Bacon rolls

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 5 rolls, you will need:

• 1 80 g lard
• 2 30 g sesame seeds
• 3 100 g water
• 4 250 g plain white flour (French Type 65)
• 5 130 ml water
• 6 4.5 g salt
• 7 5 g yeast
• 8 125 g leaven
• 9 100 g small pieces of bacon
• Total weight: 825 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
48 min.	2 hours	50 min.	3 hours 38 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1:

  Prepare the square of lard

  Put 80 g lard on a plastic sheet.
• 2: Fold the plastic over to seal in the lard and flatten with a rolling pin into a "cake" about 8 inches (20 cm) square.This is similar to preparing the butter for croissants.
  Put the square of lard in the freezer (not the fridge) - this is important for later.
• 3:

  Cook the bacon and toast the sesame seeds

  Preheat the oven to 360°F (180°C).
  Spread 30 g sesame seeds on a sheet of cooking parchment laid on a baking tray. Toast in the oven for 15 minutes.
• 4: After toasting, tip the sesame seeds into 100 g water.
  Set aside.
• 5: Brown the bacon bits in a frying pan for a few minutes.
  Set aside.
• 6:

  Make the bread dough

  Put into a food-processor bowl: 250 g plain white flour (French Type 65), 130 ml water, 4.5 g salt, 5 g yeast and 125 g leaven.
• 7: Knead on slow speed for 10 minutes.
  Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.
• 8: One minute beofre the end of kneading, add the sesame seeds.
• 9: Gather the dough into a ball, transfer to a large, clean bowl and cover with a plastic sheet.
  Leave to rest for 1 hour.
• 10:

  Flake the dough

  After resting, roll out the dough on the worktop into a long rectangle about the same width as the square of lard.
• 11: Place the suqare of lard in the centre of the rectangle of dough and gently slide out the plastic. This is slightly tricky, which is why it is important to have the lard really cold from the freezer.
• 12: Fold the flaps of dough over to cover the lard.
  Fold in half again and turn the dough through 90° (a quarter turn).
• 13: Roll out again and spread the bacon bits over the dough.
• 14: Fold up again like before to seal in the bacon.
• 15: Finish by rolling out the dough again and cut across into broad strips.
• 16:

  Shape and bake the rolls

  Roll or fold the strips up to form the rolls. Arrange these on a baking sheet.
  Cover with a plastic sheet and leave to rest for 1 hour.
• 17: Preheat the oven to 460°F (240°C). Bake the rolls for about 30 minutes with steam. Do watch for the colour towards the end of baking.
• 18: Best served warm, cut into slices.

Remarks

The ideal lard to use is fat that has been saved from making potted meat (rillettes). This has more flavour than plain lard, which is very bland.
You will notice that the flakiness is less marked than with butter, as lard does not produce the same effect - this is quite normal and a feature of the recipe.

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