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Sourdough Pain Au Bacon (2 loaves)

Sourdough Pain Au Bacon (2 loaves) cooked in cloches
Recipe Adapted from Ken Forkish’s Flour Water Salt Yeast

SAMPLE SCHEDULE:

Feed the levain at 9 a.m., mix the final dough at 7 p.m., the next morning between
7 a.m and 8 a.m. shape into loaves and bake around 11.30 a.m.

Levain Build
Mature sourdough starter 22g
Water 85°F to 90°F (29°C to 32°C) 85g
Shipton Mill White Organic No 4 82g
Shipton Mill Wholewheat 27g

Total Weight 216g

9 a.m. Build the levain by mixing ingredients until incorporated. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 9 to 10 hours before mixing the final dough.

Dough
Shipton Mill White Organic No 4 864g
Shipton Mill Wholewheat 16g
Water 90ºF to 95ºF (32ºC to 35ºC) 684g
Fine sea salt 20g
Bacon lardons 500g uncooked
2 tbsp Bacon fat
Levain 216g

7 p.m. Autolyse
Mix white, wholewheat flours and water by hand until incorporated.
Cover and autolyse for 20-30 minutes

Whilst autolysing, saute the bacon until crisp. Drain on kitchen roll and reserve 2 tablespoons of the rendered bacon fat.

7.30 pm Mix the final dough
Incorporate the 216g levain into the autolysed dough with wet hands until fully integrated.

Sprinkle the 20g of salt evenly over the top of the dough and once again mix with wet hands until fully integrated.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes then spread the 2 tablespoons of bacon fat over the top of the dough and sprinkle the lardons on top. Incorporate into the dough until the bacon and fat are evenly distributed.

8 p.m.Bulk Fermentation overnight
Stretch and fold 3 to 4 times every half an hour during the first 2 hours.
Bulk ferment at cool room temperature 58-61F (14-16C) for 10-12 hours or until 2.5 increase in volume.

If you are worried about over fermentation place the dough into the fridge for a slower cold overnight fermentation and take out the next morning to finish fermentation process. When dough has increased in volume 2.5 times continue with shaping and proving.

7 -8 am Shaping and proving
With floured hands, gently ease the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. With your hands still floured, pick up the dough and ease it back down onto the work surface in a somewhat even shape. Use a bit of flour to dust the area in the middle where you’ll cut the dough, then cut it into 2 equal-size pieces with a dough knife or plastic dough scraper.

Dust 2 proofing baskets with flour. Shape each piece of dough into a medium-tight ball and place seam side up in its proofing basket.

Cover baskets with tea towel or place each basket in a nonperforated plastic bag.

Proofing time should be 3½ to 4 hours, assuming a room temperature of 70°F (21°C) or retard in fridge for up to 12 hours.

Preheat - At least 45 minutes prior to baking put cloches in oven and preheat to 475F (245C)

If you only have 1 cloche then bake the loaves sequentially giving the cloche a 5 minute reheat after removing the first loaf.

Bake 11.30


Carefully placed the loaf in the cloche, slash, cover and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for a further 20 minutes until medium dark brown maybe even a little charred.