Bacon bread is by far the most popular bread item from the original Laughing Loaf Bakery I operated.
It’s made from a biga, a pre-ferment. Because biga is my go-to bread method, I named the pesky little dog in my cozy mystery series after it. The pre-ferment is much better behaved than the dog. 😄

Now you can make this bread yourself.

Biga bread takes a while from start to finish, but it’s not a lot of work, and the flavor you get is worth it. Biga gives you some of the rich flavor of sourdough (but no sourness) without having to maintain a starter. And it’s easy to add things to the recipe during the bulk rise: Bacon works great, so do nuts, herbs, and even grated hard cheese.

Bacon Bread

Total time: About 17 hours. This recipe makes one loaf.

A biga is a pre-ferment (starter). The biga,which is the base of the dough, ferments overnight (or 11-12 hours), and then you add a smaller portion of flour, water, and yeast to that pre-ferment. You get more flavor with a biga than you would with a quick rising bread. But to get that flavor, it takes time and a consistent temperature for the rise times.
This is best baked in a covered dutch oven/cast iron pot. Covering the pot as it bakes will ensure a nice, crispy crust.

Pre-ferment
In a 4-quart tub or bowl, mix together:

•   3 and ¼ cups of all-purpose flour
•   1-1/3 cups warm water
•   1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast

Mix together until blended. Dough will look a little shaggy. If it doesn’t hold together, mix in a teaspoon of warm water. Cover the bowl with stretch wrap and let it rise in a warm place for 12 hours (If you have a temperature gauge: 72 degrees is ideal). 

Cook 1 pound of bacon (yes that much) till crispy.
I chop the bacon up into 1/2-inch pieces then fry it in a pan till crispy, making sure to blot the grease off afterwards with paper towels.You can also lay out the bacon strips on a sheet pan, bake them at 350 degrees for about 30 mins or until crispy–“degrease” them with paper towels then crumble them up.

Bulk rise – where you add the bacon!
After that overnight rise, the dough should have doubled and have a bubbly texture on top and a faint alcohol scent.
Now add ½ cup of water and 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour to the bowl, then sprinkle over that 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt (don’t use iodized salt) and ¼ teaspoon yeast.
Mix this together with your hands, snipping the dough into balls using your thumb and forefinger as pincers, then squishing the balls back together, repeating this snipping and squishing process about three times, until all the elements in the dough are well blended.

Cover your tub/bowl with stretch wrap and let dough rise for three hours.

Final rise
After this bulk rise, dump the dough out onto a floured board. Shape into a round ball. Then placing one hand at the top of the ball and one at the bottom, twist it in a circular motion with your hands until the ball feels tighter and more compact. Set a kitchen towel into a quart-sized mixing bowl, sprinkle it with about a tablespoon of flour, then lay the dough inside. Let this rise in a warm area, covered with a dish towel, for about an hour.

Thirty minutes in, put your pot or Dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 475 degrees.

Bake
When your oven has come up to temperature, with gloved hands, lay the dough ball carefully into the preheated pot and immediately put the lid on. Bake for 28 minutes, then take the lid off and bake uncovered for ten minutes. The loaf should be golden to deep brown at the end of this time.
Carefully take out the very hot pot and move the bread to a cooling rack.

Do not touch or cut the bread for an hour (it gets kinda gummy if you don’t wait!)