Bacon Cheese Bread (Yamazaki style)

Mix all the main dough ingredients except the butter and salt. When the dough reaches about 60–70% gluten development, add the softened butter and salt. The hydration of this recipe is quite high, so the dough may feel very wet and soft. Adjust according to your own handling: if you can’t manage such a wet dough, you can omit the 20g of water. Of course, also adjust based on how much water your flour absorbs.

Knead until the dough is smooth and can be stretched into a thin, almost transparent membrane (windowpane stage).

Shape the dough into a ball, place it in a bowl, and let it rise at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Let it ferment until the dough doubles in size, or poke a hole in the center with your index finger—if the hole does not spring back, the proofing is done.

Divide into portions of about 60g each. With this recipe you can get roughly 8–9 pieces. In the photos I doubled the recipe and divided it into 10 pieces, and used the remaining dough to make some other small breads.

Let the divided dough relax for 15 minutes. Then take one piece and start rolling it out.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle.

Place a cheese slice and a strip of bacon in the middle, one after another.

Pinch the dough together at both ends to seal.

This is what the final shape should look like.

Turn them seam-side down and arrange on a baking tray.

Once all are shaped, proof a second time at 30–40°C for about 40 minutes.

After the second proof, brush each piece of bread with beaten egg.

Sprinkle generously with grated cheese, then score a few slashes on top.

Finally, drizzle with mayonnaise.

Preheat the oven in advance. Bake the bread at 180°C for 13 minutes.

Perfect right out of the oven! Super soft and incredibly tasty bread 😋