Traditional Libyan food is based around Mediterranean, African and Middle Eastern flavors in the form of tajines, couscous, salads, vegetables, bread, and soup. Moving further into the desert, natives rely on milk, honey, bread and dates for sustenance and, so today’s I rely on at least two of the above to get me through the day – a homemade fig-date bread.
I’ve really enjoyed the other breakfast-y type sweet breads I’ve made so far (see plum bread and orange cake), and when I came across this recipe for a fig-date bread, I was pretty confident I’d love it. And I was right. Despite having the dried fruit, it does not at all come across as either fruit cake or anything like raisin bread. My mom is obsessed with this cranberry walnut bread from Whole Foods, and this reminded me a lot of that, both in taste and in texture, but better (in my humble opinion).
I can’t recall where I found the original recipe, but I made enough tweaks to it to call this one my own. I’ve also made it a bit heathier and heartier, using whole wheat flour and cutting down on the sugar, and as Dawn shoved more than once slice in her mouth while mumbling a barely-discernible “Iss guud,” I figured it really didn’t make any difference.
Check out this site for more Libyan goodies.
Homemade fig-date bread is a hearty, healthy whole wheat bread made with yogurt, dried figs, dried dates and nuts for tons of texture and flavor.Fig-Date Bread
Ingredients
Directions
