Bacon Leek Flamiche #BreadBakers

This bacon leek flamiche is my version of the traditional French recipe, made with a springy yeast dough crust, topped with smoked bacon, leeks, green onions, cream and cheese.

When our Bread Bakers host for this month announced the theme a few months back – flatbreads with yeast – I duly made a note in my calendar but I didn’t really give it that much thought. After all, almost every country or culture in the world has a flatbread they call their own. I knew my options were going to be many and various, and the hardest thing was going to be to choose just one.

Then I picked up last month’s issue (March 2018) of one of my favorite recipe inspiration sources, delicious.magazine from the UK. (The Australian version is also fabulous and I always bought it when we lived in Malaysia since our imported seasonal produce often came from down under.) On page 121, there was a recipe for a leek flamiche, a French flatbread I’d never heard of.

Clearly a little research was necessary. Turns out that flamiche means different things to different people. For some, it’s made with puff pastry. Others prefer shortcrust as the base. Still more bakers use a brioche-like dough for the crust. Sometimes the crust is complete flat like pizza, and sometimes it has a raised edge.

They all seem to agree on a semi-soft cheese in the topping though, and many include leeks and crispy fried smoked bacon bits.

Bacon Leek Flamiche

This recipe is adapted from several I found on the internet, but I am grateful to delicious. magazine for introducing me to this wonderful dish. The dough for the crust is quite sticky so I recommend using a stand mixer with a dough hook for kneading, if you have one. Otherwise, get ready for a workout!

Ingredients
For the base:
1/2 cup or 120ml warm milk
1 teaspoon dry yeast
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 cups or 280-315g strong white bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup or 57g butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, at room temperature

For the topping:
5 slices thick cut smoked bacon, chopped (about 175g)
13 1/4 oz or 375g trimmed leeks
1 3/4 oz or 50g green onions, green and white part
salt and ground pepper
2 large eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml whipping cream
7 3/4 oz or 220g semi-soft ripe cheese, like Pavé d'Auge. (The orange rind is gorgeous!)

Tip: Semi-soft cheese is easier to slice if it is well chilled. I pop mine into the freezer about 20-30 minutes before slicing and recommend you do the same.

Method
Dissolve the yeast in warm milk and set aside for a few minutes to make sure your yeast is active. It should start to foam and bubble.

In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, sprinkle the salt on to 2 1/4 cups or 280g flour, then pour in the milk/yeast mixture, the egg, and melted butter.

Mix thoroughly and then switch to the bread hook and knead until the dough loses its stickiness and is smooth and elastic, about 5-7 minutes. You can add a little more flour if you need to while kneading.

Shape the dough into a ball and put it back in the mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or cling film and put it in a warm place till the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, rinse the leeks and onions and remove the roots. Cut them all into slices, discarding any hard pieces. Set aside a small handful of the tender green onion tops for garnish.

Brown the chopped bacon in a large skillet. Scoop the pieces from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels.

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of bacon fat from the pan and tip in the bigger pile of the sliced leeks and onions. Fry them gently over a low heat for 15 minutes or until softened, stirring regularly. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

Once your dough is sufficiently risen, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C).

Line a tart pan (11 in or 28cm) with baking parchment and press out the dough evenly on the bottom and up the sides. Prick extravagantly with a fork.

Set aside a tiny handful of the bacon for garnish then spoon the leeks, onions and the bigger pile of bacon into the crust.

Beat the eggs and cream in a small bowl, using a whisk.  Season with a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Pour about 3/4 of the egg mixture over the filling.

Cut your chilled cheese into about 12 slices. Lay them on top of the bacon and leeks, as you see fit. I put 8 radiating out from the middle, then cut the last four in half lengthwise and placed them between the other slices and in the middle of the circle.

Top with the rest of the egg mixture, then sprinkle on your reserved bacon bits and green onions.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the filling is puffy and the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before slicing to serve.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to Sonia from Sonlicious for choosing such a great theme and for hosting Bread Bakers this month.

• Amritsari Paneer Kulcha - Indian Flat Bread from Sonlicious
• Bacon Leek Flamiche from Food Lust People Love
• Chole Kulche Delhi Style from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen
• Creamy Garlic Flatbread Pizza from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Detroit-Style Pepperoni Pizza from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Foccacia Bread from Cook with Renu
• Garlic Naan Bread from Palatable Pastime
• Manakish Za’atar from Herbivore Cucina
• Methi Naan from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Naan from Ambrosia
• Nángbĭng from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Quick Beer Crust Pizza from Cook’s Hideout
• Sourdough Flatbread from Sneha's Recipe
• Yemeni Malooga Bread from Gayathri's Cook Spot

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Yemeni Kubaneh - Buttery Rolls #BreadBakers

A traditional bread, made from dough spread liberally with butter or margarine, Yemeni kubaneh bakes up light and fluffy. It’s perfect with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.

