Fig and Fennel Bread

... a low, dense, loaf ...

Last year when I was at Mary's house she had some figs in her cupboard.  "Bought when I saw them in the discount bin," she said.  "Can't leave them there when they are half price, but I haven't had time to use them."

I went to the internet, as we all do, now, and found a recipe for Fig and Fennel bread at epicurious.com

Being in a rush, and having no printer, here is what I wrote down:

3/4 c figs or 1 1/2 c figs
1 1/4 c water
1 Tbsp yeast
3 cups flour
1 cup rye flour
2 tablespoons fennel
1 tablespoon salt

Makes 2 large loaves.

Further notes to myself say, "I doubled the recipe and still only got 2 large loaves.

I can't remember much more about making the bread, but tried it again last week, just from the notes I had jotted down while making it at Mary's.  I wish I had used the 1 1/2 cups figs instead of the 3/4 cup -- better to have erred on the side of generosity on this one.  I can't remember if the recipe had called for white flour or brown, so I used brown and beat the batter in my bosch for 8 minutes, as it takes that long to get the gluten developed in brown flour and then I added the rye flour later.  Wish I had toasted the fennel seeds.  I am going to try that next time.  From the picture you can see I didn't get much height.  Still, toasted, it was absolutely delicious.

I bought more figs yesterday at the store even if they weren't on sale in the half price bin.  The sweetness in this recipe comes out of the figs and the fennel.  As you can see, there is no sugar in it.