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Fig Pastry

In the mood for something different for breakfast, I decided to use some figs I canned last fall to make a fig pastry. I started the night before by making some brioche dough in the bread mixer. This is a wet dough that is at the limits of my bread maker, so I stirred the dough with a rubber scraper for the first couple of minutes.

I saved half the dough for another pastry. I rolled out the other half into a rectangular piece.

I filled the right side of the dough with the fig preserves, some almonds, and a little bit of mace. I then rolled it up and carefully moved it onto the pizza pan I use for making these sorts of large-diameter pastries.

After I turned the pastry into a ring, I used my kitchen shears to cut the edge of the ring. Each cut was a little less than half way through the diameter.

I painted the pastry with egg white, covered it with clear wrap, and put it in the refrigerator for a final rise.

The next morning, I turned on the oven and popped in the pastry (taking off the plastic wrap, of course). The result was beautiful to look at and a very nice breakfast. Brioche is a tender, soft bread that goes down very easily in the morning. I love figs and I enjoy the opportunity to eat them outside of their relatively narrow season.

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