A Meat Lover’s Treat: Wheat Ear Bread
If a heartbroken basketball player can get back on the court and rack up a double-double, if a dumped stock trader can once again make a big profit, and if a baker nursing a broken heart can still knead dough and bake warm loaves, then we can more or less be sure they’ll pull through. Even if they’re kneading dough while crying their eyes out, they’re at least finding their strength again. Shaping the bread like wheat ears is like seeing the joy golden wheat brings to farmers: abundance, hope, and goodness!
Ingredients
Steps
Prepare all the ingredients and sift the flour.
Use the later-add fat method (adding the butter after) and mix the dough until it reaches full gluten development.
Shape the dough into a ball and measure the dough temperature; it should be around 26℃.
Bulk ferment for 60 minutes at 28℃–30℃ with 75% humidity.
After bulk fermentation, divide the dough into small pieces of 120g each.
Degas and round each piece of dough.
After rounding all the pieces, place them seam side down on the baking tray.
Proof for 20 minutes at 28℃–30℃ with 75% humidity.
Place the smooth side of the dough facing up, and roll it out from the center upward and downward with a rolling pin.
Flip the dough over.
Rotate it 90° and flatten the bottom edge.
Place a slice of bacon at the top of the rolled-out dough, leaving a gap of about 1–2cm between the edge of the dough and the bacon.
Sprinkle with black pepper.
Press the dough down together with the bacon so it adheres closely, then continue rolling it up into a cylinder.
Pinch the seam tightly closed.
Arrange each log of dough on the baking tray, leaving some space between them.
Final proof for 30–40 minutes at 35℃–37℃ with 75% humidity.
Using a sieve, dust the surface of the proofed dough evenly with bread flour.
Hold the scissors at a 45° angle, insert into the dough and cut quickly, then alternate the cut sections to form a wheat-ear pattern.
Preheat the oven to 230℃ top heat and 170℃ bottom heat. Spray steam for 3 seconds and bake for 10–12 minutes.