There appear to be as many recipes for Yemeni kubaneh as there are Yemeni mamas and grandmas.

When our international bread theme was chosen for this month’s Bread Bakers, I immediately started to research for an unfamiliar bread to test and bake. We were supposed to choose a bread from a country that is not our own but I decided to take that one step further and choose a recipe I'd never heard of before. In my search, I came across kubaneh first on Food52, and it was beautiful. Seriously, go have a look. Theirs is much prettier than mine.

The instructions, however, seemed a bit challenging to follow without step-by-step photos or a video. So down the rabbit hole of YouTube I went. So many recipes and so many methods! And different spellings: Kubane, kubaneh, kubana, kubani, kubneh. What they all seem to have in common is using lots of butter or margarine to create layers of thinly rolled or hand stretched dough before baking.

Although I didn’t follow the instructions or measurements exactly, this YouTube video (in Italian – the presenter - and Hebrew – the baker) was my best guide. You might find it helpful to watch as well. I gathered, from my faulty Italian (which is really just a mix of Portuguese and Spanish, since truth be told, I don't speak Italian) is that Yemeni kubaneh was originally part of the main family meal, which in Yemen is served in the middle of the day, rather than in the evening.

According to references, including Wikipedia, kubaneh is a Yemenite Jewish bread, found in many varieties throughout Yemen. And if the YouTube video and website ItaliaEbraica are any indication, Italy as well. I'm going to hazard a guess to say you'll probably find it being baked anywhere people of Jewish Yemeni heritage are living. Kubaneh was traditionally baked long and slow, in the embers of the evening fire, to be eaten the next day on the Sabbath. Nowadays, in all the YouTube videos I watched, it seems normal ovens are used.

Yemeni Kubaneh

This traditional Yemeni bread can be slightly sweetened by a sugar glaze, as this version is, or can be served with a tomato sauce.

Ingredients
For the bread dough:
1 1/4 cups or 300ml warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons quick yeast
4 cups or 500g flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup or 75g butter, softened, plus some for the baking pan

For the sugar syrup:
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup or 60ml warm water

For garnish (and flavor):
1 teaspoon sesame seeds and/or 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (I used both.)

Method
In the bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl, combine the sugar, yeast and warm water. Leave to proof for a few minutes.

When the foam and bubbles form, sift in the flour, baking soda and salt. According to the video, this eliminates the bugs and foreign objects.

Add in 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk, reserving the second egg yolk. Mix till well combined and then knead until you have a stretchy bouncy dough.

Drizzle in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and form the dough into a ball, turning it to coat with the oil.

Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place to rise for 40 minutes.

Oil your clean work surface with the rest of the olive oil and turn the dough out onto it. Wet your hands and use them to divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.

Set your softened butter by your clean work surface. Use your hands to spread one of the dough pieces into a thin square. Top this with bits of butter, spreading it around. Don’t be shy with the butter. The dough may tear a little. Just pat it together again.

Repeat with a second piece of dough.

Then gently lift the second dough square and put it on top of the first one. Press them both out even larger.

Roll the dough up into a log, starting from end farthest from you. Set the log aside and continue the process with the other six pieces of dough.

You should now have four dough logs. Line a baking pan with baking parchment which you have rubbed with softened butter.

Using a sharp knife, cut the dough logs into 8 pieces each and fit these into the prepared pan, cut side up.

Drizzle a few drops of water into the reserved egg yolk and whisk to combine. Use a pastry brush to coat the dough with egg yolk. Sprinkle with the sesame and nigella seeds.

Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place while you preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Bake in the oven for 38-42 minutes, covering the pan with foil if the bread starts to brown too quickly.

Meanwhile, make the sugar syrup by dissolving the 2 tablespoons of sugar in 1/4 cup or 60ml hot water.

Remove the Yemeni kubaneh from the oven. Use a spoon to drip the sugar syrup glaze all over the bread.

Pop the pan back in the oven for another 5-6 minutes, watching it carefully so it doesn’t burn. Turn it midway through if your oven doesn’t heat evenly.

Allow to cool a bit before serving because apparently, the best way is to let everyone help themselves and pull a piece (or three) off.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our host today, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for this great theme, and for all of her behind-the-scenes work. I am always delighted at the opportunity to learn something new and this Yemeni kubaneh was definitely that!

