Its the weekend again! which means i get to muck around in the kitchen the whole day without the usual weekday morning rush. Translated, that means i get to spend some precious time with yeast and play some dough.
I have decided to go on savoury for this one, since all of us know that there is enough dessert items in this blog to last us a couple of lifetimes. So i settled on this bacon and cheese bread from Happy Home Baking – A loaf bread studded with bacon bits on topped with shredded cheese.
I’ve made a few changes though, making do with whatever i had in my pantry. I subbed bacon for canned luncheon meat (or better known as SPAM), mozarella cheese for cheddar, and added my own dried herbs to the party.
So i kneaded the dough and waited for the first rise, and kneaded, and waited some more for the second rise, (now you see why i need the weekend?) before i was able to pop them into the oven.
I was really surprised by how much further the dough grew in the oven. What went in as an average heighted loaf, promised a much taller outcome. A good payoff, to put it in financial terms.
The only drawback i had on this was the kink at the sides of the bread. Instead of a square loaf, my loaf had a waist, which i suspect was due to me taking out the bread too soon.
Nevertheless, i am still pleased at how cottony soft and moist this bread turned out. It’s a good contrast the to slightly crusted cheese on top. Needless to say, between the cheese and luncheon meat, this bread is good enough to be eaten on its own.
So go SPAM!
Bacon & Cheese Bread
(Taken from Happy Home Baking)
Ingredients
A:
3 slices of bacon; finely chopped
1/2 tsp black pepper
B:
250g bread flour
15g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
150ml water, lukewarm
20g unsalted butter
C:
40g grated mozzarella cheese
1/8 tsp black pepper
some dried parsley
Method:
- Pan-fry finely chopped bacon over low heat, until brown and crisp. Drain off any excess oil and mix in the black pepper. Set aside to cool.
- Place all ingredients B, except the butter, in the pan of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Select the Dough function of the bread machine and press start. After about 8mins of kneading (the ingredients should form a smooth dough by now), add in the 20g of butter. Let the machine continue to knead the dough. After the kneading cycle has stopped (20mins), Stop and Restart the machine. Continue to let the machine knead for another 10mins.
- Add in the bacon and black pepper mixture and let the machine run for another 1~2 mins until the bacon mixture is incorporated into the dough.
- Stop the machine and remove dough from the bread pan. Shape the dough into a smooth round and place in a lightly greased mixing bowl, cover bowl with cling wrap and let dough rise till double in volume for about 80 ~ 90 mins.
- Remove dough and give a few light kneading on a lightly floured work surface. Press out the trapped air as your knead. Shape into a round dough and cover with cling wrap, let the dough rest for 15mins.
- Flatten and roll out the dough into a rectangular shape (20cm by 15cm). Roll up swiss roll style and pinch the seam in place. Place dough in a loaf pan (size, 7.5″x4″x4″, lined with parchment paper, both bottom and sides), seam-side down. Cover with cling wrap and let dough proof for 50~60mins or until the dough reaches about 90% of the height of the pan.
- Sprinkle top with grated cheese, black pepper and some dried parsley.
- Bake at preheated oven at 190 degC for about 30mins until the bread is golden brown all over. Cover the top with a sheet of aluminum foil if the surface browns too quickly.
- Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Let cool completely before slicing.
Recipe adapted from 孟老师的100道面包
