Bacon & Pesto Bread
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Ingredients
In addition to the dough, for this I used some smoky bacon, sea salt, and good quality pesto (nice and oily stuff), but literally anything will do; sun-dried tomatoes, crushed garlic, whatever. There are a million bread dough recipes out there, so I'll leave that bit to you, but it's fun to get creative with the toppings.
There's nothing to this really. I baked the bread you see in a toaster oven (lacking the real thing here in Japan) and it's practically impossible to make a mistake.
- I usually do this recipe the next day after making pizza when I have a little dough left over, but you can use any bread recipe you want. Try a sourdough maybe! Here's my dough:
In a bowl, mix well in order:
- 200ml warm water
- 2 tsp of sugar
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- about 2 cups of flour, enough to bring it to a nice dough-like consistancy. Knead dough for a while on a floured board, and then leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but overnight is probably better.
- Separate the prepared dough into three 20cm lengths, about as thick as your finger.
- Smear the dough with pesto sauce, just on top, or all around if you want more flavour.
- Squeeze all 3 lengths of dough together at one end, and start to braid the dough together. As you make each braid, place a small slice of bacon between the dough, repeating this every time you cross the dough over each other. At the finished end, pinch the dough to finish the braid.
- Place the dough on a pan, and put it in a warm place and allow it to rise a little (I usually leave it in a slightly warm oven with a glass of water beside it).
- Once the dough has roughly doubled in size, sprinkle sea salt over the top and throw it immediately in the oven at 350 degrees. Bake until golden brown.
- Definitely eat it while it's still hot!
yum