Baguette aux lardons is the 2nd bread in the chapter on "the Auvergne" in Daniel Leaders "Local Breads". According to my bread diary, I first made this on 9th December, but it would seem I've been a touch on the busy side and haven't managed to write about it. I did make it again this week, so thought I should put "pen to paper".
I'm not entirely sure why this bread is called a rye, because it is made with an AP/wholewheat starter and has only 10% flour weight as rye flour. But anyway it is a nice tasty loaf.
Once again it uses a stiff dough starter 50% hydration with a nice mix of 95% AP and 5% wholewheat flours - 45g stiff starter, 50g water, 95g AP flour and 5g wholewheat. My starter either sits overnight or most of the day to get itself cracking, generally about 7-8hrs.
You need to cook and cool your bacon before you start making the bread, otherwise it's too hot to incorporate into the dough. So fry up 280g of sliced thick cut bacon until nicely browned, then tip onto paper towel and cool completely.
The dough has a total flour weight of 500g with 90% of this AP and only 10% rye (the 2nd time I made this I upped the rye portion to 100g and dropped the AP to 400g). Theoretically you add your flours to 350g water and do the autolyse, however I’ve taken to added everything in and doing the autolyse, so that would include 125g of your nice fresh stiff starter , 10g of salt and the aforementioned cooled bacon bits. I let it autolyse for about 20 minutes then do 3 x 10 sec kneads over half an hour, then 2 or 3 stretch and folds over the next couple of hours.
The recipe calls for shaping the dough into 4 x 316g baguettes, but I opted for slightly chunkier baguettes and only made three, about 12 inches long each.
I proofed these in the fridge overnight.
Next morning oven heated to about 230C, loaves slipped in and baked for about 25 minutes with steam .......... et voila!
Very tasty loaves, with a nice second wafting of bacon throughout the kitchen on cooking the loaves. My Dad was very happy with them topped with a nice slice of blue cheese! I found it nice with a poached egg on top for brekky! Very delicious!
K.
Happiness is making bread!!
Replies
Excellent. Have you done the Blue Cheese and Rye loaf yet?
Wow these look beautiful, and very yummy!
Blue Cheese and rye loaves are next up LD. I might even splash out and buys some mini-loaf tins! Will re-read recipe first to make sure I can't make them free-form. Have you made them before?
Oh yes many times and always free form. I should have a post on here about what I did.
Found your thread LD and will go free form. I guess the mini loaf pans suggested in the recipe just make them look real cute. Cute I can live without! :o)