makes 2 medium loaves
It’s well known that it goes against the grain of most chefs to waste anything that can add flavor to a dish. It definitely goes against the grain—pun intended—of this bread baker. I originally tried this as a dinner roll that incorporated little pieces of baked apricot that I had soaked in water. Rather than discarding the water, I used it for the liquid in the starter. In this version, dried apricots are used instead. The result is concentrated apricot flavor from the apricot pieces set against a light wash of that same flavor in the crumb. For a contrasting, assertive flavor, I added buckwheat flour and a bit of black pepper. Used judiciously, that’s a combination that can really wake up a bread. First you get the woodsy aroma of the buckwheat and the sweet fruitiness of the apricot, then a sneak attack of heat from the black pepper, and finally the pungent flavor of the pepper itself.