Fig Walnut Swirl Bread

FIG WALNUT SWIRL BREAD!!

Recipe adapted from: Serious Eats

Yum! Somehow, we have accumulated many different types of fruit "butters" - we have fig, mango, honey apple, and it goes on and on. Honestly, too much fruit butter for two people to eat. SO, what better way to use up the fruit butter than to bake it into the bread itself! I decided to go with fig butter and chopped walnuts, but it was a tough choice. I'm sure any fruit butter would work in this recipe, along with any add--ins, such as nuts, dried fruit, etc. So, without further ado, here's the recipe!

Ingredients

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons honey

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (this is the best yeast I've found, honestly)

3 1/2 cups bread flour (I used regular flour and it turned out just fine)

2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons margarine or butter

1/2 - 3/4 cup fig butter (or any fruit butter)

Chopped walnuts (I didn't measure this part, just put as many as you want)

Directions

Making this bread was super easy. I mixed the first 4 ingredients (through flour) in a stand mixer with a dough hook. Once those ingredients were all incorporated, I added the butter and the salt, and mixed until those were incorporated. The butter took a bit longer to mix in than I thought it would, but don't worry! It will. Next, I took the dough out, formed a ball, and put it back in the mixer bowl. I think put just a bit of olive oil on the bread (enough to cover, but not enough so there was a pool of olive oil in the bottom), and covered the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for one hour.

Once the hour is up, it's time to put in the filling! At this point, it's probably smart to start pre-heating your oven to 325 degrees. To fill the dough, I spread mine on wax paper out so it covered a cookie sheet. I then spread fig butter all over it (except one inch at the far end from me, which was a short end) and put the walnuts on. I then rolled up my bread (rolling the short side, not the long side), and put it in a bread pan (which I had pre-sprayed with non-stick spray). I then let the bread rise for another 30 minutes, and covered it with the same plastic wrap I used before.

Finally, put the bread in the oven! Cook it for about 35 minutes, then take it out, let it cool, slice, and enjoy!