Newfoundland Toutons

I love traditional, regional recipes and spotted this one in a Newfoundland magazine called "Downhomer" submitted by Lila Young. I have not made it but it sounds very interesting even with the high fat content. They are like a Newfoundland First Nations Bannock. The pork fat is referred to as scrunchins in the recipe but that is not in the computer vocabulary so I called it fatback pork

• Ready In: 2 hrs 30 mins
• Yields: 2 dozen

Ingredients

• 1  tablespoon sugar
• 1  teaspoon sugar
• 1⁄2 cup  lukewarm water
• 1 (16 g) packet  traditional  yeast
• 1  cup 2% low-fat milk
• 2  tablespoons shortening
• 1⁄2 cup cold water
• 1⁄2 tablespoon salt
• 5 -6  cups all-purpose flour
• 1⁄4 lb  finely cubed bits of fatback pork

Directions

1. Dissolve 1 tbsp sugar in the lukewarm water, Sprinkle with the yeast let stand 10 minutes, then stir briskly with a fork.
2. Scald the milk; add shortening, stir until melted.
3. Add cold water, salt and 1 tsp sugar.
4. Make sure that the milk mixture is lukewarm then add yeast.
5. Stir until blended.
6. Add 2 cups flour and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
7. Gradually add more flour until you have a moist dough that no longer sticks to the bowl.
8. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for at least 10 minutes.
9. Shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl, turning the ball to grease the top. cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm, draft free place (I put mine in the oven with the oven light on) Leave until it has doubled in size.
10. Punch down the dough and squeeze off pieces of dough approx 1/3 cup, flatten to approx 1/2" circular or triangle shape.
11. Fry the pork fat until scrunchins are golden brown and crisp, remove scrunchins.
12. Fry the toutons in the pork fat until golden on both sides. Put some scrunchins on the touton.