Fig Pistachio Bread

This bread is soft and sweet from the honey and figs and has a nice nutty contrast with the pistachios. It has so many of my favourite things in it: honey, figs, pistachios and beautiful olive oil. I served it with a nice bowl of soup for a perfect supper.

You will need:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp dry yeast
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup good quality olive oil - I used Domenika Fiore Reserva
• 1/3 cup pistachios - rough chopped
• 4 figs - chopped fine makes approx 1/3 cup chopped
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt

Step 1: In a large bowl add warm water, yeast and honey. Stir and leave 5 minutes to activate yeast.

Step 2: add good olive oil (look at the colour of that beautiful oil!),  chopped pistachios and chopped figs.

Step 3: add 2 cups flour to the bowl and stir until it becomes too hard to mix with the spoon. Add 1/2 cup more flour to counter and pour contents of bowl on to counter. Continue kneading to incorporate all the flour. If the dough is still too stick continue adding a bit more flour at a time until it is no longer sticky. I used 2 1/2 cups of flour in total but, if your kitchen is more humid it may take a bit more.

Step 4: place dough in a covered bowl and leave in a warm place until doubled in size. This may take 2 hours. 

Step 5: oil a loaf pan generously with olive oil. Set oven to 350 degrees F. Gently remove dough and deflate slightly to form a loaf. Place in greased pan and allow to double in size. This may take 1-2 hours.  Cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap to avoid a skin forming on the dough.

Step 6: remove plastic wrap and bake for 20- 30 minutes until nicely browned and the kitchen smells like bread. Immediately remove bread to a cooling rack. Cool and Enjoy!