Daniel Leader Bakes - Auvergne Rye Baguettes (with Chorizo)

From Daniel's "Local Breads" book, this was a recipe for Auvergne Rye Baguettes with Lardons but having no lardons or pancetta to hand, I chose to use a tasty Iberico Chorizo that I had been gradually working my way through. There's never a bad time to eat chorizo in my books!

The additional flavour of rye in a baguette appealed to me and as I needed to check the viability of my recently rescued rye starter, this seemed like a good bake to attempt.

The rye content in the recipe was 50g in 450g of white flour with the overnight preferment being made with white flour and rye starter. I chose to use all rye for the preferment so my overall rye content was higher. I diced the chorizo finely and cooked in a pan for 5 mins or so before draining the oil off.

With main dough hydration of 70% this made for a very sticky wet mass. I autolysed for 30mins before adding the salt, chorizo and preferment, then did 3-4 stretch and folds over a 2 hour period which helped to pull it all together. Daniel retards his shaped baguettes in the fridge for 12-24hrs but I chose not to do this as I knew the chorizo would pack plenty of flavour.

Resulting baguettes are very tasty indeed, and the chorizo is in fact not at all overpowering but rather a more subtle flavour running right through the bread (presumably from the residual oils that have soaked in). The rye element affords a lovely nuttiness which goes well with the chorizo. A nice lump of Spanish Manchego cheese and this is a delightful snack, definitely to be a regular bake.