Speķa Pīrāgi

Ingredients

• 500 g plain flour
• 250 ml whole milk
• 60 ml single cream
• 50 g caster sugar
• 7 g instant yeast
• 60 g butter
• 60 g soured cream
• 1 egg
• 1.5 tsp fine salt
• 250 g smoked streaky bacon in one piece
• 1 small onion
• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 egg for glazing

Before you cook

• Cut the butter into cubes and leave it out to soften.
• Trim any rind from the bacon and cut it into 5 mm dice.
• Peel the onion and chop it as finely as the bacon.
• Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Steps

1. Warm the milk and cream together until they feel just above body temperature.
2. Whisk the sugar and the yeast into the warm milk and leave it for ten minutes to froth.
3. Tip the flour and the salt into a large bowl.
4. Add the yeast milk, the butter, the soured cream and the egg.
5. Mix to a rough dough with a wooden spoon.
6. Knead on a lightly floured surface for ten minutes until smooth and no longer sticky.
7. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise for one hour until doubled.
8. Mix the diced bacon and onion in a bowl with the black pepper.
9. Taste a pinch of the bacon and add salt only if it needs it.
10. Heat the oven to 190°C.
11. Knock the risen dough back and roll it out to 5 mm thick.
12. Stamp out rounds about 8 cm across with a cutter or a glass.
13. Spoon a heaped teaspoon of the bacon filling onto each round.
14. Fold each round over into a half moon.
15. Pinch the curved edge tightly shut so no fat escapes in the oven.
16. Bend each parcel into a slight crescent and set it on a lined tray.
17. Space the crescents two centimetres apart.
18. Rest the trays for fifteen minutes until the buns look puffed.
19. Brush each bun with the beaten glazing egg.
20. Bake for seventeen minutes until deep golden.
21. Cool the buns on a rack for ten minutes and serve warm.