This One's a Keeper

We are big fans of anything Mediterranean- gyros, feta, olives, Greek salad, baklava, tzatziki sauce, .. I could go on and on. So, no big surprise, we love, love, love the the Greek celebration bread! I am also a huge fan of dried fruit, so I was anxious to try one of the variations.

Here are a few of the changes I made to the formula:

1. I halved the poolish ingredients, except for the yeast, and it was just about perfect as far as how much I needed for the rest of the formula.

2. I used half whole wheat flour and half white flour and then used more yeast because of the whole wheat flour.

3. Went with vanilla extract since I didn't have any of the almond variety on hand.

4. Used fresh lemon zest, about two or three times the amount called for in the formula.

5. I divided the dough in half and mixed in the add-ins in just one of loaves (Drew doesn't like fruit in his bread!) I mixed in the following: walnuts (not toasted), dried cranberries, cherries, figs, and apricots.

6. I skipped the glaze.

When my husband, who loves to read about the Greek culture and food, etc, came down to look at the bread, he said, "Oh, well, the Greeks would have used goat's milk." We have some in the fridge and if I had known that before, I would have tried it! Maybe next time. So anyway, the bread turned out delicious!! And of course, I'm in love with the fruit variety. Turns out, Drew even likes the loaf with the fruit. It is seriously yummy, and smells even better, with a very lemony scent. Here's a couple snaps. Oh, and I didn't really love it right out of the oven, but it got better and better as the weekend progressed! We enjoyed some of the plain loaf with turkey chili and spider cupcakes for Halloween!