Crackling Bread

A savoury loaf whose crackling is rendered and cooled hard before it goes anywhere near the dough.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 300 g pork belly skin and fat, or fatty pork belly
• 500 g strong white flour
• 300 ml water
• 10 g salt
• 5 g fast-action yeast
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Method

1. THE CRACKLING IS RENDERED AND COOLED HARD BEFORE IT GOES IN THE DOUGH, and this is the whole difficulty. Warm crackling carries liquid fat, and liquid fat kneaded into a dough coats the flour and stops gluten forming -- the loaf comes out heavy, greasy and barely risen. Rendered until the pieces are crisp, drained, and then CHILLED until the fat in them is solid, they fold in as solid lumps and the dough is unaffected.
2. AND THE RENDERED FAT IS KEPT OUT OF THE DOUGH ALTOGETHER. It is good for frying potatoes. Two tablespoons of it in here is enough to ruin the loaf.
3. THEY GO IN AT THE LAST FOLD, NOT AT MIXING. Kneaded from the start, the pieces break up into grit and disappear. Folded in at the end, they stay as nuggets you can find.
4. THE DOUGH TAKES NO EXTRA SALT FOR THEM but it does take pepper. The crackling is salted from its own rendering and the loaf is seasoned enough; pepper is what it actually wants.
5. Skin and fat cut into 1 cm pieces and put in a heavy pan with a splash of water over a low heat.
6. Rendered 40 to 50 minutes, stirred now and then, until the water has gone, the fat has run out and the pieces are crisp and brown.
7. Lifted out onto kitchen paper with a slotted spoon. The FAT POURED OFF and kept for something else.
8. The crackling CHILLED in the fridge at least 30 minutes, until the pieces are hard and not at all greasy to the touch.
9. Flour, yeast and water mixed to a shaggy mass. Rested 30 minutes, then the salt and pepper worked in.
10. Three folds in the bowl at 30-minute intervals.
11. AT THE FOURTH FOLD the cold crackling scattered over and folded through, so it is distributed without being crushed.
12. Risen a further 1 hour until nearly doubled.
13. Shaped as a round or a long loaf, proved 1 hour in a floured cloth.
14. Baked at 230C with steam 15 minutes, then 210C for 25 minutes. The fat in the crackling will spit a little. Cooled, and eaten the same day with nothing on it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes