A ninety minute bread, that's not quick exactly, but quicker than most.....
Here is a pic of the last slices of the cheese and bacon bread I made at the weekend to go with a pan of leek and potato soup with home made chicken stock. Proper bread making will have to wait till later in the week as I am away for a bit.
Is this a bread? Or is it a cake? Well because I slipped some of that creme fraiche in to the mix, it became incredibly soft and almost cake like, except of course there was no sugar in it, just milk, eggs, flour, baking powder, grated cheese, crispy pancetta lardons, olive oil and mustard and a little salt.
I am not sure it counts as bread, but for some reason we were down to the last two inches for toast this morning when I thought to take a picture – so someone liked it.
Crumbly corners didn't stop us polishing this off
It took an hour to bake roughly and forty minutes to cool down enough to eat it; scones would have been quicker but this has a lovely crust and it made a nice change – I did like the crust a lot! I find soda breads quite dry sometimes but this one was rich and moist with all the enriching ingredients. No shaping, no waiting, has a lot to be said for it! The original recipe is in Rachel Allen’s book Bake. I’ve made several things from this book which my sister gave me and they have all worked well. Every time you bake something from a book which works it increases the likelihood you will bake something else, doesn’t it? Some books I just look at the pictures and never cook from. This is a clear and well written book, good layout, clear instructions. A friendly sort of book. I like it and would recommend it.
I used :
320g self raising flour (what I had)
1 extra tsp of baking powder for luck
a little salt and some black pepper
100g of grated Cheddar cheese
140g of pancetta lardons, more than the original recipe – you can use crisped up bacon and that would be just as good!
140 ml skimmed milk plus 60 grams of full fat creme fraiche – you could use all milk
2 large eggs
1 tbsp of mustard
60ml olive oil
I used a 2 lb loaf tin lined with baking parchment.
I baked this in a fan oven at 160 C (The book says bake at 180 C in a regular oven) for 40 minutes, and took the bread out of the tin and back in the oven for about another 15 minutes till it tapped hollow and looked cooked.
Sift the dry ingredients together. Mix in the grated cheese and the cooked crispy bacon bits without nibbling, or letting the dog fool you into giving him any. Whisk the wet ingredients together and then combine with the dry ingredients until well mixed. Put into tin and bake as above. Allow to cool if you can bear it before eating.
Zeb Bakes 
It’s definitely what the French would call a “cake” – and absolutely delicious, I am sure yours was…
I love this kind of recipe, I haven’t made one in a while… good to remind me
It looks delicious – and it uses self-raising flour! I seem to have a lot of that in the house at the moment. Quick breads were quite the vogue about 20 years ago, when we were making them here with beer and SR flour. Maybe it’s time for a revival! :)
I hadn’t thought of that before. You are right though, if you have one success than you find another and than another to cook from. One disaster and the book doesn’t get much of a look in…until I forget, try again and then am reminded why I had forgotten about it in the first place….waffling this morning…
Loaf looks good. The Monkeys would be all over that one, casually picking out all the bacon and popping it in to their mouths, until the bread looked like swiss cheese.
That looks luscious! It even looks better toasted!
And I’m all about bread and bacon.
I’m making that this week to go with bean soup.
Hi, surely it is a cake with S/R flour and BP? and no yeast?! have a nice break, we’ll miss you!
I love easy breads and this looks fabulous – I have never taken a loaf out of the tin and baked it further – excited to give that a go.
:-) Mandy
@ Sally – I think it is cake, do they make ones like this in France too?
@ Celia It reminds me of carrot cake and zuchinni loaf and all those sorts of soft vegetable/cheese breads. Rachel Allen comes from that Irish tradition of baking doesn’t she? Isn’t her school in Ireland. They’re big on soda breads there.
@ Brydie – I like your waffle :) The image of the Monkeys sneaking the goodies out of the loaf – well it’s what we all want to do, only we can’t get away with it when we get old, can we?
Hi Heidi, it is a good fill you up sort of food, and I liked it toasted too! Brian is a big bacon fan like you. He lived on bacon sandwiches for years he told me once.
@ chocveg – yes, but it doesn’t have sugar so you’d have to call it a savoury cake. I ‘m back now, had a very nice lemon and poppy seed mini cake in Paul Rhodes new bakery/cafe at Notting Hill :)
Hi Mandy, taking the loaf out of the tin, firms it up a bit and improves the colour of the crust, definitely worth doing.
OH MY GOSH that looks wonderful. I tend to keep bacon out of the house because half of it gets eaten before it ever gets used for what ever I am using it for. If the recipe calls for 1 ob I have to buy 2 lbs (doesn’t count the amount of weight I gain from eating it). With all that dais, I WILL be making this! Thanks! Emily
Hi Emily, I just thought it might fit in with your current quickbread cooking – this is a nice one and has no sugar, good for people who want to keep their sugar low. I haven’t made it either for a while but re-reading the post the other day reminded me of how good it is. I hope you like it, Joanna