Check out all the other international breads we are sharing today:

• Apfelpfannkuchen (Apple Pancake) from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Auvergne Crown from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Bauernbrot from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Onion and Poppy Seed Bialys from Spill the Spices
• Boule from Bread Therapy
• Chilli and Coriander Scones from Sizzling Tastebuds
• Dutch Tiger Bread (Tijgerbolletjes)from Baking Sense
• Epi di Pan - Wheat Wreath from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Franzbrotchen - German Cinnamon Rolls from Gayathri's Cook Spot
• German Soft Pretzels (Laugenbrezel) from Hostess At Heart
• German Soft Pretzels from Herbivore Cucina
• Kardemummabullar - Swedish Cardamom Rolls from Ambrosia
• Pita Bread from Sneha'sRecipe
• Pletzel - Onion Poppyseed Flatbread from Cook's Hideout
• Pretzel Bites from My Cooking Journey
• Savoury Kugelhopf from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen
• Slovak Bread Rolls (Rozky) from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Whole Wheat Pita Bread from Sonlicious
• Yemeni Kubaneh - Buttery Rolls from Food Lust People Love

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Orange Saffron Braided Brioche #BreadBakers

Sweetened with honey, this orange saffron braided brioche is wonderful freshly baked or even toasted and buttered for breakfast, day after day. Not that it lasts very long!

This month our Bread Bakers host is Gayathri from Gayathri's Cook Spot and she challenged us all to braid our dough before baking. I’ve made a few braided loaves, like my chocolate peanut butter braid and my cherry sweet bread twist, which are both long loaves. I decided I wanted to learn how to make a round woven loaf.

A quick search of YouTube turned up hundreds of hits. (Is there anything the denizens of YouTube do not know how to do?!) I ended up following this one.

Orange Saffron Braided Brioche

Ingredients
1 cup or 240 ml whole milk
1/2 cup or 115g butter, plus a little for greasing the mixing bowl
A pinch of saffron threads
Grated orange zest from 1 orange
2 packets or 14g dried yeast
1/4 cup or 80g honey
4 cups or 500g flour (you may need an extra few tablespoons of flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg

Before baking:
1/4 cup or 57g butter, melted and cooled

Optional – 1 tablespoon pearl sugar for decoration

Method
Warm your milk in a small pot or in the microwave in a microwaveable measuring up. Put in the pinch of saffron and the orange zest and leave to infuse.

Add in the butter and honey and warm again until the butter is melting. Around 120°F or 49°C should do it. Sprinkle in the yeast and stir. Within a few minutes, the yeast should activate and begin to bubble up.

Put your flour and salt in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer with the egg and begin to mix, using the dough hook. Pour in the yeast mixture and continue mixing till it comes together in a thick dough.

Knead for several minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy and pulls away from the sides of the mixer.

Form the dough into a ball and lightly grease the bowl with a little butter. Put the ball back in the bowl.  Cover with cling film and set in a warm place to rise for one hour.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and separate it into four equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long tube.

I took photos of each step of making these four tubes into a round braided loaf but honestly, stationary images are not that helpful because, at least for me, it’s hard to see what moves from frame to frame. So just watch this YouTube video. She makes it look very easy – and it is!

Put your round braid into a round cake pan, cover lightly with cling film and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

As you get to the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

When rising time is up, gently pour the melted butter over the top of the orange saffron braided brioche and sprinkle on the pearl sugar, if desired.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes. The internal temperature of an enriched bread is usually about 200°F or 93°C when baked.

The bottom should be lovely and golden as well.

Leave to cool before slicing and serving.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other lovely braided breads we have for you today. Many thanks to Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot for hosting!

• Artisan Herb Bread Braid by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Basic Challah Bread by Cook's Hideout
• Braided Bread with Candied Papaya Chunks by Sara's Tasty Buds
• Braided Garlic Bread by Sizzling Tastebuds
• Braided Herbed Breadsticks by Ambrosia
• Braided Rum & Raisin Buns by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Challah Bread by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Cherry Cheese Braid by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chicken Cheese Braided Bread by Sneha’s Recipe
• Nutella Braided Bread by Veena’s Vegnation
• Orange Saffron Braided Brioche by Food Lust People Love
• Scali Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Spice and Herb French Braid by The Schizo Chef
• Two-Seed Potato Challah by What Smells So Good?
• Whole Wheat Challah Bread by Spill the Spices
• Whole Wheat Pizza Braid by Herbivore Cucina
• Whole Wheat Zopf Bread by I camp in my Kitchen
• Winston Knot Bread by Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Zucchini Yeast Bread by Baking Sense

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Honey Oatmeal Bread #BreadBakers

This honey oatmeal bread is baked with all-purpose flour, wholemeal flour and oats, with just enough honey to slightly sweeten it. It has a tender crumb and a crunchy golden crust.

