Also known as Baguette aux lardons.
This is fabulous bread! I baked it yesterday from Daniel Leader’s new book, Local Breads. It is a very easy recipe, absolutely delicious fresh from the oven and today it made incredible toast. The incorporation of slightly browned bacon and his recommendation to retard the shaped loaves overnight to infuse the dough with more of that great smoky bacon flavor is a winner.
His recipe calls for making four 316g baguettes but for some reason I only ended up with about 1100g total dough so I made 3 roughly 366g baguettes. The dough was supple and slashed really well which I was concerned about with the bacon. No problem though.
His method of using floured parchment and then making your own couche worked really well for this. I was able to fit all three baguettes perfectly on a quarter-sheet restaurant style pan with rolled up dish cloths on each side to keep the loaves from spreading. You make the troughs for the dough creasing the parchment between each loaf and then tuck the rolled cloths against them and the rim of the sheet pan.
The next day I removed from the fridge and slid the entire thing onto the counter, took off the plastic wrap and covered with a cotton flour-sack towel. I let them warm up and finish proofing for about 2 hours and then baked. Even in my small oven all three loaves fit perfectly on my smaller-than-normal baking stone. I steamed the oven and baked them about 25 minutes at 450°F and was really happy with the way they rose and actually grew ears. (chuckle) That is always welcome and always surprising for my breads, it seems but I’m getting better.
I have not typed up this recipe yet. I encourage you all to go buy Daniel Leader’s new book. This is the first of his two books I have purchased so others are way ahead of me in the knowledge of his great breads and first book. Mountaindog is lucky enough to live close to his bakery – wow! That would be a treat. So far in what I’ve read I’m very impressed with this book although since I use a firm starter I do have a couple thoughts that may differ from what his instructions are only by means of my own experience. All in all it is a wonderful book and I’m thrilled to have it. Can’t wait to try more new recipes.
Baguettes aux lardons
Great crisp crust and you can see how the bacon bits on the exterior crisp when baked. (yum)
Crumb was creamy with bacon infused throughout in little bits. He doesn't show a photo of the crumb so I'm hoping this is how it is supposed to look. He does have you beat the tar out of the dough and with a mixer it does break down the already small cooked pieces. I didn't mind. :o)
