Strawberry Fruit Bread

Rating: Easy! Actually!

This is based from the fruit bread recipe in the influential and amazing Tassajara Bread Book.

Start with your basic dough recipe.
1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water (lukewarm is important)
2 tbsp raw or brown sugar
1 tbsp yeast

2 cups whole wheat flour

Mix the water with the sugar. Sprinkle over your yeast and by the time you listen to one song by the band 'Yes' and take a quick bathroom break, you will be ready to mix in the first 2 cups of flour.

1 pinch salt
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

First add in your salt and then pour the olive oil and fold into the dough without breaking it. Next knead in the remaining flour for a good five minutes until the dough seems 'cleaner' and elastic. You may need to add more flour if dough remains sticky during kneading.

Let that beauty rise in a nice warm spot -cover with a lightly damp dish cloth/don't smother it - and return in about an hour. Punch down the dough entirely, and let set again for about another hour - skip if you don't have the time but this makes the final product lighter.

Now with a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a fair-sized rectangle.. without wearing the dough too thin. Picture the rectangle as three columns (columns the LONG WAY) (it may help to draw or imprint lightly two lines in the dough).

Fresh fruit of your choice!
Some brown sugar, raw sugar, or even maple syrup to sprinkle over the fruit!
Some spices of your choice (cinnamon, etc)

Slice up some fresh fruit, a mix, or in my case I chose strawberry. Lay the fruit slices down the middle column of the rectangle. The two side columns will be cut into diagonal flaps, about eight diagnol rectangular flaps on each side depending on how much you rolled out the dough. The purpose is to fold in each left and right flap over each other to cover the fruit and turn it back into a loaf. This is somewhat like covering a pie.

Let your beautiful creation rise for another 30 minutes. In the meanwhile, preheat the oven to about 330 F and brush your loaf with oil and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour depending how crisp you would like the bread. Enjoy!