Brioche rant

Ok, So after I made the brioche yesterday, I was very pleased with myself. But I STILL didn't know what brioche was meant to taste like oh what its texture was like. All I knew was that my brioche looked like it did on the picture and that it was crumbly. Believe it or not, I hadn't tasted it as per usual.

Today, the boyfriend and I went for breakfast at a well known french bakery in Kingston. They have DELICIOUS breakfast and I was keen on finding out what brioche tasted like. So after I finished my breakky, I went to the display area and looked for tags with the word 'Brioche' on it.
There was nothing. So my voice full of uncertainly, I asked if they had brioche in which the snobby waitress pointed out to the stack of muffin blob like breads in front of me.

I bought one and was thoroughly confused. Wasn't Brioche meant to be a loaf? CONFUSION! I quickly tasted one and found that this brioche was quite different. It was airy and light and pulled apart well, it was almost like a croissant. Was mine like that? When I got home, I broke a piece of my own brioche and tasted it. My one had a similar taste and texture yet it was a lot more dense and crumbly.

This has made me more determined to get the same texture even if it is in the shape of a loaf!

I am currently waiting for my dough to rise (AGAIN). This time, following the recipe found in 'Baking with Julia Child' cooking book. It is quite different and uses different ingredients and methods. I also found out from the book that there brioche can be made into these blob muffin like shapes, but as i do not have the right molds, back to loaf shape it is.

I will have the pictures and recipe soon! Wish me luck!

Golden Brioche

I decided to bake brioche for my friend that bought me the cook books and inspired me again to get baking. As I was reading the recipe from the 'Baking with Julia' cook book, I could hear Meryl Streep's voice from the movie 'Julie and Julia'. It was quite funny.

The recipe called for a few ingredients that I did not have immediate access to and I had to bake these NOW. So i went to my favorite baking blog: Almost Bourdain. The brioche recipe seemed relatively easy and the pictures were BEAUTIFUL!

I didn't follow the recipe EXACTLY since I am known for my 'a little more for good measure' tactic. However, it is more or less the same. I loved how my brioche turned out, it looked almost as good as the one from the blog hence the millions of end product photos!

Ingredients:

2 x 1/3 milk
1 and 1/2 tsp of instant dry yeast
6 x small egg yolks (beaten)
3705g of flour + extra for work area
1/3 cup caster sugar +1tsp caster sugar + extra for sprinkling on top
150g butter (cold and mashed)
1 x small egg (beaten)
1 tsp kosher salt or natural salt


Method

• microwave 1/3 cup of milk till luke warm. Pour into medium sized bowl.

• Add in the yeast and 1tsp of caster sugar. This helps the yeast to grow. Stir until everything is dissolved and the liquid is not too lumpy!
  

• In another medium sized bowl, combine the egg yolks and milk together so that it is of smooth consistency
  

• Now get a large sized bowl, and mix in 1/3 cup of caster sugar, the flour and salt and combine well so that are no lumps. Create a hole in the middle and pour in the liquid from the milk and egg mixture and the yeast and milk mixture.
  

• Use a mixer with dough hooks and kneed the dough for approximately 10 minutes, until dough starts pulling away from the bowl's sides and clings onto the dough hooks.
  

• Slowly add in the mashed up butter and incorporate in well. Mix for another 10 minutes or until the dough starts pulling away from the sides again.
  

• Grab the dough, and place it in a lightly buttered bowl and wrap up and let it rest for 2 hours. The dough should double in size. It is good to have the bowl in a warm place which lets the yeast grow.

• After the two hours, get the dough and kneed it well, getting all the air out. Make sure you flour your bench so it does not stick too much.
  

• Put the dough into a bread loaf tin and shape accordingly. Now, turn on your oven to 180 degrees. Meanwhile, Let the dough in the bread loaf tin rest for another 2 hours, uncovered so that it rises again.
  

• Once the two hours has past (I know! there is A LOT of waiting!), brush the eggwash on the top, making sure that you do not put too much so that it drips down the side. Sprinkle some extra caster sugar on top and pop into the oven for around 30 minutes or so depending on how hot your oven is.
  

• Take the bread out of the tin, and place it in a pan and pop it into the oven again for another 20 minutes so that the sides get golden also.

• and now, let it cool on a cooling rack and ENJOY!
  

New Books!

So I have been quite dormant these days with my blog. Don't get me wrong, I have been baking a steady amount of goods but it seems that these days, I am getting ALOT of fails or just baking things that I have already blogged about.

The other day, I attempted macaroons again. I went out and bought a whole range of baking equipment and excitedly got busy. Unfortunately, the macaroons were a total fail. They were more meringues. I was hugely disappointed and didn't bake for a while.

Now a few days ago, I received a few cookbooks from my friend who owns a shop next to a book store! I was flicking through the Baking with Julia Childs cookbook when I discovered a recipe for Brioche.

Brioche, one of the things on my 'must bake' list! I immediately decided I needed to get back on the horse and the thing that would get me back on was BRIOCHE!

Glorious Brioche.... Brioche... which I had no idea what it was or what it was meant to taste like!

To Bake List!

So i have been reading a lot of baking and food blogs. In fact, when I have nothing to do, I just automatically get onto tastespotting.com and find cool recipes or blogs. This leads to hours of wasted time that could be spent studying or perhaps sleeping!

There has been so many cool recipes that i have mentally made a note to make so before i forget it all, i have decided to make a list! Hopefully by the end of this year i would have made ALL of them! Now I have to say, most of these recipes were found from the Almost Bourdain blog. I would have to say it is one of my FAVOURITES! so many pretty pictures and delicious recipes!

I read a post on there just the other day, where she said that one of her first blog posts was just a picture from her point and shoot camera with barely any words. this really inspired me! because who knows, maybe in a years time, I will also have awesome professional pictures and make food look so damn delicious!

Anyways here is the list of my MUST BAKES:

• Peanut Butter and Choc Chip cookie cake
• Casterella Cake (super soft sponge cake)
• Bourke Street Bakery carrot cake
• one of those cool cakes with burnt meringues on the outside (yet to find a cool recipe)
• Brioche
• Raspberry Souffle
• Portuguese Tarts
• Ginger Creme Brulee Tarts (again)
• apple layer cinnamon cake
• Choc Hazelnut tart
  
• a macaroon of right consistency
  

Anyways that is all that i can think of for now. I'm sure there will be MANY MANY more!