Spider Bread

Ingredients

• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 13 1/2 to 15 3/4 ounces bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Eggwash
• Poppy seeds, as needed
• Sesame seeds, as needed
• 1 dried apricot

Directions

1. Combine the water, yeast, honey, and yogurt in the bowl of a stand mixer, then whisk until the honey dissolves. Mix in the salt and 3 cups of flour. Fit the mixer with the dough hook and knead until the dough turns smooth and elastic. It should pull fully onto the hook, leaving the bowl clean. If a small bit of dough stays attached to the bottom, add more flour gradually, just until that bit gets worked into the doughball. Pour in the olive oil and keep kneading until the dough has absorbed it completely. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour. While it rises, cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and dust the paper with cornmeal.
2. Dust the counter with flour, move the dough onto it, and knead it briefly. Cut away about 1/4 of the dough. Pat that piece into a rectangle and roll it out to about 12 inches long and 3 inches wide. Use a sharp knife, pizza cutter, or pastry cutter to neaten the edges, then slice the rectangle into 4 strips; those strips will become 8 legs. Arrange the strips on the prepared baking sheet as spider legs. Stretch them longer if you want, or trim them shorter; this spider gets to look however you want it to look.
3. Work the trimmed dough back into the dough you have not used yet. Divide that dough into 2 pieces: make 1 piece roughly 1/3 of the total and the other roughly 2/3. Shape both pieces into rounds, then place them over the legs to make the spider’s head and body. Be sure the 2 rounds touch. Move the legs around until the shape looks right to you. Loosely cover the shaped spider with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. While the dough rises, heat the oven to 350 degrees F with a rack in the center.
4. Uncover the spider. When using multiple seed types, eggwash the bread in sections. Brush the legs and coat them with poppy seeds, then brush the body and add brown sesame seeds. Before seeding the head, shape the dried fruit as needed, then set it on the eggwashed head. Sprinkle the head with your chosen seeds; a mix of toasted sesame seeds and poppy seeds works for this section. Snip vertically to make the mouth, and, if you like, make small cuts at the tips of the front feet for extra character. Bake the spider at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes, until the bread has browned nicely. During baking, rotate the pan if it needs help browning evenly.