Fresh baked bread smells wonderful by itself, add in the aroma of fennel and warm figs and it really becomes something special.

I've been meaning to make this bread for some time now.  I stumbled on this recipe at Epicurious and the reviews were positive so I thought I would give it a try.  The only change I made was to use whole wheat flour for part of the all purpose.  For the most part I make high hydration breads, this was quite the opposite as there was very little water called for in ratio to the flour.  The result was a very dense dough, which baked up into a very dense bread - dense but delicious!  I thinly sliced one of the loaves and served it with Fromager di Affinois, which is a French double creme made from cow milk and Buche Maitre Seguin, which is a French goat milk cheese.  Wilson is looking forward to having me turn the day old bread into crostini to enjoy with the remaining cheese and a bit of chutney.