Ingredients

• 5 cups All Purpose Four, sifted
• 1 ¼ cups whole Milk, scalded
• 1 ½ cups Butter, divided
• ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tbls Active Dry Yeast
• 3 tsp Salt
• 250g COLCOM Streaky Bacon, very finely diced
• 4 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 2 Tbls Parsley, finely chopped
• ¼ cup Parmezan, Kefalotiri or any other hard cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 80°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Place the milk in a small saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil. Pour the milk in the bowl of an electric mixer, then add ½ cup butter to the hot milk and stir until it melts. Add the sugar, 1 cup flour and ½ cup ice cold water to the mixing bowl. Stir and touch the mixture for temperature. It should now be just slightly above room temperature as to not kill the yeast. Stir in the yeast and let it foam for 5 minutes.
3. Sauté the finely diced COLCOM Streaky Bacon until crispy and drain on paper towel.
4. Using the bread attachment, turn the mixer on low. Add two teaspoons of salt, and the remaining 4 cups of flour and finally the Bacon. Turn the mixer up to medium high and knead for 5 minutes. Then turn out the dough out onto the floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces.
5. Stretch each piece of dough out to about 15-17cm then tie a loose knot. Place the knots on the baking sheets with room to expand. Then brush them well with water, so they don’t dry out, and place them in the low temperature oven to rise for 20 minutes.
6. Once the knots have expanded in the oven, remove from the oven and raise the temperature to 190°C. When the oven reaches this temperature place the knots back in and bake for 15-20 minutes, until slightly golden.
7. Meanwhile, melt the remaining 1 cup butter and season with minced garlic, chopped parsley, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp Italian seasoning. Once the knots are out of the oven, dunk them in garlic butter and turn to coat. Place them back on the baking sheets and sprinkle with Kefalotiri cheese, return to the oven just melt the cheese, no more than 1- 2 minutes.