Bacon Country Bread with Corn

Who can resist bread that is loaded with bacon? This bacon country bread with corn is one of those irresistible loaves.

This bacon bread with corn is a wonderful country loaf with a chewy crust and an airy crumb. It's a rustic artisan loaf, but you can make it from start to finish in four hours.

Tucked into this loaf are 6 slices of cooked and chopped bacon along with a cup of corn kernels. It's what happens when my four-hour country loaf and sourdough bacon bread get married and the wedding guests throw corn instead of rice.

While sweet white corn would be delicious in this bread, I loved being able to see all of the yellow corn kernels throughout the sliced bread.

One of my favorite things about this bread is how the crust crackles away when you remove it from the oven to a cooling rack. It seems like the bread talks to you for a very long time! It's music to my ears.

This bread is made with 90 percent bread flour and 10 percent whole wheat flour. In bakers' percentages, this bread is 75 percent hydration, which is the percentage of water to flour by weight. While getting used to a wet dough is a challenge at first, if you can resist adding more flour, you'll end up with a nice airy interior.

How to make this bread:

First, you mix the flours and water by hand in a big bowl or dough rising bucket and let it rest for 20 minutes so that the flour can absorb the water. This step is called autolyse. It helps the flour to fully hydrate and for the gluten to begin to develop without much effort. King Arthur Flour has a great explanation of the method.

After that, you sprinkle the top of the dough with the yeast and the salt and then do a combination of alternating pinches and stretches and folds to incorporate them. Pinches? As you pinch the dough with your fingers you can feel the salt and yeast dissolve. This first process should take no longer than 2 or 3 minutes.

Next, you stretch and fold the dough at 20 minute intervals, two more times, and then let the dough rise until tripled.

Finally, gently shape the dough into a boule and let it rise for about an hour. You can bake the loaf in a preheated Dutch oven or on a baking stone with steam. Then, listen to the crust crackle.

I'm a huge fan of corn and bacon together, as evidenced by my cheesy corn and bacon muffins, bacon scallion corn muffins, spicy corn pizza, and cornbread bacon muffins.

I also love incorporating cornmeal into bread. My recipes include sourdough cornbread rolls and sourdough polenta bread.

Serving ideas for this bread:

This bread is fabulous the day it's made served with soups or dipped in sauces. It also makes amazing toast with cheese and butter.

I loved using this bread for a fancy chicken BLT. For one thing, the bacon is in the bread. Of course you could add more bacon to the sandwich if you like....

I served this with my friend Wendy's son's fabulous bread and butter pickles as well as cherry tomatoes. So good.

Because this bread is loaded with bacon and corn, I recommend slicing it and freezing it after two days and pulling out slices and toasting them as needed.

This month, the bread bakers, hosted by Food Lust People Love, are baking bread with corn.

• Bacon Country Bread with Corn from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Corn Bread from Sneha's Recipe
• Honey Skillet Cornbread from Making Miracles
• Hot Water Cornbread from Palatable Pastime
• Iowa "Corn" Pancakes from A Messy Kitchen
• Polenta Rosemary Garlic Sourdough Bread from Spiceroots
• Polenta-Crusted, Kernel-Dotted Sourdough from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Sourdough Cornmeal Dinner Rolls from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Southwestern Chicken Skillet with Cornbread Topping from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Studded Golden Cornbread from What Smells So Good?
• Sweet Peach Cornbread from Food Lust People Love
• Yeast Corn Breakfast Bread from Ambrosia

Bacon Country Bread with Corn

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Yield: 16 servings (2 slices per serving)

Author: Karen Kerr

Who can resist bread that is loaded with bacon? This bacon country bread with corn is one of those irresistible loaves.

Ingredients:

• 450 grams bread flour
• 50 grams whole wheat flour
• 365 to 380 grams 90 to 95 degrees F water. The amount of water should depend upon how much hydration you are striving for.
• 10.5 grams fine sea salt
• 4 grams instant yeast
• 6 slices of cooked bacon, chopped
• 1 cup of frozen corn, thawed
• Rice flour for dusting

Instructions:

1. Combine the flours and the water in a large bowl or dough rising bucket. Mix with your hand until all of the flour is incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap or a plate and let rest for 20 minutes.
2. Sprinkle the top of the dough with the salt and the yeast. With a wet hand, fold the dough over the salt and yeast, and then pinch the dough with your fingers. Continue to wet your mixing hand and fold the dough over itself, and continue to pinch and fold, until the salt and yeast are dissolved. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap, and let rest for 20 minutes.
3. Add the crumbled bacon and cup of corn kernels and fold the dough by picking up each "side," stretching it, and folding it over the middle. Continue until the corn and bacon are evenly distributed. Cover again. 
4. Fold the dough again after 20 minutes. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, and let rise until tripled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
5. Gently scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and shape it into a boule or batard by gently folding the dough over itself from all "sides." Flip the shaped dough over so that the seam side is on the counter. Using a bench scraper, draw the loaf toward you, and then away from you, to tighten up the top of the dough. Cover with a towel and let rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime, dust a banneton or towel lined bowl with a 50-50 mixture of wheat and rice flour.
6. After 10 minutes, place the bench scraper under the shaped loaf, and scoot it around from all four sides to tighten up the loaf a bit. Place the shaped dough into the banneton, seam side up or down. If you do it seam side down, you won't need to slash the dough before baking, as it will open naturally.
7. Cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap or a clean towel, and let rise until puffy, about an hour. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F with either a Dutch oven or baking stone placed on the middle rack.
8. When the dough has risen, turn it out onto parchment lined plate. Either lift it into the heated Dutch oven, or slide it onto the baking stone. Cover with the lid, or in the case of the baking stone, cover with a stainless bowl or hotel pan.
9. Bake for 30 minutes, remove the lid or pan, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more, until the bread is a deep brown and reaches an internal temperature of about 205 degrees F. If you are using a Dutch oven, I recommend transferring the loaf to a baking sheet before continuing to bake. 
10. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Calories
179.40

Fat (grams)
2.30

Sat. Fat (grams)
0.65

Carbs (grams)
33.16

Fiber (grams)
1.60

Net carbs
31.56

Sugar (grams)
0.50

Protein (grams)
6.27

Sodium (milligrams)
385.12

Cholesterol (grams)
4.27

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2020/06/bacon-country-bread-with-corn.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

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