Cooking at Home
Fig and Anise Quick Bread
Williams-Sonoma Cooking at Home is a big, beautiful cookbook, filled with timeless recipes for classic dishes seasoned with modern flavors, food that is perfect for weeknight cooking and entertaining. The book is packed with helpful tips, hints, and charts too. Many of the recipes in the book were developed by excellent writers I worked with during my long tenure as food editor for Bon Appetit magazine, so I feel comfortable saying the recipes in the book are really good.
I have written 5 cookbooks for Williams-Sonoma, and many recipes from my books are in this new compendium. Chuck Williams was my editor, and with my long history of working with Chuck, I was selected to represent Cooking at Home.
Looking through the book and identifying the recipes I created was fun, So I decided to revisit some of them. I came up with this Fig and Anise Quick Bread for my
After Dinner book. I designed the bread to serve with cheese. But on Saturday morning, we enjoyed it with softly scrambled eggs enhanced with fresh goat cheese and thyme. A fine way to start off the weekend.
The tantalizing aroma of the baking bread is reason enough to make a loaf. The recipe is based on Irish soda bread, and takes only a few minutes to put together. To serve in the morning, I measured the dry ingredients, cut in the butter, and chopped the dried figs the night before. I mixed in the wet ingredients in the morning, and then baked the bread while brewing coffee, infusing tea, and preparing the eggs.
The recipe calls for buttermilk, not something most of us have in our fridge. For an easy substitute, spoon 2 teaspoons vinegar into a glass measuring cup, and then add enough milk to bring the liquid to the ¾ cup mark. For the milk, low fat milk, whole milk, soy milk, or almond milk all work well.
I found dried figs at the Topanga Farmers’ market, at Etheridge Farms’ stand. Etheridge is at a few farmers’ markets around Los Angeles, and sells organic fruit, mostly fresh but also a few dried items, from their farm in Danuba, California. The bread would be equally as good made with raisins, or for a seasonal treat, try it with dried persimmons, a fall specialty sold by Etheridge.
The bread made our breakfast memorable, and the fresh market eggs were an added treat. I hope you read this in time to try the loaf and scrambled eggs for brunch this weekend.
Fig and Anise Quick Bread
For a memorable finish to a company dinner, offer a plate of assorted farmstead cheeses, such as a fresh goat’s milk cheese, a bloomy rind cheese, an aged hard cheese, and a pungent blue, with thin wedges of this aromatic round loaf. A glass of Port is a perfect accompaniment.
Makes 1 round loaf
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole- wheat flour
3 tablespoons firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon aniseed, lightly crushed in a mortar, plus more for sprinkling
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
1 cup (about 6 ounces) coarsely chopped dried figs
¾ cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing
1 egg
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. In a large bowl, stir together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, 1 teaspoon aniseed, baking soda, and salt. Scatter the butter over the top. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the figs.
In a small bowl, whisk together the ¾ cup buttermilk and the egg until blended. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the buttermilk mixture into the well. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients just until blended and a soft dough forms.
Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 20 turns. Form the dough into a ball. Place in the prepared pan and flatten to 1½ inches thick. Cut a large cross 1/3 inch deep into the dough. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with aniseed.
Bake until the bread is light brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 40 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and then turn right side up to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into thin wedges.
Tips
Aniseed: A popular addition to European-style baked goods, aniseeds are the seeds of the anise plant, a member of the parsley family. Used whole and ground, they impart a taste that is distinctly licorice.
Buttermilk: For a handy substitute for buttermilk, spoon 2 teaspoons vinegar into a glass measuring cup, and then add enough milk to bring the liquid to the ¾ cup mark. For the milk, low fat milk, whole milk, soy milk, or almond milk all work well.
Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Goat Cheese and Thyme
Makes 2 servings
4 eggs
Coarse kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
2 scallions, minced
1 teaspoons minced fresh thyme, plus more for garnish
1/3 to ½ cup (about 2 ounces) crumbled fresh goat cheese
Break the eggs into a medium bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and beat with a fork to blend.
Heat the oil or melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the scallion and 1 teaspoon thyme and sauté until the scallion begins to soften, about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the eggs. Cook until beginning to set, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese and stir until melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide the eggs between 2 warmed plates. Sprinkle with thyme and freshly ground pepper and serve right away.
Tags: books
, eggs
, figs
, goat cheese
, quick bread
Categories:
Bread,
Breakfast,
Meatless/Almost Meatless ,
New Finds,
Recipes
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November 15, 2010 3:52 PM
Thanks Kristine! I love anise so I'm looking forward to trying your recipe! Love Cooking at Home too (of course!).