Ingredients:

4 cups flour (500 gr)

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water (450 ml)

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 TBSPs honey

1/2 packet dry yeast 

5 Oz pecans, roughly chopped

5 Oz dried mixed fruit, diced

Directions:

Mix honey into the lukewarm water and stir.

Stir dried yeast into the water until melted.

Place flour in a large bowl. 

Make a well in the flour and pour the yeast/water in it.

Using a silicone spatula, mix everything together.

Add salt, pecans and dried fruit.

Continue to mix it all together with the spatula until fully incorporated.

Dough will be sticky.

Cover bowl with plastic film and set aside.

Allow it to rest in a warm place until it doubles in size. 

Remove dough onto a floured surface.

Dough will be sticky so use flour on your hands as well.

Shape dough into an oval loaf.

Place the loaf onto a piece of parchment paper large enough to contain it. 

Make a cut along the center surface of the dough, lengthwise.

Place loaf and paper into a bowl as wide as the Dutch oven you’ll be using to bake the bread in, so that when it rises, it won’t spread. 

Place a Dutch oven (with cover on) into oven.

Preheat oven to 450F for 30 minutes.

You want to make sure both the oven and Dutch oven are very hot!

Using heat protective gloves, remove hot Dutch oven onto a heat protected surface.

Remove lid and carefully place loaf with paper into the Dutch oven.

Cover with lid and place back into hot oven.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Remove lid and continue baking for 10 additional minutes until golden brown.

Shut off heat and remove pot from oven.

Carefully remove bread from pot (with gloves!) and allow to cool before slicing.

TIPS:

You can use bread flour or all purpose flour for this recipe but I prefer to use 00 flour. If you want a quicker rise, use the entire packet of yeast instead of half.  Also, you can mix the bread before you go to bed using the lesser amount of yeast. It’ll be ready to bake when you get up.

Feel free to use walnuts and raisins or cranberries instead of pecans and mixed fruit like I did. 

Using a Dutch oven will produce a crunchy crust with a soft middle. If you don’t have a Dutch oven, just bake the bread on a cookie sheet. Adjust baking time as needed.