Pulse the walnuts in a food processor until you have a good mixture of finely ground crumbs and small walnut pieces.
2. Combine the flours and the water in a large bowl and mix with your hand until the flour is incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the top of the dough with the salt and the yeast. With a wet hand, fold the dough over the salt and yeast, and then pinch the dough with your fingers. Continue to wet your mixing hand and fold the dough over itself, and continue to pinch and fold, until the salt and yeast are dissolved. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap, and let rest for 20 minutes.
4. Add the ground nuts and the figs to the bowl. Fold the dough over the nuts and figs by picking up each "side" of the dough, stretching it, and folding it over the middle. Continue to "stretch and fold" the dough until the nuts and fruit are incorporated. Cover again. Fold the dough again after 30 minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise until tripled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
5. Gently scrape the dough out onto a floured surface, and shape it into a boule or batard by gently folding the dough over itself from all "sides." Flip the shaped dough over so that the seam side is on the counter. Using a bench scraper, draw the loaf toward you, and then away from you, to tighten up the top of the dough. Cover with a towel and let rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime, dust a banneton or towel lined bowl with a 50-50 mixture of wheat and rice flour.
6. After 10 minutes, place the bench scraper under the shaped loaf, and scoot it around from all four sides to tighten up the loaf a bit. Place the shaped dough into the banneton, seam side up or down. If you do it seam side down, you won't need to slash the dough before baking, as it will open naturally.
7. Cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap or a clean towel, and let rise until puffy, about an hour. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F with either a Dutch oven or baking stone placed on the middle rack.
8. When the dough has risen, turn it out onto parchment lined plate. Either lift it into the heated Dutch oven, or slide it onto the baking stone. Cover with the lid, or in the case of the baking stone, cover with a stainless bowl or hotel pan.
9. Bake for 30 minutes, remove the lid or pan, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more, until the bread is a deep brown and reaches an internal temperature of about 205 degrees F. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Yield: 1 loaf

This month's BreadBakers' theme is Breads with Nut Meals and Nut Flours inspired bread, hosted by Cindy at Cindy’s Recipes and Writings.

Enjoy all these creative breads using nut meals and nut flours from The Bread Bakers Group!

• Almond Blueberry Banana Bread by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Almond Pear Bread by Cindy at Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Citrus Bread with Macadamia Nuts by Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Fig and Walnut Bread by Karen at Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Fig Date Walnut Bread by Sneha at Sneha's Recipes
• Mixed Berry Almond Loaf by Namita at Ambrosia
• Peanut Brittle Ring Bread by Sharanya at Sara’s Tasty Buds
• Peanut Butter Breakfast Loaf by Sue at Palatable Pastime
• Quick Almond Bread by Kalyani at Sizzling Tastebuds
• Whole Grain Date Walnut Bread by Sona at Spill the Spices

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.
We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.