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Another alternative is to add the fruit when shaping the dough. Instead of shaping in the usual way, roll it into a rectangle using many light strokes of the rolling pin. Use as little flour on the board as you can get away with. For a regular loaf pan, the rectangle should be about seven inches wide (just shorter than the length of the pan), and about two feet long. Cover the surface of the dough with about ½ cup of dry raisin-sized pieces of fruits and/or about ¼ cup of chopped nuts. Leave about 2 inches free at the far end so that you will be able to seal the loaf. Lightly press the pieces into the dough with your rolling pin so that the dotted surface is nearly smooth, and then roll the dough up tightly, being fanatically careful not to incorporate any air into the roll at all. End up with the bare two inches and seal very well by pinching. Place the seam downwards and run the rolling pin gently lengthwise over the loaf to expel any air that might have sneaked in. Put the loaf in a greased pan as usual. Dust the top with cinnamon for extra pizzazz.

Because of all the pushing around, the loaf may want some extra rising time, but if you have done this perfectly, you will have a swirl of fruit and the sliced bread will not separate along the swirl, wreaking havoc in your toaster. If the fruit is wet—stewed prunes, for an extreme example—or if there is too much, or if you succumb to the temptation to add sugar and butter, the swirl will separate perforce. The wet fruit probably will also prevent the dough from cooking. (That can wreak havoc with your digestion.)

FRUIT AS A LIQUID SWEETENER

An elegant way to use fruit in bread is to let it provide both the liquid and the sweetener, producing a flavorful and long-keeping loaf. Stew and puree any very sweet fruit. Use the fruit and its broth, blended together and cooled, in place of part of the liquid in any fairly basic recipe. With applesauce, the fruit can make up all the liquid in the dough, except what is required to dissolve the yeast, of course. The bread will be light and will keep well; but in spite of the quantity of fruit, it won’t be distinctly appley in flavor. (The applesauce should be reasonably sweet, please.) You can also use apple juice in your dough as sweetening liquid. One cup of apple juice is about as sweet as 1 tablespoon of honey: it makes a loaf that rises well and has good color, though the keeping quality of the bread is not enhanced as it would be by the use of whole fruit.

Peaches, pears, prunes—any sweet fruit simmered and pureed can sweeten bread for you. Often you won’t need quite so much as with apple. For example, used in this way, ½ cup per loaf of raisins does the trick; dates, a little less. But don’t expect their flavors to sing out solo so much as to form part of a duet with the heartiness of the whole grain. (It is bread, after all, not cake or jam!) Apricots, sour plums, fresh pineapple, tart grapes—fruits that aren’t sweet themselves obviously can’t be called on to sweeten your loaf. Any fruit that is very acid, even if it is cooked, will damage the yeast.

CITRUS PEEL

Orange and lemon peel give a happy zip to the things that they’re put into, but we can’t really bring ourselves to tell you to use them unless you are lucky enough to get them unsprayed, or at least undyed. There really is no way to wash the pesticides or chemical dye off the skins. For your consideration, here is what we have been able to find out about the chemicals used in California, where the regulations are more stringent than in most other places. Of course, the fruit in your own market may come from California or from other citrus-growing areas at different times of year. Try to find out where the fruit comes from and don’t use the peel if there’s a chance it was dyed.

In California it is illegal to dye fruit, and dyed fruit that is brought in from other states has to be labeled “color added.” The labeling used to have to be on the orange, but now it can be just on the box, a problem when the fruit is not