Potato, Sour Cream, and Bacon Bread

Ever since I read Ian's post about roasted potato and sour cream bread, I've meant to try it.  Here's his post:

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/74587/multigrain-roasted-potato-sour-cream-sourdough

This is my third iteration and I'm deliriously happy with the result. After making the basic bread twice and learning the adjustments I wanted, I thought that well, we have sour cream and potatoes, obviously we should have bacon. Jackpot!

Let me be clear.  This is US bacon, not that ho-hum Canadian bacon, nor back bacon. This is good old streaky bacon, cut from the pork belly and smoked.

Roasting the potatoes instead of boiling was a good idea because they don't soak up extra water. Water can be a problem with recipes like this because both the potatoes and the sour cream contain a fair amount of it. My sour cream was thick and didn't have extra liquid squeezing out. I like my mashed potatoes with a few lumps, not completely pureed, and that's how I mashed these potatoes.  I don't think it matters  much and I didn't really notice the little lumps when I tasted the bread.

Pictures, then details:

_DSC1427_lzn.jpg

_DSC1434_lzn.jpg

One tip is to combine the potatoes, sour cream, and bacon bits before working them into the dough.  It makes things much easier because there isn't much free liquid that needs to get worked in. Note that all the mixing and kneading was done by hand, no mixer involved.  The recipe makes two roughly 1-lb loaves. Right from my notes:

Recipe
--------
- 150g (25%) - sujata atta (this is a finely ground whole-wheat flour)
-  60g (10%) - stone ground ww @90% extraction.
- 390g (65%) - KA bread flour
- 100g (17%) - starter (~95% hydration) ***
- 360g (60%) - water
-  13g (2.2%) - salt
- 100g (18%) - sour cream  ++
- 120g (20%) -  mashed potato ++
-  78g (13%) - cooked diced bacon - not quite crisp

*** I planned 120g starter but only had 100g. So the dough was
about 10g too dry.  I added part of that back during mixing.

++ Mix sour cream, potato, and bacon together together before using.

Process
----------
- mix starter, water.  Add half of flour, stir in circles 50 strokes
    to develop gluten. Add rest of flour in two batches.
- Rest 30 min, knead.
- Rest 30 min, laminate dough, work in 1/2 - 2/3 of filling.
- Rest 45 minutes, laminate, work in rest of filling.
- Rest 30 minutes, knead or S&F
- Rest, S&F (this rest was about 2 1/2 hours).
- Rest, S&F, transfer to BF tub.
- Rest, coil folds in tub.
- Rest 2 - 3 hours until somewhat risen.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- Warm up 30 minutes. Scale into two pieces, preform into balls.
- Shape into batardes.
- Proof 1 hr covered, uncover for 15 minutes longer.
- Score, bake with initial steam, steel preheated 450°F, temp to 350°F
    for 20 minutes, 425 for 20 minutes, 375°F for 6 minutes.

Results
---------
A well shaped, well risen loaf with an excellent color and bits of bacon
studded into the crust. The crust is a little soft even after the
extra 6 minutes in the oven. The crumb is soft and moist, and decently
open for a bread like this.  The flavor is outstanding.  The bacon flavor
gently permeates the slices even if you don't see any bacon bits.