Beer and bacon bread

Beer and bacon bread from above to hide away that the shape is not so well done :)

The recipe for this bread, I found it in the internet and I simply could not resist giving it a try. I mean onions, beer and bacon in a bread, what better can happen to you in the morning, right? So I was doing it but I was a bit disappointed in the end. The form was simply not as good as I would have expected it to be. I wish it could have been more of a bread form in the end.

Is it because I started off with the wrong program for about 5 seconds and the yeast and the salt got mixed up too early? Is it because I used milk instead of water as I did not have any milk powder here? Is it because I used a part of rye flour instead of using whole wheat flour only as indicated in the recipe? Is it because I used rye flour, I used the mixed grain program instead of normal bread program on the machine? Is it because I took the dough out before the baking, just to get the hooks out so they would not be baked inside the bread?

I am not sure what it was exactly, but the form of the bread was nice in the middle and a bit flat on the ends. But honestly, the taste was spot on and I will try to make this bread again, maybe when I know my machine a little bit better? So anyway, for you, if you have a bread baking machine and feel adventurous, here goes the recipe:

Basic ingredients:

• 140 ml beer
• 140 ml water
• 1 table spoon of butter
• 1 table spoon of mustard
• 600 g flour
• 1 table spoon of sugar
• 1 Table spoon of milk powder (I was actually using milk instead of water)
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ tea spoon of dry yeast

To add:

• ½ cup of diced onions
• 4 cups of cut bacon cubes

The making:

Fill the ingredients according to the manual of your machine (read more about this here). Bake it with the 750 gram program and the medium crust program. Add the onions and bacon when the alarm sounds (mine gives a sort of an alarm ring when it’s time to add the ingredients). Some add the fresh ingredients here, some add the fried onion and bacon cubes at this stage. It’s up to your own taste I guess, but I stir fried everything before I add it as bacon will not cook it through as carefully as stir frying it. Enjoy your fresh bread thereafter.

Program:  normal

Crust:       medium

Size:         750 g

Points:      5/10 (I am having my own point based rating system in which I rate the different bread recipes after trying to bake them. You can read more about the system, here)