This month my Bread Bakers are here to support your efforts to eat healthier, if indeed, you are making an effort. I know there are a lot of people who make resolutions of such things this time of year. You might well be one of them. Here’s what I can promise you, even if you are not: The Bread Bakers are a talented, creative group. The breads they bake will be delicious, whatever the theme.

Our host today is Pavani from Cook’s Hideout and so "healthy breads" for January is her chosen theme. Since my co-creator of Bread Bakers stepped down a few months ago, Pavani has been a big help behind the scenes and I am grateful to her for stepping forward to take the first month of 2017. In fact, thanks to lots of members volunteering to host, we’ve got some great themes coming up for you this year! Stay tuned for February when we will take on pancakes.

Perhaps this could be the year you start baking homemade bread! Think about it. This may be a much easier resolution to keep than most. You can start with this easy honey oatmeal bread.

Ingredients
1/4 cup or 60ml warm water
2 teaspoons active dried yeast
1/4 cup or 60ml honey
1 cup or 240ml milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the bowl/pan
2 - 2 1/2 cups or 250- 312g flour
1 cup or 120g wholemeal bread flour
3/4 cups or 70g oats - quick cooking, but not instant
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Optional - to decorate before baking:
2 tablespoons runny honey
2 tablespoons rolled oats

Method
Honey has antibacterial properties and, depending on how the honey was processed, these might kill your yeast. So we start this bread by proofing our yeast in a bowl with the warm water and a generous heaping teaspoon of the honey. If it bubbles and foams after a few minutes, you are good to go. (And you don’t have to do this step with that particular jar of honey again. It’s safe for future baking.)

Note: This recipe can be made by hand, however, the dough is fairly slack so kneading it will be a sticky challenge.

In a microwave-proof measuring jug, heat your milk and butter until the butter just melts. Allow to cool until warm. Pour in the rest of the honey. It will sink to the bottom so stir until the honey has dissolved into the milk.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the yeast mixture to 2 cups or 250g of the all-purpose flour, the wholemeal flour, the oatmeal and salt.

Pour in the milk/butter/honey liquid and mix until it comes together as a soft dough.

Switch to the bread hook and knead for about 5-7 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Add the extra flour, as needed, by the teaspoonful as it kneads. I ended up using about half of the additional flour for this particular loaf.

Form the dough into a ball. Use a little butter to grease the bowl, moving the dough ball around the bowl as you butter. Cover, put in a warm place and leave to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes or one hour.

Line a standard bread pan with parchment paper or grease it liberally with more butter. My pan is not in the best condition so I always choose the parchment paper route.

Punch the dough down and give it a few more turns of kneading. Form it into a log and put it in your prepared loaf pan.

Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled again, another 45 minutes or 1 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C, placing an iron skillet or other heavy cooking pan on the bottom shelf.

Boil your kettle with about 2 cups or 480ml water.

Once the dough has risen sufficiently, drizzle it with the extra honey and sprinkle on the rolled oats.

Put the loaf pan on the middle shelf in the oven and pour the hot water into the heated skillet or baking pan on the bottom shelf. Quickly close the oven so the steam does not escape.

Bake the loaf for about 40-45 minutes or until it’s brown all over and cooked through. If you have a instant read thermometer, the internal temperature should be 200°F or 93°C for an enriched bread made with milk and butter. If your loaf is browning too fast, cover it lightly with a tent of foil.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing.

Enjoy!

Check out the Healthy Breads that our fellow Bread Bakers have baked this month:

• Amaranth Flatbread from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Beet Rye Bread from What Smells So Good?
• Blueberry Almond Bread from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Brain Booster Pancakes from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chocolate Banana Flax Almond Meal Muffins from Spill the Spices
• Eggless Whole Wheat Brioche Buns from Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Grain-free Nutty Carrot Flatbread from A Baker's House
• Healthier Applesauce Spice Bread from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Healthy Whole Grain Bread from The Bread She Bakes
• Honey Almond Brioche from Kidsandchic
• Honey Oatmeal Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Multigrain Pesto Swirl Bread from Herbivore Cucina
• Oatmeal Crispbread (Oatmeal Knäckebröd) from Baking Sense
• Organic Honey Whole Grain Bread from Hostess At Heart
• Quick Whole Wheat Bread from Ambrosia
• Spiced Besani Paratha from Sneha's Recipe
• Sprouted Wheat Bread from Palatable Pastime
• Sweet Potato Bread with Honey from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Sweet Potato Millet Bread from The Schizo Chef
• Ten Grain No Knead Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Whole Wheat Carrot Apple Walnut Quickbread from A Salad For All Seasons
• Whole Wheat White Bean Bread from Cooks Hideout

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.
We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin it! 

 .