Buckwheat, Apricot, and Black Pepper Bread

It’s well known that it goes against the grain of most chefs to waste anything that can add flavor to a dish. It definitely goes against the grain—pun intended—of this bread baker. I originally tried this as a dinner roll that incorporated little pieces of baked apricot that I had soaked in water. Rather than discarding the water, I used it for the liquid in the starter. In this version, dried apricots are used instead. The result is concentrated apricot flavor from the apricot pieces set a