Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Bacon: Food of the gods...



Bacon & Onion Pull Apart Bread
Ingredients
    For the bread
  • 4 tbsps unsalted butter
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour (divided)
  • 2 Tbsps granulated sugar
  • 2 1/4 tsps (usually 1 packet) instant yeast
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • For the filling
  • 10 slices bacon, prepared and crumbled
  • 1 large onion (or more, if you want), sliced
  • olive oil, if needed
  • a dash of salt
  • sugar, optional
Directions
    Make the dough
  1. Melt together the butter together with the milk over medium-low heat until the butter is fully liquid. Remove it from heat.
  2. Combine 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a bowl. Add your butter-milk mixture and mix until your flour is moist. Mix in your eggs one at a time. Add the remaining cup of flour and mix it in until a soft dough forms. Knead it for a few minutes more. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with a light cloth, and let it sit in a cool place for about an hour.
  3. Make the filling
  4. Cook your bacon: Pan-fry your bacon (or cook it however your preferred method is). Set your cooked slices aside on a paper towel and let it sit. Reserve your bacon drippings to caramelize the onions (or just use olive oil, if you prefer).
  5. Caramelize your onions: Slice up a whole onion. Make sure the bottom of your pan is coated with reserved bacon drippings (or olive oil) and toss in your onions. Sprinkle them with salt and let them cook them over medium heat for about 30 - 45 minutes. Note: You may need to turn the heat down on your stove top or add more olive oil if the onions are drying out too quickly. You'll need to stir them and monitor their progress, scraping them up off the pan if they burn, and usually with more frequency toward the end of the process.
  6. Assemble the bread
  7. On a well-floured board (with a well-floured pin), roll out your dough into a very large rectangle or square (20in x 12in or 16in x16in at least is probably good). The dough is very stretchy, especially when you're putting it into your loaf pan, so more is better.
  8. Spread your caramelized onions and bacon across the entire surface of the dough, even up the edges.
  9. Turn your loaf pan into it's narrow side. Slice your dough into long strips (probably about 4-inches wide each) and stack those strips on top of each other. Very gently cut the stacked strips into squares (or rectangles) and pile those stacked squares into the loaf pan until you've got a Jenga-like, filled pan.
  10. Bake the bread
  11. In an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, bake your bread for 30-40 minutes (or until it's very golden brown on top).
  12. Remove it from the oven and let it sit in the pan for at least 10 minutes before shifting it out.
  13. Once the bread has cooled a little, serve and enjoy! (It's excellent drizzled with a little maple syrup, but awesome on its own too).

Compliments of my buddies @ (again)


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