Every now and then I make a dish that is so delicious that people can’t help but ask for the recipe. Lucky for you, this is one of those and what’s more it is so easy to make!
If you came to Feel Good Food at Proper Tea, you will know just how tasty this recipe is!
When making bread, people can recoil at the thought of all that hard slog kneading the dough and waiting for it to rise. It can be a whole days work, but what I love about this recipe is that it is a “cheat” bread! No playing around with dough or impatiently waiting for it to rise, and even better, no kneading. It’s totally fool proof!
A Cheat’s Bread – Bacon and Sweet Potato
I couldn’t believe that the recipe everyone was asking for was a tweak of a Delia Smith favourite from an old comic relief cook book of mine. It was one of the very first things I learned how to cook way back when I was nine, so I can definitely say that this recipe has stood the test of time.
How to make sweet potato and bacon bread
2 rashers of good quality smoked bacon
175g Sweet potato, peeled and grated
175g Self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 heaped teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
110g extra mature cheddar cheese
4 Spring onions finely sliced
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 heaped teaspoon whole grain mustard
1 tsp smoked paprika
Good pinch Cayenne pepper
Maldons salt
Good pinch black pepper
Pre heat the oven to 190’C. Line a baking sheet with grease proof paper and flour the surface.
Cut the bacon into strips and fry in a hot pan for a few minutes until cooked, it doesn’t need to be crispy.
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the baking powder, salt, pepper, paprika, thyme and cayenne pepper and mix though.
Add the grated sweet potato, 2/3 bacon, spring onions and cheese to the flour mix and stir.
In a jug mix the egg, mustard and milk. and then add to the rest of the ingredients and bring together to a loose rough dough.
Turn out onto the floured baking sheet, top with the rest of the bacon and a little extra thyme.
Bake for 45-55 minutes in a central oven until golden brown.
Cool and eat!
Alterations
What I love so much about this recipe is that you can switch it up any which way you like. It’s a real store cupboard staple, yet it can totally blow people’s socks off.
You swap the sweet potato for carrot, potato, or parsnip.
You can use red onion, white onion, spring onion or no onion.
Goat’s cheese, cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese work well. (Or perhaps all of the little chunks left at the back of the fridge?)
You can even replace thyme with rosemary, sage or Italian mixed herb.
How about swapping those rashers of bacon for chorizo to add extra umami?
For all you vegetarians out there, simply leave out the bacon.
Don’t be scared at trying out different flavours and combinations. Be brave and experiment with your ingredients.
Fancy wasting some time and drooling over your keyboard? Check this out
Check out my bacon porn here (shhhh, it can be our secret)
Get in touch to see what bacon dishes I can make to increase the happiness in your life
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