This week I was planning a healthier jalapeño bread without the cheese… but our fridge broke down so I’ve got cheddar to use up! So this week is nearly the same as last week, but I’m using fresh lemon juice instead of water for the liquid on the second day.

I’m doing the now usual score down the middle and spray with water before cooking.

The main cooking is also the same: 15mins at 230c fan, then down to 200c fan for another 45mins. The difference comes at the end, where I’ll remove the bread from the tin, then put it back in the oven as it cools rather than cooling on a rack in the dining room.

After cooking the scoring has once again done its job and stopped the shoulder splitting. If anything it’s a little browner than usual… I wonder if that’s the lemon juice (as it’s the only difference)?

So now it’s back into the oven, turn it off, and wait for it to cool. I gave it 90 minutes in the oven before I transferred it to the regular cooling rack in the dining room. It was still really warm, but didn’t look much different (despite the lighting in this picture making it look much darker!).

So… let’s see if it’s any better inside.

Hmm… it seems the main effect of the cooling in the oven was to make the crust crustier… and not just on the top: all around is very crusty. The inside is maybe a little less moist, but not the dry crumb I’m aiming for. I’ll have to have another think about how to fix it!

Now all that’s left to do is add bacon!

At least the taste is great! Really spicy plus you can really taste the lemon! I’ll certainly use lemon juice in it again.